Kimi Antonelli gana en Madring y estira su ventaja en el campeonato

Kimi Antonelli won the first Spanish Grand Prix held at the Madring circuit in Madrid, when a Virtual Safety Car changed the order of the race and took Lando Norris out of the lead he had controlled since the start.

Photo By Red Bull Content Pool

The Madring circuit, which made its debut on the Formula 1 calendar this weekend, made it clear from qualifying that the narrow corners and the proximity of the walls would limit overtaking attempts during the race. Norris had won pole by just thousandths over Antonelli, and that minimal gap ended up weighing more than usual because no car managed to recover on track the positions lost at the start.

The outcome of the race was decided on lap sixteen, when Lance Stroll stopped his Aston Martin and forced the Virtual Safety Car to be deployed. Antonelli, Verstappen, and Russell pitted immediately and changed tires without losing real time, because the reduced speed limit affected the entire group equally. Norris, on the other hand, had already passed the pit entry when the signal appeared, so he had to go one more lap before stopping, and that extra lap, combined with a pit stop of nearly seven seconds, erased the advantage he had built from the start.

Photo By Red Bull Content Pool

Ferrari tried something different with Charles Leclerc, who had started on hard tires and stayed out during the Virtual Safety Car, which put him at the front of the race for a long stretch, waiting for a second neutralization that never came. Leclerc did not pit until lap forty-eight, and although he lost the lead when he came out on fresher tires, he finished fourth, less than a second behind Russell, keeping Ferrari close to the front positions.

Photo By Red Bull Content Pool

With this victory, the eighth of the season for Antonelli, the gap over Russell in the drivers' championship rose to eighty-one points. Russell, who opted for a two-stop strategy at a circuit where losing positions was costly, finished fifth and nearly thirty seconds behind his teammate.

Verstappen took second place and resisted Norris's pressure in the closing laps, relying on a layout that left no room for clean maneuvers even with the Overtake Mode activated. Norris closed in enough to attempt a move on the penultimate lap, but traffic from lapped cars closed the gap on him, and the stewards found no reason to penalize Verstappen despite McLaren claiming he had left the track during the defense.

Photo By Mercedes F1

Lewis Hamilton did not reach the checkered flag due to a brake problem on his Ferrari, his first retirement of the season so far. Franco Colapinto finished seventh as the best result among the Latin American drivers, backed by a Q3 qualifying performance that allowed him to start ninth and hold the position throughout the race.

For the two Spanish drivers, the first edition of the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid ended with nothing to celebrate. Carlos Sainz started last due to a penalty in qualifying and made contact with Fernando Alonso on lap fourteen, which cost him a five-second penalty and ended up damaging Alonso's own front wing. Sainz did not finish the race, and Alonso ended up in seventeenth place, two laps behind the winner.

The result at Madring also leaves something pending in the constructors' championship. Mercedes has Antonelli at the top of the individual standings, but Russell did not score enough this Sunday, so the gap to Ferrari and Red Bull in that standings depends on both of the team's cars finishing close to each other, something that did not happen in Madrid. The championship now moves to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, a circuit with long straights and heavy braking zones that demands a very different car setup from what was seen this weekend in Madrid.

Pos.	No.	Driver	team	time
1	#12	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	-
2	#3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	+4.351s
3	#1	Lando Norris	McLaren	+5.089s
4	#16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+29.116s
5	#63	George Russell	Mercedes	+29.829s
6	#30	Liam Lawson	Red Bull Racing	+1:26.746
7	#43	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+1:34.281
8	#81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+1:35.839
9	#41	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	+1 LAP
10	#27	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	+1 LAP
11	#31	Esteban Ocon	Haas F1 Team	+1 LAP
12	#10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+1 LAP
13	#5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	+1 LAP
14	#22	Yuki Tsunoda	Racing Bulls	+1 LAP
15	#23	Alexander Albon	Williams	+1 LAP
16	#87	Oliver Bearman	Haas F1 Team	+1 LAP
17	#14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+2 LAPS
18	#77	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	+3 LAPS
DNF	#55	Carlos Sainz	Williams	-
DNF	#11	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	-
DNF	#18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	-
DNF	#44	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	-