(Credit: Eric Alonso / DPPI / Ferrari Media)

F1 Review: It’s About “Hammer” Time: Lewis Hamilton Outsmarts Mercedes, Triumphs In Spain For First Win With Ferrari; Kimi Antonelli Retires

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Lewis Hamilton utilized a perfect three-stop strategy and a timely virtual safety car to easily win the MSC Cruises Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix on Sunday (June 14th), fulfilling the lofty hopes that accompanied Hamilton’s jump to Ferrari in 2025. The victory was Hamilton’s 106th in Formula 1, and moved him within 41 points of championship leader Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes.   

   

After a late pass of George Russell, Antonelli looked to be in line to claim second, but engine failure four laps from the end abruptly ended his streak of five consecutive wins. Russell took second, while McLaren’s Lando Norris finished second, posting his second podium of the year.

“First, I have to start and say a huge grazia to everyone here, my team here at Ferrari, everyone back at the factory, Fred for believing in me and bringing me to this team,” said Hamilton. 

“I started out a dream last year which, seemed almost impossible during my time last year, but we never gave up hope and the team just continued to lift me up. We made so many changes, and we made so many improvements, and on top of that, I’ve got the greatest fanbase a sportsman could ever ask for. Thank you, thank you to everybody.” 

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was fourth, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was fifth, Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar finished sixth, and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto were seventh and eighth, respectively.

Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson finished ninth, his fifth points-scoring result of the year, and teammate Arvid Lindblad earned 10th.

In the driver standings, Antonelli leads Hamilton by 41 points, 156 to 115. Russell sits two points behind Hamilton with 106. 

In the constructors standings, Mercedes leads Ferrari 262 to 190, while McLaren holds third with 141 points. 

The Race

Russell started on pole and held off Hamilton, who had elected for soft tires, at lights out and led easily into Turn 1. Hadjar created a bottleneck with an awful start and lost nine places from sixth on the grid.

Russell immediately distanced himself from Hamilton and Antonelli, meaning that tire management in the Barcelona heat would now be the key to Russell keeping his Mercedes up front. 

With Russell leading handily ten laps in, any race drama was likely to take place not on the track, but in the pits. With the heat and the track surface stressing the tires, a two-stop strategy seemed ambitious, with a three-stop the more conservative plan.  

Hamilton was the first of the leaders to pit, exchanging his softs for a set of hards, tipping his hand to a three-stop strategy. Russell reacted accordingly, pitting a lap later, and Russell nullified Hamilton’s undercut attempt, coming out ahead of the Ferrari. 

Antonelli pitted on lap 15 and emerged still behind Russell and Hamilton. 

On lap 25, Russell’s lead was a healthy two seconds over Hamilton, and the Ferrari showed no ability to really eat into that lead. 

Hamilton made a second pit stop on lap 28, this time for mediums. While Hamilton laid down a series of fast laps, Russell stayed out, with Antonelli closing the gap to his teammate to less than one second. 

While the Mercedes duo scrapped, Hamilton put himself in position to take the lead, albeit on much older tires, once Russell and Antonelli pitted. Russell was first to jump in, coming in on lap 37, and resumed in fourth.

Antonelli came in a lap later, and a quick 2.8 stop brought the Mercedes out behind Russell. 

Fernando Alonso’s car stalled at Turn 4 on lap 40, bringing out a virtual safety car. This was the best-case scenario for Hamilton, as the Ferrari pitted and stayed ahead of the Mercedes duo, with Hamilton now enjoying a tire advantage. 

This race was now Hamilton’s to win, and with a sizable lead, better tires, and those superior Ferrari minds in the pits (I guess two out of three ain’t bad), the seven-time world champion was sure to cash in his first win with Ferrari. 

Hamilton cruised over the final 25 laps, while Antonelli overtook Russell on lap 61 to pile on Russell’s disappointment in a race in which he started on pole. That is, until Antonelli’s Mercedes stalled on the track a lap later, and Russell was still able to take a considerable bite out of Antonelli’s championship lead. 

Another virtual safety car was deployed to clear the Mercedes, and once cleared, Hamilton’s two-lap dash to the finish was merely a formality, with a massive 20-second lead over Russell. 

Hamilton took the checkered flag, ahead of Russell and Norris, making it an all-British podium.

