Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli won the Spanish Grand Prix after McLaren’s Lando Norris lost out because of the timing of a virtual safety car.
Norris was leading comfortably from pole position when the VSC was called on lap 15. The timing was terrible for the world champion – he had already passed the pit entry when the VSC was called.
That meant Antonelli and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen were able to pit under the VSC, saving time, while the caution period ended before Norris could make it around to the pits again.
He did then come in but, to make matters worse, the stop was slow and he rejoined in fifth place.
Norris was able to recover only to third around the new Madring track in Madrid where overtaking is next to impossible.
Antonelli’s eighth win in 14 races this year puts an even tighter stranglehold on the championship for the Italian.
He is now 81 points ahead of team-mate George Russell, who finished fifth after a difficult race on a confusing strategy, and 101 clear of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who retired early on with brake failure.
Russell ended up a lonely fifth after starting on the hard tyres and then moving on to a strategy that saw him switch to medium tyres at the VSC, and then have to stop again for hards at about half distance.
He spent much of the race debating strategy with his team before being told to be quiet and they would debate it afterwards.
Red Bull’s Liam Lawson took sixth, ahead of Alpine’s Franco Colapinto and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, delayed by a front wing issue after colliding with Russell on the first lap.
Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad took ninth place from Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg with two laps to go.
