It’s always exciting for a new track to be featured on the F1 calendar, and with the expansion of so many new tracks over the last few years, it’s no surprise that Spain just received theirs through the new “Madring” in Madrid — a hybrid semi-permanent street circuit that combines public roads with new permanent racing sections. There was carnage from all series, from F3 to F1, as drivers attempted to figure out the new circuit.
F1 was in Spain earlier this year (June 14th) for the Grand Prix Barcelona-Catalunya at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, where fans witnessed the comeback victory of Lewis Hamilton — his first win since Belgium in July of 2024, totalling seven impressive victories on Spanish soil. Hungry for more, and a fan of the Spanish circuits, Hamilton was looking to make this weekend victory number eight. Let’s get into the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix from Madrid.
Qualifying
As you’d expect, Kimi Antonelli and Mercedes topped the charts in Q1 with a marginal lead over the welcomed surprise of Liam Lawson and his Red Bull in P2, followed by his teammate, Max Verstappen, in P3. Of the two McLarens, Lando Norris seemed to find his pace early to secure P4 coming out of Q1, with both Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc not too far off in P5 and P6. George Russell was struggling slightly in Q1, managing to cross the line P7 with the McLaren of Oscar Piastri in P8. After a great run last weekend, Franco Colapinto brought his momentum from Monza to show good pace with an early P9, and once again, Gabriel Bortoleto rounds out Q1 with P10.
It was time for Q2, and drivers started turning up the pace. Max Verstappen was hungry to get his Red Bull on the front row, and his time would put him over a tenth of a second ahead of the Mercedes of Antonelli in P2. Ferrari found a bit more magic in the car and managed to claw their way to the second row with Hamilton in P3 and Leclerc in P4. George Russell found a bit more pace in his Mercedes but was still almost half a second off Verstappen in P5, followed closely by Lando Norris in P6. A slight performance fall-off for Liam Lawson saw him drop down the order to P7. Franco Colapinto found a bit more momentum on track, bringing his Alpine to P8, while the McLaren of Piastri dropped a position to P9, and a comeback from Arvid Lindblad and his Racing Bull would ensure another Q3 performance for him in P10.
The final session of qualifying is underway at the complex Madring. It was Mercedes 1-2 for quite some time, with Russell and Antonelli swapping places lap for lap, when suddenly the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton set a blistering lap to push the Mercedes of Antonelli to P2 by under a tenth of a second. Hamilton is known for being successful in Spain, and he was looking to add to his already impressive list of victories. Hamilton maintained pole for quite some time, but with under one minute left in the session, a massive lap from Kimi Antonelli would place him P1 by over two tenths of a second. One lap later, Lando Norris, pushing his McLaren to the limit, would find over half a second worth of pace, placing himself P1 by only one-hundredth of a second over Kimi Antonelli, and the next lap would show Max Verstappen, out of nowhere once again, finding pace and putting his Red Bull in P3, knocking both Ferraris of Hamilton and Leclerc into P4 and P5.
Race
The lights are on, the lights are out for the first-ever start at the Madring. Lando Norris got off the line well, immediately placing his McLaren on defence in the path of Kimi Antonelli, but that wouldn’t stop Antonelli from making a passing attempt on the outside of Turn 1; he would run out of road, causing him to cut the corner to avoid contact with Norris. After feathering the throttle to give Norris back the place, Max Verstappen had a run on Antonelli with nowhere to go, backing out to avoid contact with the McLaren and Mercedes. Antonelli would have another shot at passing Norris into Turn 5, but again would come in hot, forcing him to run off track and miss the corner for a second time in one lap, giving Verstappen the momentum to pass for P2 after banging wheels with Hamilton.
The contact with Hamilton would cause a late call from Red Bull, telling Verstappen to give the place back to Hamilton, causing some on-radio drama. “Max, we think we should give the position back to Hamilton; that means letting Antonelli through as well,” said Gianpiero Lambiase, to which Verstappen responded, “Mate, what the f*** are you guys talking about? He would’ve shunted it. Like, what are you guys talking about? If I just stay on the track, I am out of the race.” Verstappen reluctantly listened, letting both Hamilton and Antonelli through.
Early in the Grand Prix, Hamilton was complaining about his brakes becoming softer and softer, lap by lap. By lap 6, Hamilton reported to the team, “I don’t have brakes, guys. My foot is hitting the floor.” Ferrari engineers quickly told Hamilton they were retiring the car and to bring it to the garage, sadly ending Hamilton’s race weekend and closing the door on the possibility of bringing home another Spanish Grand Prix victory.
There was a lull in the action for a couple of laps until the two hometown heroes, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz, began battling for position. These two have had run-ins already this year, most recently during the Hungarian Grand Prix back in July. Alonso, carrying heaps of momentum down the small straight before Turn 5, made an attempt to pass on the outside line, but Sainz, on the defence, closed the door, pushing Alonso into the wall and forcing him to make contact with the back of Sainz, damaging his front wing. “Yeah, he squeezed me into the wall, man. At the start, he crashed into two people; now he pins me to the wall on braking,” exclaimed an upset Alonso.
Lance Stroll would bring out the Virtual Safety Car after running his Aston Martin through the run-off area of Turn 20 and was unable to get the car turned around, starting the onslaught of pit stops for Mercedes and McLaren. Verstappen and Antonelli decided to pit for fresh tires, while McLaren didn’t make the call early enough, as Norris had already passed pit lane. He managed to get to the pits one lap later, but only just as the safety car was ending, meaning Norris would have to pit under green flag conditions — that gives rivals Antonelli and Leclerc plenty of time to catch and pass for the lead. During his pit stop, there was an issue with the right front tire change, causing Norris’ pit stop to extend to an excruciating 7.0 seconds, allowing Leclerc, Antonelli and Verstappen through, bringing him from P1 down to P4, putting the stamp on his race and missing out on victory.
In the final laps, Antonelli extended his lead to over 4 seconds, with Norris catching the Red Bull of Verstappen, looking for redemption to put his McLaren on the podium. Lap traffic of Arvid Lindblad and Nico Hülkenberg made things a bit tricky, as Verstappen and Norris had to navigate past both of them, who were having their own battle, and maintain momentum. Verstappen cleared both cars with ease, but would brake too deep into Turn 5, giving Norris the opportunity to close the gap. However, Verstappen defended beautifully, holding off the charging Norris and maintaining his P2 position, with Norris in P3.
For the eighth time this season, Kimi Antonelli crossed the line for victory in Madrid, extending his championship lead and solidifying his name in the history books — the first Grand Prix at the Madring and F1’s return to Madrid for the first time in 45 years. The young Italian keeps writing motorsport history, filling the trophy cabinet at Mercedes, and who knows what the remainder of the season has for his seemingly unstoppable momentum.
Antonelli’s early success is quite reminiscent of Lewis Hamilton and his early success at McLaren in 2007, leading to a championship in his second season in 2008. Could Kimi be following the same path? His success so far says yes, but we’ll have to wait and see. Next stop: the Baku City Circuit for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on September 26th.
FEATURE IMAGE: KIMI ANTONELLI, 2026 SPANISH GP. PHOTO COURTESY OF MERCEDES-AMG PETRONAS FORMULA ONE TEAM.