The Bad 

Since signing a contract extension with Ferrari on June 3rd, Charles Leclerc has 1) crashed out late at the Monaco Grand Prix on June 7th, 2) dumped his Ferrari into the wall and gravel trap in Q3 in Spain, and 3) lost his power steering late in the grand prix at Spain and retired. 

The Monaco crash was not Leclerc’s fault (it was a brake issue), nor was the mechanical failure in Spain. The crash in the final qualifying session in Spain was all on Leclerc, and he admitted he was “ashamed” because of it.

Between mechanical issues and his own mistakes, Leclerc has been unable to build any momentum at all this season. Despite two podium results and two fourth-place finishes, Leclerc is no more than an afterthought in the championship race. And with Lewis Hamilton’s resurgence, Leclerc may be no more than an afterthought on his own team.  

Did Spanish heroes Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz have any chance of scoring points in Spain? Their results put the “no’s” in “vamanos.” Sainz finished 12th, two laps down. Alonso retired on lap 41, suffering his fourth DNF of the year.  

Luckily, Lewis Hamilton is a surrogate national hero almost everywhere he goes, so Spanish fans were lucky to witness his first win for Ferrari. 

You could say George Russell’s race was “salvaged” when Kimi Antonelli retired, which gifted second place to the senior Mercedes driver. Before that dramatic turn of events, Russell’s podium finish, while undoubtedly a swell result, was still looking like a failure. 

Russell started from the pole, and with Antonelli starting third, Russell surely was targeting a win, and at worst, targeting a result in which he scored more points than Antonelli. When he was passed for second by Antonelli, Russell must have felt deflated, only to have his outlook reinflated when Antonelli retired. 

But the Brit can’t feel good about his performance in Spain. Not only did he not win from the pole, but he was also outclassed by his teammate on the track. And, judging by Antonelli’s radio communications with his team, it sounded like the young Italian felt confident throughout the race that he could catch Russell and pass him. And he was right. 

Now, Russell not only has to decide if he’s up for the challenge of chasing down Antonelli in the championship race, he also has to decide if he’s even the No. 1 challenger to Antonelli’s potential reign. The last three races have indicated that Lewis Hamilton is indeed Antonelli’s closest rival.   

The Good

Ferrari nailed the race strategy for Hamilton. Yes, you heard that right. They nailed it. I use the word “nailed” there because it rhymes with “failed,” which is the word most associated with Ferrari’s strategy over the years.

But this time, Fred Vasseur and Ferrari got it all right. Their strategy from the start was a three-stop, and they stuck with the plan, using every available tire compound. Hamilton started on softs, switched to hards, and finished the race on a set of mediums.

And equally as important, Ferrari timed their pit stops to come in before Mercedes, which pressured Mercedes to react. Mercedes reacted appropriately after Hamilton’s first stop, pitting Russell and Antonelli almost immediately after Hamilton’s stop.

But after Hamilton’s second stop, Mercedes did not react wisely, leaving both Russell and Antonelli out, and the two battled for the lead, likely costing both times, while Hamilton was clicking off a series of hot laps in free air. It felt almost as if Toto Wolff and Mercedes didn’t think Hamilton could win the race, and Russell and Antonelli would easily chase Hamilton down once the Mercedes duo pitted.

And also, after the first virtual safety car, Ferrari somehow didn’t make a mistake and didn’t tell Hamilton to pit.

And speaking of virtual safety cars, Hamilton didn’t win the race because he was able to pit under the VSC. Yes, it helped, but even without the VSC, Hamilton would have been in position to win. Sure, he would have had to pass the two Mercedes on the track, but his Ferrari had the pace and would have still had a significant tire advantage. Hamilton likely would have chased down the Mercedes of Russell and Antonelli, forcing them to push, which would have further tested the reliability of the Mercedes’ power units.

In short, this may be the race looked back upon as the time Ferrari said to Mercedes and the rest of the grid, “We have the car, we have the driver, and now, we have the brains” to challenge for the world championship.

So don’t be surprised if Hamilton gives a legitimate go for the world championship. And also, don’t be surprised if Ferrari shoots itself in the foot in the very next race in Austria. 

Let’s all rejoice that the Monaco towel controversy, dubbed by some as “Towelgate,” and by others as “The Non-Pornographic Method Of Publicity-Escalating Kim Kardashian,” has ended.

