Kimi Antonelli extended his points lead after winning the Spanish Grand Prix, being held for the first time at the new Madring circuit at Madrid, Spain.
Antonelli spent much of the race in second, first to Lando Norris in the early portion of the race, then to Charles Leclerc for the balance of the race.
Lance Stroll stopped off-track out of turn 20 on lap 16, causing a crucial virtual safety car.
Norris missed the chance to pit, with most drivers electing to pit. With the VSC still out, he pitted the next time around, but it ended just a few seconds before he made it to the pit entry line. A slow pit stop by McLaren on top of that caused the polesitter to fall 16 seconds behind Leclerc on-track.
Leclerc, who hadn’t pitted, then spent 33 laps holding off Antonelli before finally taking his required pit stop with nine laps to go. Antonelli inherited the lead and drove away from Max Verstappen to take his eighth win of the season.
Verstappen finished second and Norris was third. Leclerc finished fourth.
“It was a very difficult race,” Antonelli said. “Not straightforward at all, just having to manage tires.
“I think today, it’s good to win, but it doesn’t feel as good because Lando deserved the win. But overall, we’ll take it.”
“There was nothing I could do,” Norris said. “Congrats to Kimi and Max; they drove a good race today.
“Just luck not on our side. I gave it a good fight to try and catch up with Max. But he didn’t make any mistakes; it was difficult to pass. A tough race; it just went away from us. I felt that we deserved it today, but that’s racing sometimes. We’ll take it on the chin.”
George Russell pitted under the VSC after starting the race on hard tires. 14 laps later, the medium tires were simply too uncompetitive, and Russell pitted for his other set of hard tires. Russell challenged Leclerc late in the running, but couldn’t get by him and had to settle for fifth.
The Madring has been the toughest track to pass on with the 2026 regulations. After the VSC, there were only a handful of lead-lap on-track passes. Track position was crucial, combined with tires that didn’t seem to wear. Case in point: Pierre Gasly went the entire race on one set of hard tires, and yet stayed on the lead lap until four laps to go.
Liam Lawson probably ended his final race subbing for Isack Hadjar at Red Bull with a sixth-place finish. Franco Colapinto capped off a great weekend for himself with a seventh-place finish.
Oscar Piastri had light front wing damage to start the race out of turn 1, but finished eighth. Arvid Lindblad continued his solid rookie season with a ninth, while Nico Hulkenberg grabbed the final point of the day in 10th.
Lewis Hamilton started the race in fourth, but had a brake issue that forced him to retire after lap 7.
Antonelli now holds a commanding 81-point lead on Russell in the world championship. Mathematically, if things continue as they are, he will clinch his first championship at the Mexico City Grand Prix next month, as he already has a three-race lead.
Michael has watched NASCAR for over 25 years and has covered it on-and-off for 14.
In addition to Frontstretch he also writes sporadically for his own websites GrandPrixFocus.com and StockCarFocus.com.
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