By a Stroke of Luck: Antonelli Wins Inaugural Spanish GP at Madring
The inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at Madring was anything but straightforward. What initially looked like a race Lando Norris had firmly under control was turned on its head by a Virtual Safety Car, a painfully slow pit stop, and a strategic battle over tyre management. By the chequered flag, the race had produced a rather different result from the one the opening laps seemed to promise.
Before the race
Madring was entering its first Grand Prix with plenty of uncertainty. Formula 3 had already provided an ominous warning: its two-day test was interrupted by 20 red flags. George Russell (Mercedes) was hardly reassured. “After I drove [the track] on the sim, I was surprised there were only 20.”
Pirelli expected a strategic headache at Madring. The earliest projected switch from mediums to hards was somewhere around laps 18-24, although nobody was quite sure how badly the tyres would fall away once the race got going. A Virtual Safety Car (VSC) also looked highly likely to shake things up, promising plenty of mind games in the strategists’ rooms, except for Russell’s garage, where the strategy was presumably decided permanently during the morning briefing as usual.
The leading one-stop option involved 39 laps on hards followed by 17 on mediums, while a two-stop strategy could see drivers run 13 laps on mediums, 21 on hards, and another 22 on hards.
The starting grid had already been reshuffled by the stewards following qualifying. Carlos Sainz’s (Williams) three-place penalty for impeding Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) dropped him to P20, while Lance Stroll’s (Aston Martin) 40-place penalty for additional power unit elements put him behind the entire field. Oliver Bearman had to start from the pit lane after Haas changed his energy store, power control electronics, and motor-generator unit – kinetic (MGU-K) beyond the permitted allocation and modified the car under parc fermé conditions.
Lando Norris (McLaren) started from pole ahead of Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull), with Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) completing the top five. The tyre choices were mixed: Norris, Antonelli, Franco Colapinto (Alpine), Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls), Esteban Ocon (Haas), Alexander Albon (Williams), and Sergio Pérez (Cadillac) started on mediums; Verstappen, Hamilton, and Nico Hülkenberg (Audi) chose softs; and most of the remaining grid went for hards.
There was also a nice historical touch to the weekend. Williams arrived with a special white, green, and dark blue livery inspired by the championship-winning FW07C that the team raced at Jarama in 1981, making them look almost like Cadillac twins.
The start
Madring wasted no time bringing in the chaos. Kimi and Max both ran beyond the limits at Turn 1, with Verstappen emerging ahead of Hamilton. The Ferrari driver immediately believed Max had to give the position back. Verstappen offered a rather different interpretation. “Lewis almost shunted into me, he was out of control!” he argued over the radio. “If I didn’t move, he just shunted into me. I would’ve been ahead.”
Red Bull told Verstappen he had to return the position – and that doing so would also allow Antonelli through. Max was not impressed. “Mate, what the f*** are you guys talking about? He would’ve shunted it. […] If I just stay on the track, I am out of the race.”
On lap four, Verstappen finally gave the position back. Hamilton moved into third and Antonelli into second, leaving Norris up front and, for the moment, out of trouble. That was about as peaceful as the opening laps got.
George Russell and Oscar Piastri (McLaren) made contact, with something flying off the Mercedes and Oscar losing an endplate. Hamilton then hit the wall and asked Ferrari to check his left rear, but the team initially reported that the tyre looked fine.
It soon became clear that the tyre was not the problem. Hamilton reported that his brake pedal was going long and was effectively left trying to drive a Formula One car with increasingly unreliable brakes. He ran off track, struggled to get back to the pits, and eventually retired on lap seven – his first DNF of the season after previously being the only driver to finish every race in the points.
