Winners and losers from F1's underwhelming Spanish GP

Formula 1’s first visit to Madrid in 45 years went off to a smooth enough start off the track, but its inaugural race at the Madring left plenty to be desired.

Starting from a relatively blank sheet of paper, some of the awkward corner designs and the lack of proper straight lines made overtaking all but impossible.
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But its fast, high-commitment corners did at least provide us with a good qualifying spectacle, and allowed Lando Norris to show off its outstanding form, only to be unlucky in the race.

Winner: Kimi Antonelli

The 5.4km Madring presented a new, rather dangerous track with plenty of unknowns, and therefore plenty of pitfalls for Kimi Antonelli to shunt into as F1’s sovereign, but still inexperienced, championship leader.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise anymore if you’ve been paying attention, but Antonelli survived the test with flying colours again, maturely keeping his tyres under control behind a dominant Norris, and then benefiting from the McLaren driver’s misfortune to bring it home to the end.

If anything, Antonelli is causing Mercedes headaches because he is too quick, and too keen to keep pushing even when he doesn’t have to. “These tyres aren’t bulletproof,” his race engineer Pete Bonnington had to remind him. But Antonelli seems to be. And with George Russell all but waving the white flag in the championship, who is to stop him?

Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Lando Norris, McLaren

Loser: Lando Norris

How unlucky can you be? Following a lap of the gods in qualifying, which almost came undone at the end but was still good enough for pole, Norris absolutely dominated on Sunday, too. With everyone else struggling on the graining medium tyres, Norris quickly built up a handy lead, only for an unfortunately timed virtual safety car to wreck his afternoon, missing the windows to make a cheap pitstop by a few seconds.

And with overtaking pretty much impossible on the Madring, Norris could only move up after pitstops for Russell and Charles Leclerc ahead of him and was then powerless to do something about Max Verstappen‘s second place.

“We were just insanely unlucky today,” he said. “I was the only one on the whole grid that didn’t get the chance to do the pitstop. That’s just unfortunate. It’s happened in races and there’s been plenty of times where I’ve gained from it in the past and times where I lost from it. It’s racing.”
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The positive for Norris is that the reigning world champion has continued his rich vein of form from Budapest, Zandvoort and Monza. His first stint on the graining-prone medium tyres was outstanding and he would have easily blitzed the field in green flag conditions.

Winner: Max Verstappen

Speaking of maximising results, there was little wrong with Verstappen’s weekend either. The Madring is not Red Bull’s happiest of hunting grounds, with some of its awkward low-speed corners and kerbs that aren’t the RB22’s strong suit.

But to come away with second, ahead of intrinsically quicker McLaren and Mercedes cars, is more than a solid result. And it confirms that while it is still lacking in outright pace, Red Bull is making enough subtle improvements to stick with the frontrunners.

“It’s a good confirmation of the pace we had in Monza and again today, we were one and a half tenth from pole yesterday on a much more complicated track,” said his team principal Laurent Mekies.

Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Lando Norris, McLaren

Loser: Lewis Hamilton

We would have liked to see how Lewis Hamilton’s race would have shaped up after his bout with Verstappen at the start, which forced the Dutchman to give up his position to the Ferrari driver. That’s where their fight ended though, as the Ferrari driver suffered from a brake system failure which the team is still investigating.

“All of a sudden the pedal just went fully to the end. I was lucky to make it round,” Hamilton said, with team boss Fred Vasseur adding: “We tried to fix it from the pit wall. And then it came back and it was better to stop in this kind of track. It makes no sense to take risks.”

It left Ferrari fighting with one hand behind its back, but following a couple of weekends of questionable execution, Leclerc’s race felt well managed and his gamble to stay out long on the hard tyres could have yielded it a flattered race win in case of a late red flag.

Winner: Franco Colapinto

Franco Colapinto has generally been an improved version of the reserve driver that stepped into the Alpine last year. But it feels like ever since the Argentinian found out he was going to be retained for 2027, he has stepped up another gear. Has he become a better driver? Maybe. A more assured and confident one? Definitely.

His huge save through the fearsome La Monumental banking in qualifying was almost deserving of an entry in and of itself, and he delivered one of his best qualifying laps to make it to Q3. On a follow-the-leader-track that was relatively easily converted into points in seventh, though he displayed solid tyre management to get there.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing

Losers: Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso

It almost feels cruel for Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso to get a high-profile new home race in the country’s capital, only for the performance of their respective cars to make it a complete dud. That’s sport sometimes.

Shooting t-shirts into the stands at La Monumental, greeting sponsors and handing awards to marshals, it was a jam-packed event for in-demand Sainz and Alonso as they were front, right and centre this weekend. But when the visor dropped, their first official visit to the Madring became a non-event.

An amped up Sainz didn’t particularly covered himself in glory in the race either, first barging into Yuki Tsunoda at the start and then Alonso – of all people – during the race, earning a five-second penalty. Their war of words afterwards tied a bow on a strange weekend for the home favourites.
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