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Alex Harper • Sep 8, 2026 
Reviewed By Paul Jacobs
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Formula 1’s newest circuit delivered a race that looked completely different in the final ten laps than it did on lap one. Kimi Antonelli won the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at Madrid’s Madring circuit on September 13, taking his eighth victory of the 2026 season and stretching his championship lead in the process. Max Verstappen finished second, and Lando Norris, who started from pole and led comfortably for much of the race, salvaged third after a Virtual Safety Car (a slowdown period where drivers must hold a set pace instead of a full safety car) and a slow pit stop cost him what looked like a certain win.
Charles Leclerc came home fourth for Ferrari, George Russell took fifth for Mercedes, and Lewis Hamilton’s day ended after just six laps with brake failure.
Here’s who came out ahead at Madring, who didn’t, and what it means with the season heading into its final stretch.
2026 Spanish Grand Prix Race Result (Top 10)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Gap |
| 1 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | Winner |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | +4.4s |
| 3 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +5.1s |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +29.1s |
| 5 | George Russell | Mercedes | +29.8s |
| 6 | Liam Lawson | Red Bull | +1m26.7s |
| 7 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | +1m34.3s |
| 8 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +1m35.8s |
| 9 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | +1 lap |
| 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi | +1 lap |
F1 Championship Standings After the Spanish Grand Prix
| Pos | Driver | Points | Gap to leader |
| 1 | Kimi Antonelli | 292 | Leader |
| 2 | George Russell | 211 | -81 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | 191 | -101 |
| 4 | Lando Norris | 186 | -106 |
Winners
Kimi Antonelli
Antonelli didn’t have the fastest car on Sunday. He didn’t even lead for most of the race. What he had was position when it mattered. When the Virtual Safety Car came out, Mercedes had him in the pits and back on track before Norris’s team could react, and that single sequence turned a likely third-place finish into a win.
It’s his eighth victory from fourteen races this season, and it pushed his championship lead over Mercedes teammate George Russell to 81 points. That’s not a lead anymore. That’s a cushion. Barring a genuine collapse, Antonelli is driving toward his first title, and races like this one, won on strategy rather than raw speed, are exactly the kind that build a champion’s resume.
Max Verstappen
Verstappen wasn’t the story of the race, and that’s precisely why he’s a winner here. While Norris and Antonelli traded the spotlight, Verstappen quietly ran a clean, mistake-free race and picked up second when the chaos settled. Red Bull’s pace at Madring wasn’t the class of the field, but Verstappen converted what he had into a strong result without needing a single lucky break. Four-time champions don’t need drama to keep scoring points, and Sunday was a reminder of that.
Charles Leclerc
Leclerc ran a one-stop strategy while most of the field pitted under the VSC, and for a long stretch of the race it looked like it might hand him the lead outright. He held on for fourth, narrowly ahead of Russell, and gave Ferrari a result to build on after a difficult run of races. It wasn’t a podium, but it was a strategy call that nearly worked, and those are the calls that separate teams fighting for third in the constructors’ standings from teams just making up the numbers.
Losers
Lando Norris
Nobody had a worse afternoon relative to where they started. Norris, the reigning world champion, took pole by 0.011 seconds, one of the closest margins of the season, and then built a lead of more than five seconds over the field in the opening laps. Then Lance Stroll stopped in a run-off area on lap 14, the VSC came out at the worst possible moment for McLaren’s strategy, and a slow pit stop sealed it. Norris dropped as low as fifth before fighting back to third.
Third place from pole, with a five-second lead evaporated by circumstances mostly outside his control, is the kind of result that stings more than an actual bad race. Norris will be the first to say he should have won this one, and he wasn’t alone. Both he and Antonelli said afterwards that Norris deserved the victory.
Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton’s Spanish Grand Prix lasted six laps. Brake problems that showed up early in the race got progressively worse, sending him off track before Ferrari pulled the car in for good. It was his first retirement of the 2026 season, and it’s the kind of mechanical DNF that costs a team real points in a championship battle Ferrari can’t afford to fall further behind in.
The Madring circuit
Madring’s first Grand Prix produced a result decided almost entirely by strategy and a Safety Car window rather than by wheel-to-wheel racing. Overtaking around the 5.4km, 22-turn layout was limited throughout the weekend, and reports following the race indicate changes to three areas of the circuit are already being planned ahead of its return to the calendar. A debut race that gets remembered for pit strategy instead of passing isn’t necessarily a disaster, but it’s not the impression a brand-new circuit wants to leave either.
What This Means for the F1 Championship
An 81-point lead at round 14 is close to a formality in modern F1, where a single driver rarely closes that kind of gap in the closing stretch of a season. Antonelli sits on 292 points to Russell’s 211, with Lewis Hamilton a further 20 back on 191. Antonelli now controls his own destiny almost entirely. Russell’s best path back into the fight is a run of near-perfect weekends paired with Antonelli mistakes, and Sunday didn’t produce either.
For Norris, the story is different. He remains in the mix for podiums and wins, but days like Madring, where the result on paper doesn’t reflect the pace shown on track, are the ones that add up over a season and decide who’s still mathematically alive by the final races.
F1 heads to Baku next for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on September 24-26, and with Antonelli’s lead where it stands, the championship conversation is shifting from “can he be caught” to “how soon does he wrap it up.”
FAQ
Who won the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix?
Kimi Antonelli won for Mercedes, his eighth victory of the season, ahead of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.
Why did Lando Norris finish third after starting on pole?
Norris led for much of the race but lost his advantage when a Virtual Safety Car and a slow pit stop dropped him behind Antonelli and Verstappen. He recovered from as low as fifth to finish third.
Why did Lewis Hamilton retire from the Spanish Grand Prix?
Hamilton’s Ferrari suffered brake problems that worsened over the opening laps, forcing his retirement after six laps.
Who leads the F1 championship after the Spanish Grand Prix?
Kimi Antonelli leads on 292 points, 81 clear of Mercedes teammate George Russell. Lewis Hamilton is third on 191, with Lando Norris five points behind him.
When is the next F1 race after the Spanish Grand Prix?
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on September 24-26.
