Today in Motorsport, September 28: Two Photo Finishes, a WRC Title Decider and F1’s ‘Bahrain’ GP in Malaysia

Monday, September 28, 2026. None of the major championships turns a wheel today, which makes this the right moment to take stock. The weekend delivered two top-class finishes settled by less than six-tenths of a second, NASCAR’s Chase leader stopped being a one-point leader, and the World Rally Championship now knows its title will be decided on Sardinian gravel this Sunday. Here is what is confirmed, what it means, and every start time you need this week in Eastern time.

Formula 1: Russell Wins Baku by 0.196s, and Antonelli’s Lead Shrinks to 66

Baku ran on a Saturday this year, and it ran long on incident. George Russell held off Max Verstappen by 0.196 seconds after 51 laps, with Isack Hadjar third, Charles Leclerc fourth and championship leader Kimi Antonelli fifth. The official classification lists seven retirements and two Safety Car periods.

The number that matters is 66. Antonelli leaves Azerbaijan on 302 points to Russell’s 236 in the drivers’ standings, down from an 81-point cushion before the weekend. Eight Grands Prix remain, and the title fight is now an argument inside one garage. Lewis Hamilton (199) and Lando Norris (186) sit third and fourth, but neither left Baku any closer.

The chaos, in order: Alex Albon crashed at Turn 6 for the first Safety Car. On the next restart, Franco Colapinto locked up into Turn 1 and hit Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly, who was pushed into Lando Norris. All three were out. Oscar Piastri, running for a podium, locked up at Turn 1 on a later restart and fell to 13th. Aston Martin lost both cars, Lance Stroll on lap 7 and Fernando Alonso on lap 20, and Valtteri Bottas hit the wall late in the Cadillac.

Colapinto’s punishment is a useful piece of rulebook trivia. The stewards gave him a 10-second time penalty, but you cannot serve a time penalty from the garage. When a driver retires before serving one, the stewards convert it to a grid penalty at the next event, so he takes a five-place drop into Sepang. Alpine executive advisor Flavio Briatore called it a “very poor move for a driver of his experience” and said the team would consider what action to take. Norris was less diplomatic. Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto also collected a 10-second penalty, for overtaking under yellow flags, which dropped him to 15th.

Two more threads to follow. Hadjar, in his first race back from a wrist injury picked up over the summer break, qualified fourth ahead of Verstappen and converted it into a podium, days after Red Bull confirmed him for 2027. And McLaren’s Andrea Stella gave an unusually specific diagnosis of the team’s straight-line deficit: aerodynamic drag, gear ratios, a power unit that “was not optimised” in the race, and a fuel-injection issue. That last pair is the interesting part. McLaren runs Mercedes power, and Stella said he had compared data with Mercedes. Same hardware, different result points to calibration and energy management, not horsepower, which is fixable faster than a drag problem.

Next: the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, October 2–4. After April’s races at Sakhir and Jeddah were cancelled because of the conflict in the Middle East, the Bahrain round was rehoused at Sepang, which last hosted F1 in 2017. Expect 56 laps of the 5.543 km circuit, heat, humidity and a very real chance of an afternoon storm. Full session times are in the table below and on the official event page.

Formula 2: Baku ran two Feature Races, and the second was decided after the flag. Alexander Dunne crossed the line first but was penalised for crossing the white line at pit entry, dropping him to third and handing the win to Rafael Camara. Camara now leads Nikola Tsolov by seven points, with Dunne a further 11 back.

NASCAR: Larson Sweeps Kansas, and the One-Point Chase Lead Is History

Kyle Larson went into Kansas one point ahead of Denny Hamlin. He came out with a real lead. Larson won Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 after sweeping both stages, leading 78 of 80 laps in Stage 1 and every lap of Stage 2. Austin Cindric finished second, Hamlin third, Chase Briscoe fourth and Christopher Bell fifth, ahead of William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs and Brad Keselowski.

The stage sweep is why the gap opened. Stage wins pay 10 points apiece on top of the race haul, so a driver who controls a whole afternoon banks far more than a driver who shows up at the end. Larson outscored every other driver in the field by at least 24 points. Briscoe had the race in his hands for a while. He passed Larson with 30 laps left, lost the lead with seven to go, then got so loose chasing it back that he hit the wall more than once and settled for fourth, his best Chase result so far, but a points loss to Larson all the same.

Kansas was race four of the 10-race Chase. Six remain, and the next two are also 1.5-mile intermediates: Las Vegas and Charlotte. If Hendrick’s intermediate package is as strong as Sunday suggested, the field has two weeks to find an answer before the Chase moves to tracks that reward something else. The South Point 400 at Las Vegas starts Sunday, October 4, at 5:30 PM ET.

MotoGP: The Flyaways Start at Motegi With Martin 12 Points Clear

Jorge Martin leads Marc Marquez by 12 points heading to Japan, with Marco Bezzecchi 42 off the top. That table was reshaped in Austria on September 20, where Pedro Acosta finally won a MotoGP Grand Prix at KTM’s home race after 15 podiums without a victory. Martin was second and Bezzecchi third, while Marquez faded to fifth and gave up the championship lead.

Motegi is where Marquez sealed the 2025 title a year ago, and it suits a rider who can brake late and straight. It is a stop-and-go layout built on heavy braking zones, which means front-end confidence matters more than top speed. Thursday’s pre-event press conference features Martin, Acosta and home rider Ai Ogura, who finished fourth in Austria on his return. The full Motegi timetable was published today. Because Japan runs 13 hours ahead of the East Coast, the whole weekend lands overnight: the Sprint is at 2:00 AM ET Saturday and the Grand Prix at 1:00 AM ET Sunday.

