Kimi Antonelli took another step towards a Championship with a win at the new Madrid track for the Spanish GP, although Lando Norris could feel hard done by with a Virtual Safety car. Talking of being hard done by, our Spanish Grand Prix Result Summary is tough but fair.
With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered watching live in the parts of the planet where it’s night time, or don’t have enough time regardless of time zone.
Spanish Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – QUALIFYING
Lando Norris continues his recent form by taking pole for McLaren with an amazing lap, which didn’t look likely in the earlier section of qualifying. Current Championship leader Kimi Antonelli secured the other front row spot and shouldn’t have as much work to do from there unlike Monza where he won from the back of the grid. Good result for Max Verstappen in third. The winner should come from one of those three, but you just never know with Ferrari, although even when they have pace they stuff things up. Newly minted number two drivers George Russell and Oscar Piastri did the solid number two jobs one now expects in 6th and 7th. Other notable is Franco Colapinto making Q3, his pole sitting team mare from last weekend Gasly qualified 14th, and Fernando Alonso was less than a tenth of qualifying for Q2.
GRID AFTER Q3 – NOR ANT VER LEC HAM RUS PIA LAW COL LIN
Setting the scene – RACEDAY
A new track, and one where a driver said in comments over the weekend that they might need to make 6 changes of tyres. That could be very interesting. Also interesting is the huge banked corner on this new track, arguably the only notable feature of the new street track situated in the suburbs of Madrid. Expecting some kind of first lap melee
STARTING GRID – NOR ANT VER LEC HAM RUS PIA LAW COL LIN
Lap 1 – Lando Norris gets away ok, but not quite as good as Kimi Antonelli, but a hefty chop from Norris baulks the Mercedes which opens up and opportunity for Lewis Hamilton to storm through but he backs off when danger looms into the first turn and that pushes Verstappen over the kerbs behind him. In front Antonelli cuts the first corner and gets in front of Norris temporarily but hands it back. The scenario repeats itself at the net major corner, Antonelli cuts the corner, takes lead, gives it back, and Verstappen looms like Big Bad Wolf to blow down their straw houses, and he pinches second from Antonelli at the third corner. Although, Hamilton is on the radio and blub about Verstappen needing to give back a place to him, which will be hard with Antonelli in between. Good luck stewards. Not much trouble further back, which is a surprise given the short run to first corner and narrow pit straight. Oscar Piastri doubles down on an ordinary qualifying by dropping from seventh to tenth. At the back Sergio Pere made a nice start and is up to 16th, he’s a dark horse for a point if tyre wear comes into it today.
ORDER – NOR VER ANT HAM LEC RUS COL LAW LIN PIA
Lap 3 – Lando Norris stretches his lead out to two seconds as he starts the third lap, showing his qualifying lap was just a taste of his pace today.
Lap 4 – Verstappen and team talking about the first lap incident and giving the place back. Verstappen retorts saying he would have crashed if not cut the first corner. He’s right, they would have, and it would have been kind of funny. Not funny for Verstappen is him actually giving two places back on lap 4, letting Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton past like a good boy.
Lap 5 – Didn’t take long….Verstappen eases past Lewis Hamilton and immediately clear off. Charles Leclerc adds to his misery by getting past too, and George Russell looking to get past too and he does. In fact everyone is getting past him now, he’s out of brakes. That might explain some of the off track trips in recent laps.
Lap 6 – Whilst Lewis Hamilton has braking troubles, there’s no slowing down Lando Norris who leads by 4.2 seconds and has Fastest Lap in his back pocket too. Leclerc in 4th place is already ten seconds behind. Bad reliability of car and/or team tactics is the only thing holding him back here.
Lap 7 – Lewis Hamilton has retired from the new Spanish GP. Another missed opportunity for both driver and team.
ORDER – NOR ANT VER LEC VER COL LAW LIN PIA OCO
Lap 10 – Liam Lawson continues to do a decent, if not spectacular job of the second Red Bull and he gains a position from Franco Colapinto (6th). Oscar Piastri should arguably be in front of all this train of Colapinto-Lawson-Lindblad and himself, given his team mate is leading the race like a seasoned veteran.
Lap 13 – In between tiny power naps, yes it’s nearly midnight here, there’s not much happening ecept an expanding gap of dominance for Lando Norris, and Piastri still riding public transport stuck in a train headed by Colapinto.
