Kimi Antonelli benefited from a well-timed virtual safety car to get in a position to win the F1 Spanish Grand Prix and didn’t miss a beat, taking his eighth victory of 2026.
The Mercedes driver played the waiting game perfectly behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who stayed out long hoping for a safety car but ended up making his required pitstop with nine laps to go, which allowed Antonelli to cruise to the win.
“It was a difficult race and not straightforward at all,” said Antonelli. “It feels good to win but it doesn’t feel as good because Lando [Norris] deserved to win today but overall we’ll take it. Other than that it was a really strong race, especially at the end on the hard, we had really good pace and now we’re going to keep pushing.”
Antonelli finished the 57-lap Madrid street race 4.351 seconds ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, with McLaren’s Norris 5.089 seconds back. Ferrari’s Leclerc and Mercedes driver George Russell rounded out the top-five.
Antonelli’s win brings his points total to 292 and extends his championship lead to 81 points, with his closest rival and teammate Russell sitting at 211 points. Third-placed driver Lewis Hamilton retired early and now lies 101 points back, with 191. Norris at 186 and Leclerc at 167 round out the top-five.
In the constructors’ points, Mercedes leads with 503, 145 more than Ferrari, on 358, with McLaren third on 306.
The race turned when Canadian Lance Stroll went off on Lap 15, causing a virtual safety car that came out too late for leader Norris to pit for fresh tires but in time for both Antonelli and Verstappen to get new rubber. The pair leapfrogged Norris when he pitted the next time around, just as the virtual safety car period ended, which dropped him from first to fifth.
While Leclerc took the lead and kept it for 32 laps as he waited for a safety car to mitigate a late stop, he finally pitted with nine to go and Antonelli went to the front. Polesitter Norris got up to fourth when Russell pitted for tires on Lap 29 and then moved onto the podium with Leclerc’s stop.
Like Antonelli, Verstappen also made the most of the opportunity to get ahead of the faster car of Norris and stay there.
“Looking at the race pace, it was a great result,” he said. “We know that Lando got unlucky with the virtual safety car – you could see how much Lando was catching me, so to keep him behind and for us to be P2 is incredible.”
For his part, Norris worked hard to get back into the battle for the win, but couldn’t make it work. Verstappen defended the quicker car on the tight circuit and the McLaren driver settled for third after looking like a lock for the win until fortune frowned on him.
“Congrats to Kimi and Max, they drove a good race today,” he said. “There was nothing I could do – luck was not on our side. I gave it a good fight and tried to catch up to Max, but it’s difficult to pass and he didn’t make any mistakes. A tough break but that one just got away from us. I felt like we deserved it.”
With Stroll out early, the Aston Martin team got a 17th-place finish from Fernando Alonso, although he crossed the line two laps behind Antonelli.
Meanwhile, those feeling that Antonelli’s big championship lead means that he’ll start to relax will need to think again.
“That’s exactly what I don’t want to do,” said Antonelli. “I want to keep pushing race by race and keep delivering and keep it going all the way and try to do my best every race and see where we end up at the end of the year.”
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