Lewis Hamilton took a convincing win in the F1 Barcelona Grand Prix, scoring his first victory since joining Ferrari last year to put himself solidly in contention for the 2026 championship.
The seven-time world champion took his 106th career win and first since the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix after a late virtual safety car gave a free pitstop for fresh tires that allowed him to pull away in the final stages.
“I have to start by saying a huge thank you to everyone here, my team here at Ferrari, everyone back at the factory, [team principal] Fred [Vasseur] for believing in me and bringing me to this team. 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,” said Hamilton, who struggled in 2025 in his Ferrari debut and ended the season without a podium finish for the first time in his F1 career.
“I always watched Ferrari have all that success when I was younger, watching it on TV, and as I’ve been racing here, I’d always watch the screens and wonder what it’d be like to win in that car,” he continued. “And it’s come, and everyone worked so hard for it. Everyone truly deserves it. So, I’m forever grateful to them and this is just the first, I hope, of many.”
Hamilton crossed the line 19.561 seconds ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell, with McLaren’s Lando Norris third, another 4.158 seconds back. The trio formed the first all-British podium since the 1968 U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, where Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and John Surtees formed the top-three. That race also saw Mario Andretti take pole for his first F1 start.
The win tightened Hamilton’s grip on second overall in the championship standings, although he lies 41 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes, 156-115. Russell sits third, with 106.
Hamilton started second and inherited the lead when Russell pitted for tires with about 20 laps to go. The Ferrari driver stopped 12 laps earlier, committing to a three-stop strategy, whereas Mercedes looked to be going for only two stops.
A virtual safety car then came at exactly the right time for Hamilton, who pitted for new tires and emerged two seconds ahead of Russell’s Mercedes. From there, Hamilton pulled away and scored an easy win.
Polesitter Russell looked to be the driver to beat, controlling the race from the front until the team failed to react to Hamilton’s pitstop that put him on a clear three-stop strategy, and the Mercedes pair in a position to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
“The race was feeling good, to be honest; I felt solid at the start and just slowly eking out the gap to Lewis, and he obviously committed quite early to the three-stop and then we covered, but stuck on the two-stop and from that point onward it was quite challenging and just didn’t have the pace and wasn’t feeling too happy with the hard tire,” said Russell, who finished on the podium for the first time since the second race of the year in China. “It’s good to be back on the podium and have a bit of a clean race from my side, but Ferrari mighty impressive today and, yeah, we need to keep on pushing.”
The two silver cars stayed out and watched Hamilton take huge chunks out of what should’ve been an insurmountable lead. Antonelli passed his teammate for second with five laps to go, but stopped one lap later causing another virtual safety car. The retirement put an end to Antonelli’s streak of five-consecutive victories.
The young Italian’s retirement also handed the last podium spot to Norris.
“I did my best to keep up with these guys [Hamilton and Russell], we gave ourselves a chance if anything happened and we obviously got a bit lucky with Antonelli going out, but otherwise very happy, very happy for the team, very happy to be back on the podium,” said Norris. “A better day than I was expecting. I certainly wasn’t expecting to be on the podium today, so it’s just nice to be back here, nice to finish a race. I’ve not seen a checkered flag for a while, so it’s good to be here and just nice to reward the team once again.”
Canadian Lance Stroll lasted only a few laps into the race, retiring early with a gearbox problem in his Aston Martin, while teammate Fernando Alonso retired later in the race due to a battery issue, causing the virtual safety car that shifted the race to Hamilton’s side.
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