{"id":16410,"date":"2026-09-13T17:12:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T17:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/?p=16410"},"modified":"2026-09-13T17:12:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T17:12:49","slug":"spanish-gp-kimi-antonelli-extends-championship-lead-with-four-second-victory-ahead-of-max-verstappen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/spanish-gp-kimi-antonelli-extends-championship-lead-with-four-second-victory-ahead-of-max-verstappen\/","title":{"rendered":"SPANISH GP \u2013 Kimi Antonelli extends championship lead with four-second victory ahead of Max Verstappen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kim Antonelli took his seventh win of the season at the Spanish Grand Prix to further extend his championship lead after finishing four seconds ahead of Max Verstappen. The Italian took the lead of Lando Norris when the McLaren had a slow pit stop following a VSC on lap fifteen.<\/p>\n

The McLaren driver looked to have control during the early stages but had just passed the entry to the pit lane when Lance Stroll stopped on track. That allowed Antonelli and Verstappen to make a cheaper stop, leaving Norris to make his stop at full racing speed after completing another lap before stopping.<\/p>\n

With a VSC offering the field a ‘cheap’ pit stop, McLaren was unable to pit Norris immediately as he had just passed the pit-lane entry. Mercedes and Red Bull gifted a stop which cost less under VSC, but when Norris stopped on the next lap, the race resumed and then compounded by a slow seven-second stop, dropping him to fifth.<\/p>\n

The world champion was arguably on course for his second win in three races and was closing in on Verstappen but finished seven tenths behind after being unable to find a way to pass the Red Bull in the closing stages. The VSC was caused by Lance Stroll stopping on track at Turn Twenty with a brake failure.<\/p>\n

Norris appeared to be shaping up for a repeat of his dominant recent wins at the Hungaroring and Zandvoort as he raced into a lead of six seconds over Mercedes’ Antonelli. He had managed to fend off Antonelli, only briefly losing the lead when the Mercedes overtook him off track.<\/p>\n

Antonelli attempted to go around the outside of the McLaren again into the next chicane at turns five-six but had to bail out of it once more, again cutting across the run-off. But when he let Norris through for a second time, he was unable to prevent Verstappen from following through too at turn seven and so dropped to third.<\/p>\n

However, following the VSC, as Norris admitted, they just didn\u2019t have the pace to fight for the win, Norris said: “We were too quick, that’s all.”<\/p>\n

McLaren chief executive Zak Brown concurred, telling Sky Sports, \u201cThat was our race by twenty or twenty-five seconds. He was dominant, he was gone. Managing, great tyre wear – a league of his own.”<\/p>\n

Antonelli finishes the scheduled European season with an eighty-one-point lead going into Asia and the Americas before the finale, now expected to be at his home race in Imola in December.<\/p>\n

Antonelli, who has won the first Grand Prix at the Madring: “It was a very difficult race, not straightforward at all, especially trying to manage tyres. I think today it’s good to win, but it doesn’t feel as good because I think Lando [Norris] deserved a win. But overall we will take it. Other than that, it was a very strong race, especially on the hard at the end. We had really good pace and now we have got to keep pushing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen, speaking after finishing second, \u201cI think looking at the race pace, this is a great result. Of course we know Lando got unlucky with that VSC. For us today, P2 is a incredible result because you could see how much Lando was catching but around here you can’t pass so I could keep him behind. To be P2 is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norris, who finished third in Madrid after starting on pole: “The VSC was after [ended after he entered the pit lane]. I had nothing. There was nothing I could do. Congrats to Kimi and Max; they drove a good race today. Just luck not on our side. I gave it a good fight to try and catch up with Max, but difficult to pass. He didn’t really make any mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc was fourth, having been passed by Norris. The Ferrari driver highlighted the team\u2019s struggles this weekend: a lack of pace, as he dropped twenty-four seconds behind the Englishman waited until the closing stages to make his pit stop. Ferrari appeared to have been waiting for a safety car, which never materialised after accidents in F2 and F3 over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Leclerc\u2019s teammate Lewis Hamilton\u2019s hopes of an eighth championship are effectively over; he dropped a hundred points behind after an early brake issue led to his first retirement of the year.<\/p>\n

George Russell finished fifth, seven tenths behind Leclerc and nearly thirty seconds off teammate and championship rival Antonelli; he is also seeing his path to the championship going into the flyways getting increasingly difficult. Russell, who had started on hards and switched to mediums, made a second pit stop as early as lap twenty-eight.<\/p>\n

He was unconvinced after passing Liam Lawson, who he finished nearly a minute ahead of, of the team\u2019s strategy as he passed the Red Bull, as he thought he should have been fighting with Norris for the podium. The New Zealander finished the race seven and a half seconds ahead of Franco Colapinto.<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri finished a second and a half behind, the second McLaren being the final car on the lead lap and over a minute and a half behind race winner Antonelli. The second McLaren was hindered by contact at the start with Russell, causing damage to his front wing.<\/p>\n

Arvid Lindblad finished nearly a second ahead of Nico Hulkenberg to complete the points, with Esteban Ocon missing out on points as he finished nearly four seconds behind the Audi.<\/p>\n

Alpine were another team to gamble on a long stint, which didn\u2019t help Pierre Gasly, who spent much of the race in seventh but tumbled down during the closing stages to finish twelfth, also with an added five-second penalty for speeding when making the pit stop.<\/p>\n

Gasly finished the race eleven seconds ahead of Gabriel Bortoletto, with Yuki Tsunoda a further half a minute behind. Alex Albon was three seconds behind and ahead of Ollie Bearman by three and a quarter tenths, Fernando Alonso a further lap down, as was Valtteri Bottas.<\/p>\n

Carlos Sainz failed to complete his home race, Sergio Perez faced a suspected water system issue, and Lance Stroll joined Hamilton in his brake troubles.<\/p>\n

The drivers had warned that overtaking would be almost impossible, and so it proved. The pressure that was already there to rethink the layout for next year and provide a longer straight and big braking zone to allow overtaking will be significant. Rethinking the fractured and overly extensive breadth of the paddock and pits complex – which covers a vastly greater distance than anywhere else – would also be a good idea.<\/p>\n

Antonelli’s eighth win of the season has put him eighty-one points ahead of teammate Russell at the top of the drivers’ championship, but Hamilton is only five points ahead of Norris.<\/p>\n

Mercedes has a comfortable lead over second-placed Ferrari at the top of the constructors’ championship. After another win, the Silver Arrows are a hundred and forty-five points clear of the Italian team, with McLaren in third<\/p>\n

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