Kimi Antonelli was the beneficiary of an early Virtual Safety Car following a brake failure on Lance Stroll's Aston Martin, giving him the jump on Lando Norris and ultimately, victory at the new Madring street circuit in Madrid. Lando Norris will feel he was robbed especially as he started cleanly from pole and led serenely while the initial drama unfolded behind him, but he was in a philosophical mood following the race stating, "luck was not on our side, we gave it our best. I felt like we deserved it today, but that's racing sometimes."
Round 14 of the 2026 world championship took us to a new circuit and which made predictions extremely difficult for all involved. The starting grid was a mixture of all options of tyre on show, creating large launch differences and drama at the first corner. With cars weaving and leaving the track, Max Verstappen was judged to have gained an advantage and ordered by his Red Bull team to give his position to Lewis Hamilton. He was less than impressed with this instruction, venting his frustration to his engineer, but he did comply allowing the Ferrari to pass.
This did little to help Hamilton's race as for the first time in 2026 he was forced to retire from a race - with brake failure on lap 5. Oddly enough, he went straight on at the exact same corner as Lance Stroll, but was able to perform a quick donut and limp his Ferrari back to the garage.
When Stroll's Aston Martin had its issue on lap15, Lando Norris was leading the race comfortably, but had just passed the pit lane entry when the VSC was announced. Funnily enough, if he had not been so fast and managed to pull a 6 second lead, then he would have managed to complete a 'cheap' pit stop at the same time as his rivals. As it happened, he had to go around the lap at 70% speed and just as he got back to the pit entry (and importantly after everyone else had the opportunity to change tyres) the VSC period was ended and the race resumed at full speed. Norris came out behind Leclerc, Antonelli and Verstappen and from there knew that his race was run. Leclerc ran with the hard tyre deeper into the race, hoping for another safety car and another chance for a cheap pit stop, but that strategy did not pay off.
The teams were all learning on their feet as the weekend progressed, however, one thing most seem to agree on was that tyre degradation in the race would be modest, especially with the C2 tyre in use as the hard tyre, the second hardest in the Pirelli range. And so it proved. Pierre Gasly went the entire race on the hard tyre waiting for a full safety car period which never materialised and pitted on the final lap and dropped out of the points.
The rest of the race itself was remarkably quiet with overtaking virtually impossible at the tight street circuit. Leclerc's late pit stop dropped him down to 4th having led most of the race, with George Russelll keeping him honest until the end. Liam Lawson came home in 6th place in another run in the senior Red Bull team, followed by Franco Colapinto in the Alpine. McLaren's Oscar Piastri had a frustrating day and could only manage 8th, with Arvid Lindblad and Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the top ten.
There were four retirements in total, Carlos Sainz at his home race and Sergio Perez joining the aforementioned Hamilton and Stroll.
The long and short of it is, that Kimi Antonelli's luck keeps falling his way, and he leaves Madrid with an 81 point lead in the world championship. There are 9 rounds to go and 225 points available, but it would take a collapse of a historic nature to see anyone else but the young man from Bologna crowned as champion at the end of the year. Rumours abound in the paddock that the final race of the year is set to be announced as Imola, which would replace the Abu Dhabi race, and complete a fitting homecoming.
The next race is in Azerbaijan in two weeks' time. Be aware that qualifying will be on Friday and the race will be on Saturday - don't miss out on the earlier than usual grand prix weekend.