Lap 15 – Lance Stroll complains about brakes, not sure if this is before or after crashing into the wall. Replays show Lance Stroll just ran down the escape road without crashing, but we’re sure the first glimpse showed Stroll in the wall. We wonder if Stroll has binned it trying to turn his car around. It would be such a Tstroll thing to do.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR CALLED
Such bad luck for Lando Norris, the VSC is called just after he passes the pitlane, but not Kimi Antonelli, so effectively Norris is punished for being too far in front.
Even worse luck for the McLaren, as the VSC is called off as he enters the pitlane just as the Virtual Safety Car ends.
Even more bad luck for Norris as he has a stuck wheel and the pitstop takes seven seconds and not the usual two.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR ENDS
Lap 16 – Lando Norris rejoins behind George Russell in 5th, with Charles Leclerc leading who didn’t pit, and the following three having pit.
ORDER – LEC ANT VER RUS NOR LAW PIA GAS BOR COL
Lap 18 – As the post-VSC dust settles, Leclerc leads Antonelli by just over and sometimes just under a second. Verstappen is a further seven seconds behind in third, and there’s a familiar vibe about Kimi Antonelli hunting down a first place, especially after his heroics in Italy.
Lap 21 – Approaching the halfway stage of this new Madrid GP and there’s nothing really surprising so far. The track is hard to overtake on, so it’s a dull race. Verstappen and Hamilton clash. There’s bad luck/reliability for Ferrari. Geroge Russell is moaning over the radio. Piastri is second best to Norris. Cadillacs and Aston Martins are at the back and trading slowest laps. And Lance Stroll ended up in the wall. So, so predictable. This is going to be a long second half of the race. Although, now we’re wondering where the potential 6 stops came from. It was probably George Russell, as part of moaning about something.
ORDER – LEC ANT VER RUS NOR LAW PIA GAS BOR COL
Lap 25 – Some minor drama for Kimi Antonelli, as he radios his team to check the car as he says the car’s steering feels funny. They confirmed all good though. Not long later the team warn him about track limits, so he can’t cut too many more corners or they will cut his time.
Lap 26 – Lando Norris has caught right up to George Russell now for 4th, so we might have a genuine battle on our hands soon enough. And if it ended in tears for someone, even better.
Lap 32 – After a quick nap, noting much has changed except George Russell has pitted and dropped to 6th behind Liam Lawson. At the front Leclerc is doing a super job on hard tyres, leading the race by over three seconds on tyres that have driven twice as much.
ORDER – LEC ANT VER NOR LAW RUS PIA GAS BOR COL
Lap 35 – George Russell nips past Liam Lawson for fifth place as the Red Bull fill-in tries to keep it out of the wall after hitting the kerbs hard. Russell asks his team why they pit him a second time. He has a point. He’s 30 seconds behind the McLaren and relying on McLaren either pitting or slowing. Neither seems likely now.
Lap 38 – Maybe McLaren will pit after all as Norris nearly puts it into the wall but saves it well. Further ahead, the un-stopped Leclerc is asking what the deal is. His team tell him he’s staying out for now hoping for a Safety Car. With one Aston Martin and two Cadillacs still circulating, there’s always a chance of a breakdown in an inconvenient place to bring out one.
Lap 42 – Lando Norris has caught up to Verstappen and is within a second now, and can help himself to the aero boost if he can maintain that towards end of the lap. Maybe Norris won’t need it with his pace, maybe Norris won’t get to pass at all if Verstappen pulls out a special F1 defence on positions.
Lap 43 – Good, loyal number two Oscar Piastri pits first to test the McLaren pit ahead of a potential stop for Lando. The Australian rejoins in 11th behind another train of cars. That’s his afternoon over for anything other than token points. If he’s lucky. Maybe hasty and unfair, Piastri passes Lindblad well on lap 45 for tenth place.
Lap 46 – This Piastri-Colapinto-Bortoleto train is getting interesting. Colapinto looks like he is trying to damage the car, almost crashing into Bortoleto in a move he pulled out of, getting looser and closer to the walls. Lindblad and the Hulk are looming behind too to join in and/or take advantage if one or more driver stuffs up. In less exciting news Liam Lawson pit and came out in front of this battle.
ORDER – LEC ANT VER NOR RUS GAS LAW BOR COL PIA
Lap 47 – Ten laps to go and a few driver are yet to pit, and badly need a Safety Car to boost their afternoon. They include Charles Leclerc in the lead, 6th placed Pierre Gasly and 8th placed Gabriel Bortoleto.