Hamilton’s retirement brought about an amusing little moment in the pub where I was watching the race. A waiter brought me a beer and asked whether I was supporting Ferrari or Mercedes. When I said Max, he looked genuinely surprised and said he was supporting Ferrari. I quoted Sebastian Vettel’s famous “everyone is a Ferrari fan” line, only for him to explain that he had actually supported Mercedes previously – but had switched to Ferrari because of Lewis Hamilton. The funniest part was probably the timing: Lewis had literally just retired, and the first person he asked about the race turned out to be cheering for one of Lewis’s biggest rivals. I do respect Lewis, for the record.
By lap nine, Norris was already almost five seconds clear of Antonelli. For a brief moment, the race appeared to be settling down.
The calm before the VSC
Once the opening chaos subsided, the field fell into a strangely orderly rhythm. Norris repeatedly set fastest laps while running at full throttle, with McLaren telling him that Antonelli’s tyres were already in worse shape.
Russell, meanwhile, was trying to redesign Mercedes’ strategy from the cockpit. “If Leclerc isn’t going to pick up the pace, we’re going to have to consider an undercut onto the medium tyre. I think it will be robust,” he suggested.
Track limits provided a constant secondary storyline. Piastri was still carrying his damaged endplate, which appeared to be hanging on for dear life, while Lindblad and Sainz also found themselves on the wrong side of the regulations.
On lap 11, Liam Lawson (Red Bull) overtook Colapinto through the banking – one of the few genuine overtakes of the race.
Then came the Alonso-Sainz episode. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) was furious after Sainz squeezed him towards the wall. “He [Sainz] squeezed me into the wall, man! At the start, he crashed into two people. Now he squeezed me into the wall on braking.” He later told DAZN: “At 340 km/h I prefer that nobody pins me against the wall and to be alive at the end of the race. Fortunately, I’m safe and sound, since at some point I thought I wasn’t.” The Turn 5 incident was investigated, and Sainz received a five-second penalty.
Stroll’s race ended shortly afterwards. The Aston Martin lost its brakes, hit the wall on lap 15, and brought out the Virtual Safety Car. And that was when the race changed completely.
The VSC lottery
The VSC was exactly the strategic opportunity everyone had been waiting for. Antonelli and Verstappen immediately stopped for hards. Russell went onto mediums. Leclerc stayed out and inherited the lead.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff later explained that the team reacted almost immediately. “Someone said, ‘That’s not going to clear quickly, with the Aston Martin in the wall,’ and then it was strategy 2.0.” Antonelli’s race engineer Peter Bonnington then double-checked the call with Kimi, and the whole process took around three seconds.
Norris pitted too, but his pit stop took around seven seconds, dropping him to P5 behind Leclerc, Antonelli, Verstappen, and Russell. A free pit stop had suddenly become a massive loss of track position, and the McLaren driver was now facing a recovery drive instead of controlling the race from the front.
Norris’s misfortune was almost comically well-timed. He entered the pits just as the VSC period was coming to an end. He therefore became the only driver on the grid to make his mandatory stop at full speed – and after the seven-second delay in the McLaren pit box, he lost around 20 seconds compared with his rivals.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown later defended the team, arguing that the VSC was simply badly timed for Norris: the VSC came out seconds after he had passed the pit entry and ended seconds before he reached it. Lando himself later called for the VSC rules to be changed so that a VSC would remain in place for at least one full lap, giving everyone the same opportunity to benefit. Seriously, though, it is rather ridiculous that one button press in race control could have such a huge impact on the outcome of a Grand Prix.
The Mercedes pit wall was having its own philosophical crisis. “Why wouldn’t we try and make it?” Russell asked. His engineer told him to stick to Plan A and manage the tyres. “But I think Leclerc will make this to the end easily, with a one-stop,” George insisted. It sounded less like Formula One strategy and more like a Tarantino film about tyre degradation.
Antonelli received a similar warning: “Just make sure you stay on top of the management, we don’t want to open these tyres up. They aren’t bulletproof.”
The hards were considered the safest option, but nobody really knew how far they could be stretched. Suddenly, the race was less about outright pace and more about who could keep their tyres alive for the longest.
