
Kimi Antonelli achieved his eighth career Formula 1 victory by winning the first Madring race as Lando Norris was caught out by the virtual safety car.
Norris led from the front after pulling away in the early stages of the race, but he pitted right after a virtual safety car period, which affected him so far back that he lost the victory.
Pirelli predicted a difference between soft and medium tyres at the start, so it was interesting for second-row starters Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton to pick the soft compound, unlike polesitter Norris and Antonelli alongside him.
Hamilton did take a better launch but ran out of space to attack into Turn 1, after which chaos ensued. Both Antonelli and Verstappen cut Turn 2, but while the Mercedes driver handed the lead back to Norris straight away and did so again in the next sequence of corners, his Red Bull counterpart retained the advantage over the Ferrari.
Verstappen argued that he had to take avoiding action due to Hamilton’s driving, but Red Bull was adamant he should make sure to avoid a penalty, so Verstappen let Antonelli – whom he was now leading – and Hamilton by on lap four.
Seconds later, the seven-time world champion started complaining about braking issues. He started losing pace on lap five, went off the track on lap six, and retired after being repeatedly asked to pit.
On lap 10, Norris led Antonelli by five seconds, Verstappen by 11 seconds, Charles Leclerc by 13 seconds and George Russell by 15 seconds. Liam Lawson was a further 15 seconds, leading the ‘midfield’.
Another brake problem, this time for Lance Stroll, took the Aston Martin out of the race on lap 13 and caused a virtual safety car. Antonelli, Verstappen and Russell pitted – despite the latter starting on hard tyres, like Leclerc and Piastri – but Norris and Leclerc stayed out on mediums and hards respectively.
Race leader Norris was called in right when the VSC period ended. He could have stayed out but pitted anyway and, to compound his fate, had a slow tyre change. The McLaren driver emerged back on track in fifth place – 16 seconds down on Leclerc, 14 seconds away from lead pitter Antonelli.
Unsurprisingly, Kimi caught Charles as early as lap 18, but he did not launch an attack and started dropping back on lap 21. “I didn’t touch the wall, but the steering feels weird,” Antonelli told his engineers. By lap 25, he was over three seconds adrift.
Russell, who had started on hards and switched to mediums, made a second pitstop as early as lap 28 of 57 to go back to the white-walled compound. He went on to take fifth away from Lawson with an around-the-outside move on lap 35, but was not convinced by his strategy. “Why did we pit? I think we could have held Norris off,” the Mercedes racer said.
Meanwhile, Antonelli’s gap to Leclerc consistently hovered around three seconds, but by lap 45, the frontrunners grew closer and closer to one another. Antonelli was now right behind Leclerc and Norris was putting pressure on Verstappen for third, with those four drivers within four seconds.
At that stage, it was extremely clear that Ferrari was delaying Leclerc’s single pitstop in the hope of a safety car – virtual or not – but there was none, and he finally pitted on lap 48. Charles was given soft tyres for a nine-lap dash, but emerged in between the top three and fifth-placed Russell.
The end of the race was a three-way contest for victory between Antonelli, Verstappen and Norris. Despite running very close to one another, none of them was able to make anything resembling a move – until the penultimate lap, when the Red Bull driver cut the Turn 5 chicane after encountering traffic and the reigning champion applied some pressure.
Antonelli eventually pulled away to take his eighth victory of the 2026 championship from his Red Bull and McLaren rivals. Leclerc narrowly secured fourth place from Russell despite the new soft tyres on the Ferrari. Lawson took sixth for his third race back at Red Bull.
Pierre Gasly completed a massive 55-lap stint on hard tyres to hold seventh position for the longest time, hoping for a late safety car of the race, but he eventually had to pit under green flag and ended up P12 under the chequered flag.
Gasly’s Alpine teammate Franco Colapinto finished seventh after starting on mediums and switching to hards under the early VSC.
After a qualifying performance he himself described as “pretty shocking”, Oscar Piastri ended up eighth in a race where he sustained front wing damage straight away due to contact with Russell at the start. The McLaren driver never had his teammate’s pace.
Arvid Lindblad and Nico Hulkenberg scored the remaining available points for Racing Bulls and Audi, ahead of Esteban Ocon for Haas. Those three drivers, like Colapinto, pitted under the VSC – showing this was the optimal strategy.
Among the last seven drivers in the classification, Alexander Albon was the only one to make the most of a cheap pitstop – the others missed out.
Home fans was not pleased by the collision between Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz over P17, which damaged the Aston Martin’s front wing, while the Williams driver received a five-second penalty.
Alonso finished in this exact position, while Sainz was one of four retirements alongside Sergio Perez, Stroll and Hamilton.
So not the most thrilling race at this new track but in terms of the championship, Kimi Antonelli has extended his points lead over his rivals.

Spanish Grand Prix, race results:
1 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:34:23.754
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford +4.351s
3 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes +5.089s
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +29.116s
5 George Russell Mercedes +29.829s
6 Liam Lawson Red Bull-Ford +86.746s
7 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes +94.281s
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes +95.839s
9 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford +1 lap
10 Nico Hulkenberg Audi +1 lap
11 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari +1 lap
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes +1 lap
13 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +1 lap
14 Yuki Tsunoda Racing Bulls-Ford +1 lap
15 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes +1 lap
16 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari +1 lap
17 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda +2 laps
18 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari +3 laps
Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes DNF
Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari DNF
Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda DNF
Lewis Hamilton Ferrari DNF

