Lap 49 – Charles Leclerc finally pits, and he rejoins in 4th, just ahead of George Russell, so that could have been worse. Bortoleto has pit too, leaving Gasly as the only one hanging on.
ORDER – ANT VER NOR LEC RUS GAS LAW COL PIA LIN
Lap 51 – Lando Norris is closer to Verstappen than ever, and now they are battling for second place.
Lap 55 – A few laps to go and a few points of interest – Verstappen-Norris, Russell-Leclerc, and Pierre Gasly has also yet to pit, but Liam Lawson’s all over him.
Lap 56 – A little bit of excitement as back markers almost get in the way of Verstappen-Norris and the Red Bull gives Norris a little sniff of second place but then slams the door shut.
FINAL LAP – Pierre Gasly finally pits and drops out of the top ten. No problems for Kimi Antonelli who has shown speed all weekend as ever in 2026, but also got lucky as with the Virtual Safety Car as Norris got unlucky. He wins the first GP in Madrid from Verstappen and Norris for the podium. No other moves on the last lap. This Championship is almost over.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line): ANT VER NOR LEC RUS LAW COL PIA LIN HUL
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. 5 points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – LANDO NORRIS
Brilliant pole lap, one his boss declared one of his best, and he led the race dominantly and comfortably in no particular order. But he was done by bad luck and bad timing of the Virtual Safety Car.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
KIMI ANTONELLI – You need luck and a good car to win the Championship and Kimi Antonelli got both today. Of course was fast enough to win the race, but without the timing of the Virtual Safety Car, possibly may not have.
M. VERSTAPPEN – An almost obscurity weekend, where his third on the grid and podium finish went under the radar. Not forgetting his Red Bull is probably the fourth slowest car overall.
CHARLES LECLERC – Drove a great race going long on his first set of tyres. Didn’t get lucky with the second Safety Car that would have transformed his result, but a good drive nonetheless.
FRANCO COLAPINTO – Made Q3 unlike his pole-winning team mate, and drover another good race to points. Starting to look more like the driver teams were almost fighting over a few years ago.
LIAM LAWSON – Decent fill-in job from the Kiwi. Problem is, it won’t be enough to win a Red Bull seat, and with Tsolov in F2 seemingly talking himself into a 2027 seat, Lawson may not even get a Racing Bulls gig net season as a thank you.
THE GRAPE-EST – LEWIS HAMILTON
The weekend had promise in patches, but ended in the race’s first DNF with no brakes. He has no luck when the car’s fast. Meanwhile, his team mate led the race for a large part of the race.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
LANCE STROLL – Bad luck running out of brakes in the race. Not bad luck being slow in qualifying.
OSCAR PIASTRI – Not the worst race, but just a continuing decline into number two-dom. A meh qualifying result is compounded by a poor start, losing positions to the mid field then making little impression against them, while his team mate takes pole and races to a podium.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Kind of ditto, but without the bad start. Although his poor form will have him kicking itself more than Piastri given the race winning form of the car in the hands of a 19 year old.
CADILLAC – DNF for Checo, and Valtteri was a lap behind second last placed Fernando Alonso.
OLLIE BEARMAN – Showed glimpses of speed in the Haas, but then ruined his weekend by binning it into water.
WILLIAMS – Williams are so weak right now.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
PRE RACE ACTION (FP, QUAL, SPRINT, OFF TRACK etc) – 4/ 5
New races bring ]excitement and there was one corner worth talking about, the banking 180 degree corner they were calling La Monumental, which sounds cool. Qualifying was close with all four teams in with a chance.
ON TRACK ACTION (RACE) – 2 / 10
The first lap was the peak of the action. A virtual Safety Car changed the race result. And some late race battles were enough to keep one awake.
ANY SURPRISES? – 2 / 5
The Virtual Safety Car timing was a surprise to Lando Norris, who missed the pitlane by a second, an then pit as it was called off.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 4 / 5
It’s another step on the way to a Championship for Kimi Antonelli. Norris’ pace showed that his nearest competitor for the title could be Lando Norris if he can string a few wins together.
ENDING – 3 / 5
The battle were interesting enough, especially Verstappen v Norris, and there was a potential penalty announced on the last lap but dismissed just after the race ended.
OVERALL RATING – 15 / 30
An early peak for the race and race weekend. Track looks tough enough and some (or one) good corner. But it was kinda dull. But so was Barcelona, so maybe it’s a Spanish GP thing.
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