At lap 20, Leclerc led Antonelli, Verstappen, Russell, and Norris. Carlos Sainz had boxed to serve his penalty, while Antonelli was already reporting that his steering wheel “felt weird”. Mercedes reassured him that the data showed no concerns.
Kimi was also continuing his seemingly personal war with track limits, going off at Turns 6 and 17 after out-braking himself. He was warned that there were no more allowances left. The championship leader had better start keeping the car on the road.
The long game
By lap 29, Russell made another stop. Almost everyone else was now on hards, with Alonso still on softs and Sainz on mediums. Mercedes’ strategy looked increasingly questionable, but George was at least making it work on track, rapidly closing in on Liam Lawson, whose hards had already done around 30 laps.
Pérez retired, reducing the field even further.
At lap 34, Leclerc was still leading. Alonso had made the most overtakes of anyone – five – while Russell had produced the fastest pit stop of the race at just 2.2 seconds.
Further back, Alpine had quietly worked its way towards a double-points finish. Up front, however, the biggest question remained simple: how long could Charles keep those tyres alive?
McLaren was also having a rather strange conversation: “Lando, the hard tyre looks robust. Leclerc is still on his tyre. So, if you have some pace, we think we should use it.” “I’m pace zero.” “OK, maintain the position. The pace is there.”
Despite claiming he had no pace, Norris was steadily eating into Verstappen’s advantage by around half a second per lap.
Russell eventually passed Lawson for fifth and immediately questioned why Mercedes had called him in, clearly convinced he could have held Norris back. His engineer was less interested in debating it mid-race: “Yeah, we can discuss the strategy later. Norris is currently doing 1:37.1, so just focus on that.” George’s response was essentially to set another fastest lap.
A similar situation unfolded between Lawson and Piastri. Unable to make the pass on track, McLaren called Piastri in for an undercut. It backfired: Oscar rejoined in heavy traffic, while Liam stopped a few laps later and emerged ahead.
Ferrari, meanwhile, expected Leclerc to finish around P4 in a normal race and was carefully managing the gap to Norris. The Scuderia was hoping something would happen.
Nothing really did. By lap 45, Antonelli was taking around half a second per lap out of Leclerc. Charles was still yet to stop, while Kimi’s hards were 14 laps newer.
Eventually, Ferrari had no choice. Leclerc boxed for softs and returned in fourth. Antonelli inherited the lead, with Verstappen second and Norris third.
The final laps
With eight laps remaining, the top five were Antonelli, Verstappen, Norris, Leclerc, and Russell.
Kimi touched the wall at the entry to Turn 7, but Mercedes confirmed his tyre pressures were fine. Russell was quicker than Leclerc, but there was simply not enough time left to catch the Ferrari.
Norris did eventually reach Verstappen. The McLaren driver complained that Max had cut the track while defending. The incident was noted by the stewards, but no further investigation followed.
Further down the order, Lawson passed Pierre Gasly (Alpine) for sixth on lap 55. Gasly then made a final-lap pit stop to complete the mandatory tyre change.
And that was that.
Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta waved the chequered flag – another F1-MotoGP crossover on a day when Marc Márquez had sensationally worked his position to the top of the MotoGP championship – as Kimi Antonelli became the inaugural winner of the Spanish Grand Prix at Madring. Max Verstappen finished second, with Norris third after what seemed a likely McLaren victory before the VSC.
Kimi’s father embraced him and handed him a flower in celebration, while Spain’s King Felipe VI presented the winner with his trophy, inspired by the circuit’s La Monumental banking. Flamenco dancers surrounded the podium route, adding another Spanish touch to the occasion.
Antonelli was rather restrained about his victory. “It was a very difficult race, not straightforward at all, especially trying to manage tyres,” he said. “Today it is good to win, but it doesn’t feel as good because I think Lando today deserved the win.”
