Spanish GP: Kimi Antonelli wins F1's first Madring race to increase title lead after Lando Norris misfortune
Kimi Antonelli increased his championship lead to a commanding 81 points with his eighth race win of the year; Lando Norris appeared to have race under control before untimely Virtual Safety Car lost him the lead; Max Verstappen second, while Lewis Hamilton suffered first DNF of his season
Sunday 13 September 2026 16:12, UK
Kimi Antonelli took another step in his quest towards winning the 2026 world championship by benefitting from pit-stop misfortune for Lando Norris to win the first Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring.
McLaren's Norris had looked in control of the race after converting his superb pole position into a comfortable early race lead but the battle for victory turned on a lap-15 Virtual Safety Car when Aston Martin's Lance Stroll stopped in a run-off area.
With a VSC offering the field the chance of a so-called 'cheap' pit stop, McLaren were unable to pit Norris immediately as the Briton had just passed the pit-lane entry road.
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But the following Antonelli and Verstappen had not, allowing Mercedes and Red Bull to pit their drivers respectively while Norris was running to a controlled reduced speed on track while marshals moved Stroll's car.
McLaren did pit Norris at the end of the next lap but, by then, the VSC had ended, meaning the field was back up to racing speed, with that misfortune then compounded by a slow seven-second service at the tyre change.
Norris rejoined in fifth place and, underlining his prodigious pace, eventually finished on second-placed Verstappen's tail in third but was tantalisingly unable to find a way past the Red Bull through the closing laps.
With George Russell finishing only fifth in the second Mercedes behind a long-running Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, Antonelli's title lead grows to a season-high 81 points with a scheduled nine races remaining.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton is now 101 points back and all but out of contention after he suffered his first race retirement of the season after his car ran into terminal brake issues inside seven laps.
Liam Lawson was sixth for Red Bull with Alpine's Franco Colapinto seventh ahead of Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren. Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad was ninth with Audi's Nico Hulkenberg in 10th.
More to follow...
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