Kimi Antonelli won the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at Madrid’s new Madring circuit on Sunday, beating Max Verstappen and Lando Norris to the flag to claim his eighth win of the season and stretch his lead in the drivers’ championship.
Antonelli benefited from a well-timed pit stop under a Virtual Safety Car, called after Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin stopped on track. Race leader Norris narrowly missed the pit entry under the caution, and the resulting sequence left Antonelli ahead of both Norris and Verstappen once the stops cycled through — a lead he did not relinquish.
Verstappen finished second, 4.351 seconds behind, with Norris completing the podium a further 0.7 seconds back. Charles Leclerc took fourth for Ferrari, ahead of Antonelli’s Mercedes teammate George Russell in fifth. Liam Lawson, Franco Colapinto and Oscar Piastri rounded out the top eight, with Arvid Lindblad and Nico Hulkenberg completing the top ten a lap down.
Lewis Hamilton and Stroll both retired from the race with brake issues, Stroll’s stoppage triggering the Virtual Safety Car that shaped the result.
The win follows Antonelli’s dramatic victory at Monza a week earlier, where he recovered from 19th on the grid after an engine penalty to beat Russell to the chequered flag. Back-to-back wins now give Antonelli a commanding position at the top of the standings as the season heads into its closing rounds.
