Kimi Antonelli won the Spanish Grand Prix for Mercedes becoming the first victor at Formula One’s newest circuit, the Madring in Madrid. In a decidedly prosaic affair for the track’s debut, he beat the Red Bull of Max Verstappen into second place and McLaren’s Lando Norris into third in a race where, after the opening lap, there were only four on-track passes and none of them at the sharp end. Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari and George Russell fifth for Mercedes.
Lewis Hamilton’s title hopes were all but ended when he was forced to retire with a brake problem on lap six. 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However, he was unlucky with the timing of a virtual safety car (VSC) and when McLaren opted to pit him just as the VSC was revoked.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. Some good fortune for Antonelli then, but he also executed perfectly and with his eighth win this season has now extended his lead over the second-placed Russell to 81 points. Hamilton is third, 101 back, while Norris is 106 behind in fourth, with nine meetings remaining.
The circuit, which sits around the Institución Ferial de Madrid convention centre area between the centre of the city and the airport, is hosting the first meeting in Madrid since 1981 when Gilles Villeneuve won for Ferrari at the Jarama circuit and had at best an inauspicious opening that many had seen coming. Even before the weekend began, drivers had questioned whether overtaking would be possible just from their experience on simulators. As they took to the track their instincts proved all too prescient.
The high-speed layout is compromised by braking zones angled in to many of the corners. It requires drivers to brake while turning in, removing the option of putting a car alongside by out-braking an opponent, allowing for only one line into the corner which is easily defended by the leading car. Verstappen who had been outspoken in his criticism of the design and predicted a procession, had said on Saturday the track designers had made mistakes.
Input from drivers in the future on track design can also help a lot. I know they will always come back to you and say: ‘Yeah, but the space.’ But that’s BS. There’s always a way to find an overtaking opportunity around a track.” Norris held his lead on the dash to turn one and seemed to have the race in hand until it turned on lap 14 when the VSC was called to deal with Lance Stroll’s Aston which had gone into the barriers with the Canadian also experiencing a brake problem.
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