Kimi Antonelli won the first Formula 1 race held at Madrid’s Madring, but he spent the evening telling anyone who asked that the trophy belonged to someone else. “It’s good to win, but it doesn’t feel as good because I think Lando today deserved to win,” the Mercedes driver said after beating Max Verstappen by 4.351 seconds, with pole-sitter Lando Norris a further 0.738s back in third.
It was Antonelli’s eighth victory of 2026 and it pushed his championship lead over team-mate George Russell out to 81 points. It also produced one of the more awkward driver-rating exercises of the season, with BBC Radio 5 Live’s Harry Benjamin marking Antonelli down as impressive across the weekend while acknowledging what everyone in the paddock could see: the 57-lap race turned on a virtual safety car, not on a pass.
Antonelli impressive, Norris unrewarded
Norris converted pole into a lead he held through a chaotic opening sequence in which Antonelli twice ran through the first chicane attempting to get past, and Verstappen briefly went by at the Bunker before being told to hand the place back. The McLaren then pulled clear, and by lap 20 Norris had built a cushion of more than six seconds.
That was the moment Lance Stroll’s brakes failed at Turn 20 and the VSC came out. Mercedes reacted instantly, pitting Antonelli and, by extension, handing Red Bull the cue to service Verstappen. Norris stopped a lap later at full speed cost and then sat stationary for roughly seven seconds, emerging fifth behind Charles Leclerc, who had not stopped at all.
Leclerc led for close to 28 laps before finally pitting on lap 48, by which time Antonelli had managed a steering complaint over the radio and reeled the Ferrari in. Norris recovered to the podium but never got back into the fight, which is why the ratings across the specialist press had him at the top of the sheet despite finishing third.
Colapinto’s afternoon in the top seven
The genuine feel-good story came further down the order. Franco Colapinto qualified ninth, ran a disciplined two-compound race, made a clean pass on Gabriel Bortoleto and defended under late pressure to take seventh and six points for Alpine — a team sitting sixth in the constructors’ standings on 68 points and desperately short of results.
Crucially, he finished ahead of Oscar Piastri’s McLaren. The Australian lost three places in first-lap contact with Russell, picked up front-wing damage and never recovered the pace, taking eighth in a car that should have been fighting for the podium. Liam Lawson was the only midfield driver to get the better of Colapinto on track, moving from eighth to sixth on a hard-tyre strategy.
Measured on raw result, Madrid was not quite Colapinto’s best day of 2026 — that remains sixth place in Canada. Measured across the full weekend, the qualifying position, the tyre management and the racecraft under pressure, it was arguably his most complete.
Other weekend takeaways from the Madring:
- Carlos Sainz endured the worst home race imaginable: contact with Yuki Tsunoda at Turn 1 damaged his Williams floor, a collision with Fernando Alonso at Turn 5 brought a five-second penalty for moving under braking, and he retired on lap 43.
- Lewis Hamilton crashed in FP3, collected impeding complaints across practice and lasted six laps before brake failure ended his race.
- Arvid Lindblad recovered from an FP2 crash to hold off Nico Hulkenberg for ninth.
- Russell took the fastest lap, a 1:35.587 on lap 49, but fifth place was a poor return on a weekend his team-mate won from the second row.
What it means for the run-in
Mercedes leave Madrid on 503 points, comfortably clear of Ferrari on 358 and McLaren on 306. The constructors’ title is effectively settled. The drivers’ championship is close to it: Antonelli’s 292 sits ahead of Russell’s 211, Hamilton’s 191 and Norris’s 186, meaning the man who was widely rated the best driver of the weekend is fourth in the standings.
That gap is the story of Antonelli’s season. He has not been flawless — the chicane cuts on Sunday would have drawn a penalty had the stewards taken a stricter view — but Mercedes have converted almost every opportunity into maximum points, and a rookie-season champion in the sport’s new regulation era now looks close to inevitable.
The Madring itself received a cooler reception, criticised for a layout short on overtaking opportunities even as IFEMA’s logistics drew praise. On a circuit where position could not be won on track, strategy decided the race — and Norris, on any fair reading of the weekend, was the driver it decided against.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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