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Kimi Antonelli won the first Grand Prix at the Madring by 4.351 seconds from Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, after a Virtual Safety Car stop and 32 laps chasing Charles Leclerc. Full results, penalties and retirements.
Kimi Antonelli won the first Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring, 4.351 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen, with pole sitter Lando Norris third. It was Antonelli's eighth win of 2026 and it puts him 81 points clear in the championship.
He did not lead until lap 48. Norris led the opening 15 laps, a Virtual Safety Car on laps 14 and 15 reshuffled the order, and Charles Leclerc then led 32 laps on a set of hard tyres he had started the race on, with Antonelli never more than four seconds behind him.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time or gap | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kimi Antonelli |  Mercedes | 1:34:23.754 | 25 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen |  Red Bull | +4.351s | 18 |
| 3 | Lando Norris |  McLaren | +5.089s | 15 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc |  Ferrari | +29.116s | 12 |
| 5 | George Russell | Mercedes | +29.829s | 10 |
| 6 | Liam Lawson | Red Bull | +1:26.746 | 8 |
| 7 | Franco Colapinto |  Alpine | +1:34.281 | 6 |
Caption: Top ten from the official Formula 1 classification, 57 laps.
Also classified: Esteban Ocon 11th, Pierre Gasly 12th, Gabriel Bortoleto 13th, Yuki Tsunoda 14th, Alex Albon 15th and Oliver Bearman 16th, all a lap down, then Fernando Alonso 17th (two laps down) and Valtteri Bottas 18th (three laps down).
Did not finish: Carlos Sainz (43 laps), Sergio Perez (31), Lance Stroll (12) and Lewis Hamilton (6).
Norris converted pole and led every lap of the first stint, with Antonelli second and Verstappen third.
Lance Stroll's Aston Martin stopped at Turn 20 with a brake problem, and the Virtual Safety Car was deployed on lap 14. A pit stop under a VSC costs far less time than usual, because the rest of the field is running slowly too. Antonelli, Verstappen and Russell all came straight in on lap 14 and switched to hard tyres.
Norris could not take the same lap. He stopped a lap later, as the VSC was ending, and the stop itself was slow: Formula 1 reported he was stationary for about seven seconds. In our timing data his trip through the pit lane took 35.0 seconds, against Antonelli's 31.8. He rejoined fifth, 17.2 seconds behind the new leader.
That leader was Leclerc. Ferrari had started him fifth on the hard tyre and kept him out.
Ferrari's bet, as Formula 1 put it, was on a Safety Car or a red flag arriving while Leclerc was still out, which would have given him a free stop. Neither came.
What makes the stint remarkable is how little the old tyres cost him. Measured from the official lap times:
| Laps | Leclerc, average lap | Antonelli, average lap | Antonelli's gap to Leclerc |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 to 29 | 1:38.510 | 1:38.702 | 0.8s on lap 20 |
| 30 to 39 | 1:37.989 | 1:37.973 | 3.7s on lap 30 |
| 40 to 47 | 1:37.872 | 1:37.673 | 1.2s on lap 47 |
Caption: Average race lap times per stint window and the gap on the road at the start of each window, from F1 timing via FastF1.
Across laps 40 to 47, on tyres that had done more than 40 laps, Leclerc was only about two tenths a lap slower than the Mercedes behind him. Antonelli could close, but not pass.
Leclerc finally pitted at the end of lap 48, took soft tyres and rejoined fourth. Antonelli inherited a lead he would not lose.
The last nine laps were the tightest part of the race. Verstappen was 1.4 seconds behind Antonelli on lap 49 and never got closer, and Norris spent every one of those laps within about a second of Verstappen, between 0.555 and 1.003 seconds, without finding a way by.
At the flag Verstappen was 4.351 behind and Norris 0.738 behind him. Norris had recovered from 17 seconds down after his stop, and passed Russell when the Mercedes made a second stop on lap 28, but the VSC had cost him the win.
Russell finished fifth, 0.713 seconds behind Leclerc, after a two-stop race. He set the fastest lap on lap 49.
George Russell's 1:35.587 is the first race lap record at the Madring. The fastest lap ever driven here is still Norris's qualifying lap of 1:31.824. The race ran dry, with the track averaging 53.3°C.
For how the circuit was measured before anyone had raced on it, see our Madring circuit guide, and for the grid this race started from, the Spanish GP qualifying report.
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kimi Antonelli | 292 |
| 2 | George Russell | 211 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | 191 |
| 4 | Lando Norris | 186 |
| 5 | Charles Leclerc | 167 |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | 145 |
Caption: Standings before the race plus the points scored in Madrid.
Hamilton's retirement brings Norris to within five points of third. Antonelli came to Madrid 66 points clear after winning at Monza from 19th on the grid, and leaves 81 clear.
Kimi Antonelli won for Mercedes at the Madring on 13 September 2026, 4.351 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen, with Lando Norris third.
He stopped a lap after his rivals under the Virtual Safety Car, as it was ending, and his stop was slow. He dropped from the lead to fifth and recovered to third.
The race lap record is George Russell's 1:35.587, set on lap 49 of the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix. The fastest lap overall is Norris's 1:31.824 from qualifying.
Formula 1 reported brake problems that worsened quickly. He retired after six laps.
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Everyone knows the phrase as box box box. The radio says otherwise: nearly three quarters of real pit calls say the word exactly once, and the busiest session for pit calls is not the race.
| Oscar Piastri |
| McLaren |
| +1:35.839 |
| 4 |
| 9 | Arvid Lindblad |  Racing Bulls | +1 lap | 2 |
| 10 | Nico Hulkenberg |  Audi | +1 lap | 1 |
