As many had feared, the Madring’s lack of opportunity for overtaking defined the race which had appeared to be in Norris’s hands once the defending world champion had held his lead from pole. However, he was unlucky with the timing of a virtual safety car (VSC) and when McLaren opted to pit him just as the VSC was revoked. It cost him track position from which he could make no progress as the leaders circled line astern, unable to close or even hint at a pass.
1 Kimi Antonelli 🇮🇹 Mercedes 292 pts
2 George Russell 🇬🇧Mercedes 211
3 Lewis Hamilton 🇬🇧Ferrari 191
4 Lando Norris 🇬🇧 McLaren 186
5 Charles Leclerc 🇲🇨 Ferrari 167
6 Max Verstappen 🇳🇱 Red Bull 145
7 Oscar Piastri 🇦🇺 McLaren 119
8 Isack Hadjar 🇫🇷 Red Bull 71
9 Liam Lawson 🇳🇿 Racing Bulls 59
10 Pierre Gasly 🇫🇷 Alpine 41
11 Arvid Lindblad🇬🇧 Racing Bulls 31
12 Franco Colapinto 🇦🇷 Alpine 27
13 Oliver Bearman 🇬🇧 Haas 18
14 Gabriel Bortoleto 🇧🇷 Audi 10
15 Nico Hülkenberg 🇩🇪 Audi 7
16 Carlos Sainz 🇪🇸 Williams 6
17 Alexander Albon 🇹🇭 Williams 5
18 Esteban Ocon 🇫🇷 Haas 3 19Fernando Alonso 🇪🇸 Aston Martin 3
20 Yuki Tsunoda 🇯🇵 Racing Bulls 1
Yet to score: Lance Stroll 🇨🇦 Aston Martin Valtteri Bottas 🇫🇮 Cadillac Sergio Pérez 🇲🇽 Cadillac
Kimi Antonelli speaks: "Yeah, it was a very difficult race. not straightforward at all, especially trying to match tyres. But yeah, I think today, you know, it’s good to win, but it doesn’t feel as good because I think Lando today deserves to win. But overall, you know, we’ll take it.
Max Verstappen: “So, yeah, for us, I think today, P2 is an incredible result because you could see how much Lando is catching me, but around here you can’t pass. So I could keep him behind. It’s a challenging track. It’s challenging when you’re driving by yourself looking forward.
Lando Norris: “There was nothing I could do. Congrats to Kimi and Max. They drove a good race today. So just luck not on our side and I gave it a good, good fight to try and catch up with with Max, but it’s difficult to pass. The team are doing an amazing job. We’re working hard. We have to continue to work hard because these guys are doing a good job and it’s tough at the top. So yeah, we’ll keep pushing, keep trying. and more wins are possible so we’ll keep an eye up and then keep pushing.”
The championship leader gets another win to follow the Italian GP, and he looks on target to claim the title. He’s the first ever winner on the Madring. Verstappen finishes second, holding off Norris.
Antonelli of Italy crosses the finish line to win the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix. Photograph: Violeta Santos Moura/Pool Reuters/AP
56/57 Talking of Hulkenberg, lapping him caused Verstappen some problems and Norris is on his back. “He went off,” Norris tells his team, who will tell the stewards. Gasly goes in. Lingblad and Hulkenberg climb to ninth and tenth.
55/57 Gasly, in sixth, looks likely to ;pit, and that would mean Nico Hulkenberg climbed into the top ten. Up the front, barring disaster, Antonelli has this in the bag.
52/57 Norris, despite his travails, is at least heading for the podium. He wants more than third, chasing Verstappen, the most impassable of all drivers on a tough track to overtake.
50/57 Antonelli is told by Bono, in the Merc team, to make sure he keeps on the boundaries. He leads Verstappen, with Norris in third, Leclerc in fourth, Russell in fifth, Gasly in sixth though has not pitted, Lawson is seventh, Colapinto is eighth, Piastri ninth ahead of Lingblad in the final points position,
48/57 “We are managing the gap,” says the Ferrari team to Leclerc. They think fourth is theirs but can they do better. Antonelli hanging back to wait on that has brought in Verstappen and Norris.
46/57 Antonelli again sits off Leclerc. Norris is struggling to get after Verstappen. The pair of them are closing on Antonelli as he awaits Leclerc’s tyre strategy to be effected. There’s only four seconds between the top four.
45/57 Is Leclerc tying up? It feels that way. Antonelli is just over a second behind. Lawson pits, and Piastri cannot take advantage, as traffic gets in his way. Colapinto and Piastri going hell for leather in the battle for ninth.
42/57 The key battle is Verstappen against Norris, the latter closing in, though Max is also closing in on Antonelli. They await the Leclerc move on those tyres.
41/57 Like a few new tracks, there’s a lack of places to overtake at the Madring. Martin Brundle has been speculating there might be modifications for next year.
40/57 Norris continues to be the quickest driver out there. He really has had some rotten luck. Scratch that: on new tyres and clean air, Russell sets a fastest lap.
39/57 Did Norris graze a wall? It looks that way. Leclerc asks what Ferrari have planned. Seems like they are waiting on a safety car. They say he would come out behind Norris if he does pit.
36/57 Who said you can’t overtake at Madring? Russell blazes past Liam Lawson, who locked up, and almost came to grief on a wall. Now for the long gap to Norris. Russell now questioning why his team are running a two-stop strategy.
34/57 The Cadillac team have their 11th retirement of the season, with Sergio Perez bowing out. Cadillac are owned by in the news billionaire Mark Walter, perhaps not for much longer?
33/57 Up the front, Antonelli is having to be patient as he awaits what strategy Ferrari have for Leclerc. Jude Bellingham is in the Mercedes garage. Will their man be claiming the win?
26/57 Lewis Hamilton speaks from the Ferrari garage after his retirement from the race. “The car started stopping and wouldn’t decelerate. I don’t know where that’s come from….Mercedes have done phenomenal job this year and I think they deserve it.”
24/57 Antonelli picks up some time on Leclerc, who is delayed by having to pass back-marker Fernando Alonso. Carlos Sainz is on a warning for leaving the track. Not been a happy weekend for the local lad.
23/57 McLaren’s problem with that pit stop was a tyre gun problem and good old “human error”. Antonelli says his car “feels weird” as Leclerc keeps extending his lead.