Verstappen was seemingly happier with second. “Of course, we know that Lando got unlucky with that VSC. For us, I think today P2 is an incredible result, because you could see how much Lando was catching me.”
Norris was well aware of what had slipped away. “I was a bit unlucky, luck was not on our side today.”
Max was voted Driver of the Day, while Russell set the fastest lap on lap 49 with a 1:35.587. Gasly was handed a five-second penalty after the race for exceeding the 80 km/h pit-lane speed limit by 1.2 km/h.
After the race, a man and a woman came into the pub where I was watching the race and sat nearby, chatting in English. When the post-race standings appeared on the screen, complete with Kimi’s picture on the side, the woman looked at it and genuinely asked: “Who’s this kid? How can he drive in F1? He looks no more than 18.” Hard to blame her for being confused. Antonelli really does look ridiculously young.
The result
Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 1:34:23.754
Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +4.351
Lando Norris (McLaren) +5.089
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +29.116
George Russell (Mercedes) +29.829
Liam Lawson (Red Bull) +1:26.746
Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +1:34.281
Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +1:35.839
Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +1 lap
Nico Hülkenberg (Audi) +1 lap
Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1 lap
Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1 lap
Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +1 lap
Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) +1 lap
Alexander Albon (Williams) +1 lap
Oliver Bearman (Haas) +1 lap
Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +2 laps
Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +3 laps
Carlos Sainz (Williams) DNF
Sergio Pérez (Cadillac) DNF
Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) DNF
Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) DNF
Championship picture
Antonelli’s victory further strengthened his position at the top of the drivers’ championship, with 292 points – 81 clear of Russell on 211. Hamilton remained third on 191, followed by Norris on 186 and Leclerc on 167.
Mercedes also extended its lead in the constructors’ championship to 503 points, ahead of Ferrari on 358 and McLaren on 306.
And then there is Madring
The biggest talking point coming out of Madrid may ultimately have little to do with the result. While the race produced plenty of incidents and strategic intrigue, the circuit itself did little to encourage the kind of racing Formula One should be aiming for.
Madring is narrow and heavily enclosed by walls, leaving very little room for cars to run side-by-side and limiting overtaking opportunities. The result was a race in which track position mattered far more than outright pace. Russell later summed up the problem rather accurately: “Everything I would have done brought us back to the same position, purely because you can’t overtake on this track, so that’s a shame.”
The circuit also raised some practical concerns. When debris ended up on the racing line, its removal was far from straightforward because of the limited access for marshals and the walls surrounding the track. On a traditional circuit, marshals can often reach an incident through generous run-off areas or access roads; at Madring, the layout leaves considerably less room to work with. That can turn what should be a routine piece of debris removal into a potential VSC or red-flag situation.
There is also something particularly difficult to understand about the layout given that Madring was designed and built from scratch specifically for modern Formula One. The width of current F1 cars, the importance of overtaking, and the practical requirements of marshals are hardly new considerations. Yet the finished circuit often feels like a narrow corridor rather than a modern Grand Prix venue.
That became especially obvious on Sunday. Norris appeared to have the pace to control the race, only for a slow pit stop and the VSC timing to turn the situation around. Antonelli took full advantage and deserved credit for managing his tyres and keeping the Mercedes out front, but the result was shaped heavily by strategy and track position rather than by sustained on-track fighting.
Madrid now has a 10-year contract, while Spa and Barcelona are set to alternate in the future because of its introduction. After watching the inaugural race, it is fair to ask whether the calendar really needs to make room for a circuit that offers so little opportunity for overtaking. As one joke doing the rounds among Portuguese fans on X put it: “Monaco is Monaco. Hungaroring is Monaco without walls. Madring is walls without Monaco.”
The organisers, however, may already have recognised the problem. Turns 5, 13, and 20 are reportedly set to be modified for the next race to allow more overtaking.
For all the spectacle surrounding the event, Madring has a lot to prove if it is going to establish itself as a worthy long-term addition to the Formula One calendar.