F1 Spanish GP: Antonelli wins after Norris loses out under VSC

Kimi Antonelli prevailed in the Spanish Grand Prix, Formula 1’s first race at the Madring, as polesitter Lando Norris’ race was derailed by strategy.

Norris comfortably pulled away in the early stages of the race, but he pitted right after a virtual safety car intervention, which pegged him so far back that he lost the victory.

Scruffy start as frontrunners cut corners

Pirelli predicted a 2.31m 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 red-walled compound, unlike polesitter Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli alongside him.

Hamilton did take a better launch but ran out of space to launch an attack into Turn 1, after which (mild) 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 staunchly argued that he’d had to take evasive action due to Hamilton’s unruly 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 11s, Charles Leclerc by 13s and George Russell by 15s; Liam Lawson was a further 15 seconds in arrears, leading the ‘midfield’.

Strategic blunder by McLaren and Norris

Another brake problem, this time for Lance Stroll, took the Canadian out of the race on lap 13 and caused a virtual safety car intervention. 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 stop. The McLaren driver emerged back on track in fifth place – 16 seconds down on Leclerc, 14 seconds away from lead pitter Antonelli.

Unsurprisingly, the Italian caught Leclerc as early as lap 18, but he didn’t 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 wasn’t convinced by his strategy. “Why did we pit? I think we could have held Norris off,” the Mercedes racer said.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari (Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, Antonelli’s deficit 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.

Leclerc waits for a safety car – to no avail

At that stage, it was extremely clear that Ferrari was delaying Leclerc’s sole pitstop in the hope of a safety car – virtual or not – but there was none, and the Monegasque pitted on lap 48. He was given soft tyres for a nine-lap dash, but emerged in a no man’s land 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. Albeit very close to one another, none of them was able to make anything resembling a move – until the penultimate lap, when the Red Bull racer cut the Turn 5 chicane after encountering backmarking traffic and the reigning champion unsuccessfully put him under pressure.

Antonelli eventually pulled away to take his eighth victory of the 2026 campaign 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 mammoth 55-lap stint on hard tyres to hold seventh place for the longest time, hoping for a late neutralisation of the race, but he eventually had to pit under the green flag and ended up 12th at the chequered flag.

Gasly’s Alpine team-mate Franco Colapinto finished seventh after starting on mediums and switching to hards under the early VSC.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Lando Norris, McLaren (Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images)

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 Australian never had his team-mate’s pace.

Arvid Lindblad and Nico Hulkenberg scored the remaining available points for Racing Bulls and Audi, ahead of 11th-placed 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, Alex Albon was the only one to make the most of a cheap pitstop – the others missed out.

Local fans will have been dismayed by a collision between Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz over 17th position, which damaged the Aston Martin’s front wing, while the Williams driver copped a five-second penalty.

Alonso finished in this exact position, while Sainz was one of four retirements alongside Sergio Perez and the aforementioned Stroll and Hamilton.

F1 Spanish GP results

RACE

All Stats

Cla	Driver	#		Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Chassis	Engine
1	A. Antonelli Mercedes	12		57	-			1	25		Mercedes	Mercedes
2	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	3		57	+4.351 4.351	4.351		1	18		Red Bull	Red Bull
3	L. Norris McLaren	1		57	+5.089 5.089	0.738		1	15		McLaren	Mercedes
4	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		57	+29.116 29.116	24.027		1	12		Ferrari	Ferrari
5	G. Russell Mercedes	63		57	+29.829 29.829	0.713		2	10		Mercedes	Mercedes
6	L. Lawson Red Bull Racing	30		57	+1'26.746 1'26.746	56.917		1	8		Red Bull	Red Bull
7	F. Colapinto Alpine	43		57	+1'34.281 1'34.281	7.535		1	6		Alpine	Mercedes
8	O. Piastri McLaren	81		57	+1'35.839 1'35.839	1.558		1	4		McLaren	Mercedes
9	A. Lindblad Racing Bulls	41		56	1 lap			1	2		RB	Red Bull
10	N. Hulkenberg Audi	27		56	1 lap			1	1		Audi	Audi
11	E. Ocon Haas F1 Team	31		56	1 lap			1			Haas	Ferrari
12	P. Gasly Alpine	10		56	1 lap			1			Alpine	Mercedes
13	G. Bortoleto Audi	5		56	1 lap			1			Audi	Audi
14	Y. Tsunoda Racing Bulls	22		56	1 lap			1			RB	Red Bull
15	A. Albon Williams	23		56	1 lap			1			Williams	Mercedes
16	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	87		56	1 lap			2			Haas	Ferrari
17	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		55	2 laps			2			Aston Martin	Honda
18	V. Bottas Cadillac F1 Team	77		54	3 laps			2			Cadillac	Ferrari
dnf	C. Sainz Williams	55		43	14 laps			3		Retirement	Williams	Mercedes
dnf	S. Perez Cadillac F1 Team	11		31	26 laps			2		Retirement	Cadillac	Ferrari
dnf	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		12	45 laps					Retirement	Aston Martin	Honda
dnf	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44		6	51 laps			1		Brakes	Ferrari	Ferrari
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