Formula 1: eighth victory of the season in Madrid for the Italian Mercedes driver who now leads the world championship with 81 points ahead of Russell. The Ferraris did badly: Hamilton forced to retire, Leclerc fourth
Arrives in Madrid Kimi Antonelli’s eighth victory of the season, the second in a row after that of Monza. Never had an Italian driver won the Spanish Grand Prix, never had an Italian driver won eight races in a season, but the record book in this fantastic 2026 risks being constantly changed by the incredible talent from Bologna who never misses a beat. He wins even when his Mercedes is probably not the fastest, wins because you have to go and look for luck and you have to be in the right place at the right time. “I was lucky, Lando Norris deserved to win.” The boy from Bologna from a lesson in style even at the end of the race: he knows that without the clumsy intervention of the race direction who called the Safety Car after Norris passed the finish line, preventing the Englishman from making the pit stop like Kimi and Verstappen, it would have been the Englishman’s papaya who won. And he says it without any problems, but in the meantime his lead in the constructors’ world ranking increases further because his teammate George Russell only finishes in fifth place and finds himself 81 points behind the leader which has 292, while Lewis Hamilton he had to give up on the sixth lap due to problems with his Ferrari SF-26 e he is now at 101 points from Kimi. World Cup closed? No, because the reliability risk of Mercedes must be taken into account, having been forced to retire this season, but as the races go by, in addition to increasing the lead, Antonelli demonstrates confidence and concentration in every situation. Unleashed in Monza when starting from nineteenth position he won by making 26 overtakings, cold in Madrid where he managed the objectively random advantage situation without ever giving his opponents the chance to get close to him. After 14 of the 23 scheduled grand prix, Kimi Antonelli has put a very serious claim on the world drivers’ title, which an Italian hasn’t won since 1953. Then it was Alberto Ascari. Even if he doesn’t even think about managing: “We’ll take this victory, but Norris deserved to win today. The race was difficult and non-linear. The World Cup? I don’t think about managing, that’s exactly what I don’t want to do: I will push at every race and in the end we’ll see where I’ll get to.”
Ferrari bad day
For the fourth consecutive race Ferrari is not on the podium. At Madring the weekend was very unlucky for Lewis Hamilton ended up on the wall during free practice and forced to retire after six laps of the race due to a brake problem. The impression was that the Englishman could at least aim for the podium with his SF-26, but instead he was forced to retire, his first of the season. Charles Leclerc has been in the lead for a long time but with the knowledge that he would have been overtaken by at least three riders, as in fact happened. The Monegasque had chosen white tires and remained on the track until 8 laps to go, maintaining control of Russell’s position because a tire change was inevitable. Ferrari’s conservative tactic was not rewarded because there were no accidents during the race and therefore the race direction did not intervene either with the Safety Car or even with the red flag. In the first case Leclerc could have halved the time needed to change tires, in the second he could have even hoped to win. Hypotheses that have turned into bitter illusions.