First, a little background: after the Monaco Grand Prix, Kardashian grabbed the towel meant for the race winner, Antonelli, that had been placed on the “No. 1” stand. Kardashian, not knowing the purpose of the towel, wiped her hands and face with it. 

The Mercedes team jokingly posted a video of Antonelli asking, “Where’s my towel?”

To her credit, Kardashian sent Antonelli a replacement towel embroidered with the words “To Kimi From Kim.” And I guess all is right in the world now?     

But could this be the start of an iconic partnership between Antonelli and Kardashian in the advertising world? It should be. Let me explain. Kardashian is the co-founder of Skims, a clothing and shapewear company. Shapewear is categorized as “specialized, tight-fitting undergarments designed to sculpt and support the body. This is where Antonelli comes in. He’s known for his “hang loose” hand gesture, so why not place Antonelli with Kim K. in a Skim’s ad campaign where he displays his hang loose gesture and says “When you don’t want to ‘hang loose,’ try Skims.” It can’t fail.

Grid Walk Moments

James Hinchcliffe was charged with “Grid Walk” duties in Spain, and his form was flawless, as he collided with no one as he backed his way down the grid. 

Hinchcliffe chatted with Audi team principal Mattia Binotto, who boasts the most impressive head of hair in F1, except when Lewis Hamilton unleashes his cornrows.

Hinchcliffe asked Binotto some questions about Audi, but I was too enamored with and distracted by Binotto’s ‘do to pay any attention to his answers. Could Binotto, with the right amount of teasing, add 4-6 inches to the height of his hair? I think so, and with a strategically-placed gray streak, he could be flirting dangerously close to a “separated at birth” side-by-side photo with the Bride Of Frankenstein.  

The Driver

Hmmm. This was a tough one. While I considered a four-way tie between Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson, and Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad, who finished seventh through 10th, respectively, it’s hard to ignore what Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari did in Spain.

Hamilton was perfect on the track, the Ferrari crew was flawless in the pits, and the Ferrari think tank aced the strategy. It was the long-overdue culmination of Hamilton’s tenure with Formula 1’s most iconic team. Ironically, the 41-year-old Hamilton won a race marked by the “retirement” of a 19-year-old.

If this race served as a springboard to world championship aspirations, Hamilton just cannonballed into the pool with the biggest splash you could imagine.

It’s easy to overreact to Hamilton’s win, but given Mercedes’ recent reliability issues, and the uncertainty with the quality of McLaren and Red Bull, it’s hard not to overreact, especially for Ferrari fans starved for a modicum of success. If nothing else, Hamilton has given Ferrari and their fans hope. 

F1 Glossary Word Of The Day

*DRS: “Drag Reduction System”: a mechanism activated by drivers that opens an adjustable flap on the car’s rear wing, which reduces downforce and significantly increases the car’s speed. DRS generally is activated by a pursuing car when it is within one second of the car in front. Note: As of 2026, DRS is no longer a part of F1. Also note: “Drag Reduction System” means something entirely different in the state of Florida.

The Results (MSC Cruises Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, Circuit de Catalunya)

Pos.No.DriverTeamLapsTime / RetiredPts.
144Lewis HamiltonFerrari661:32:28.10525
263George RussellMercedes66+19.561s18
31Lando NorrisMcLaren66+23.719s15
43Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing66+40.497s12
581Oscar PiastriMcLaren66+58.661s10
66Isack HadjarRed Bull Racing65+1 lap8
710Pierre GaslyAlpine65+1 lap6
843Franco ColapintoAlpine65+1 lap4
930Liam LawsonRacing Bulls65+1 lap2
1041Arvid LindbladRacing Bulls65+1 lap1
115Gabriel BortoletoAudi64+2 laps0
1255Carlos SainzWilliams64+2 laps0
1331Esteban OconHaas F1 Team64+2 laps0
1411Sergio PerezCadillac63+3 laps0
1516Charles LeclercFerrari62DNF0
1612Kimi AntonelliMercedes61DNF0
1787Oliver BearmanHaas F1 Team60DNF0
NC23Alexander AlbonWilliams55+11 laps0
NC14Fernando AlonsoAston Martin37DNF0
NC27Nico HulkenbergAudi29DNF0
NC77Valtteri BottasCadillac15DNF0
NC18Lance StrollAston Martin5DNF0

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