Off track, the 2027 calendar landed on Friday: 22 Grands Prix opening at Buriram on March 7 and closing at Valencia on November 28, with two new venues. Buenos Aires hosts Round 4 in April and the Adelaide Street Circuit hosts the penultimate round in November. Mugello and Portimão have both signed long-term extensions. 2027 is also the first year of the new 850cc bike regulations, so every one of those venues will see a grid on unfamiliar machinery.

Endurance: Toyota Wins Fuji by 0.591s on a Short-Fuel Gamble

Toyota won its home race on strategy, not raw pace. Under the final Safety Car at the 6 Hours of Fuji, the team kept Ryō Hirakawa on used tires and short-fueled the No. 8 TR010 Hybrid while Alpine took fresh rubber. In cold, changeable conditions, track position beat grip. Hirakawa, Sébastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley won by 0.591 seconds over the No. 36 Alpine, which the FIA WEC called its closest-ever top-class finish between two different manufacturers. The No. 15 BMW completed the podium.

The win makes the No. 8 crew the first in 2026 to win twice and puts them on top of the drivers’ standings. It also rewards the home-race push Toyota made all week. Aston Martin had led before a fourth-hour penalty for the No. 007, and Genesis took a late drive-through. In LMGT3, the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 of Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung came from 14th on the grid. The team pitted for fresh tires at the final restart, and Farfus passed Nicky Catsburg and leader Charlie Eastwood at Turn 10 with about 20 minutes left to win by 1.062 seconds. WEC’s next round is the 6 Hours of Barcelona, October 16–18.

IMSA: The WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finale, the Motul Petit Le Mans, runs 10 hours at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta starting Saturday, October 3, at 12:10 PM ET. Coverage is on NBC from noon to 3 PM ET and on Peacock throughout. Fifty-four cars are entered. Jack Aitken carries a 147-point GTP lead over Laurin Heinrich into the weekend, which is enormous but, per IMSA’s entry-list notes, not yet mathematically final. The real fights are LMP2, where Tom Dillmann and Jeremy Clarke lead by four points, and GTD, where Russell Ward and Philip Ellis lead by six. It is also the last IMSA race for the Lexus RC F GT3 and the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2, and Scott Dixon, Alex Palou and Sébastien Bourdais are all in the field as guest drivers.

Rally: Sardinia Decides the WRC Title and Closes the Rally1 Era

Rally Italia Sardegna became the season finale when Rally Saudi Arabia dropped off the 2026 calendar, and it now hosts a three-way title decider between Toyota teammates. Elfyn Evans leads Sami Pajari by 17 points, with Oliver Solberg 21 back, and 35 points are available. Pajari won three rounds in a row in Estonia, Finland and Paraguay. Solberg has won Monte-Carlo and, earlier this month, Chile. Toyota already sealed a sixth straight manufacturers’ title there.

The rally, based in Alghero on October 1–4, covers 17 gravel stages and 307.15 timed kilometers. It opens with Thursday’s shakedown at Monte Baranta, and Saturday is the longest day at 123.66 km, including the new Solorché stage near Pattada. It finishes on Sunday with the Power Stage at Sassari-Argentiera and a podium at 5 PM local, or 11:00 AM ET. Watch the running order. On loose gravel the first car through sweeps the road clean for everyone behind it, and the championship leader typically starts at or near the front on Friday. Evans may have to defend his lead while acting as the road sweeper.

It is also a farewell. This is the final round before the WRC27 technical regulations arrive, and the last start for the GR Yaris Rally1, which has 47 wins across five seasons. Sébastien Ogier, already out of title contention, will set a WRC record with his 214th start.

IndyCar: A Quiet Paddock, Busy Résumés

IndyCar’s season ended on September 6 at Laguna Seca, where Scott McLaughlin won the finale from pole. Alex Palou had already clinched his fifth title, and fourth in a row, with a race to spare. There is no IndyCar track action until 2027, but three of its champions will be racing at Road Atlanta on Saturday: Palou, Dixon and Bourdais are all entered at Petit Le Mans.

This Week’s Start Times (ET)

Date	Time (ET)	Series	Session
Thu, Oct 1	9:45 PM	MotoGP	Japan GP, FP1
Fri, Oct 2	12:30 AM	F1	Bahrain GP in Malaysia, FP1 (Thursday night)
Fri, Oct 2	2:00 AM	MotoGP	Japan GP, Practice
Fri, Oct 2	4:00 AM	F1	FP2
Fri, Oct 2	9:10 PM	MotoGP	FP2
Fri, Oct 2	9:50 PM	MotoGP	Qualifying
Sat, Oct 3	12:30 AM	F1	FP3
Sat, Oct 3	2:00 AM	MotoGP	Tissot Sprint
Sat, Oct 3	4:00 AM	F1	Qualifying
Sat, Oct 3	12:10 PM	IMSA	Motul Petit Le Mans (10 hours)
Sun, Oct 4	1:00 AM	MotoGP	Japan Grand Prix
Sun, Oct 4	3:00 AM	F1	Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia
Sun, Oct 4	11:00 AM	WRC	Rally Italia Sardegna podium (Power Stage precedes)
Sun, Oct 4	5:30 PM	NASCAR Cup	South Point 400, Las Vegas

Official Schedules and Results

• F1: Azerbaijan Grand Prix race result
• F1: Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia schedule
• NASCAR: Kansas recap and results
• NASCAR: Cup Series standings
• MotoGP: Japanese GP time schedule
• FIA WEC: 6 Hours of Fuji results and reports
• IMSA: Motul Petit Le Mans event page
• WRC: results and standings
• IndyCar: final 2026 standings

About the Author

Elle Puckett

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Elle Puckett covers Formula 1, IndyCar, and endurance racing, with a focus on championship analysis and long-form storytelling.

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