2026 Spanish Grand Prix: Kimi’s Luck Won, Max Fought Back and Lando Lost Everything in Seven Seconds

Formula 1 returned to Madrid after 45 years, and the first race at the new MADRING gave us a beautiful city, a massive crowd, one furious Max Verstappen and a Virtual Safety Car that completely changed everything.

Welcome to Madrid.

Where Lando Norris led most of the race, Kimi Antonelli collected the trophy and Max somehow found his way into second place.

Before the race even started, we had Martin Brundle walking through a grid filled with football stars, famous faces and security guards probably wondering why one British man carrying a microphone kept approaching everybody. Honestly, the grid walk has become its own motorsport.

Martin spotted Rafael Nadal, spoke briefly with Vinícius Júnior and eventually found Jude Bellingham. Jude admitted that George Russell and Kimi Antonelli had explained some of the strategy to him, but he basically had to stand there and pretend he understood everything.

I respect the honesty. He also compared an F1 steering wheel filled with buttons to his PlayStation controller. Jude, my friend, when I press the wrong button on PlayStation, I pause the game. When an F1 driver presses the wrong button, an engineer begins shouting and somebody loses a podium.

The best part was that Jude remained polite, interested and actually looked happy to speak with Martin. No awkward escape. No security person pushing Brundle away. No celebrity pretending they had never seen Sky Sports before apart from bit no english comment from Vini Jr. 

Then it was time for the actual race.

Lando started from pole after beating Kimi by only 0.011 seconds in qualifying. Kimi lined up second, Max started third and Lewis Hamilton was fourth. The start immediately became messy.

Lando stayed ahead while Kimi cut across the opening corners during the fight. Behind them, Max and Lewis went side by side before Max left the track to avoid contact, returned ahead of Hamilton and then managed to pass Kimi as well. For a brief moment, Max had gone from third to second while everybody else was still deciding which part of the circuit belonged to them. Then Red Bull told him to give both positions back. Max immediately responded on the radio:

“What the f* are you guys talking about? If I just stay on the track, I am out of the race.”**

And honestly, I understood his anger. From Max’s view, Hamilton moved across and his choices were either leaving the circuit or making contact. Red Bull, however, feared a five or ten-second penalty and made the decision themselves before Race Control ordered anything.

So Max allowed Kimi and Lewis back through.

Was it the safe call? Probably. Did Max enjoy it? Absolutely not. Neither i did 🙁

You could almost hear his blood pressure through the radio. The situation became even more annoying when Lewis reported, “I can barely stop the car,” before retiring with a brake problem only a few laps later. Max had returned the position to a car that was heading towards retirement.

Pain. Pure pain.

Still, Max did what Max does. He stopped arguing, put his head down and started rebuilding the race. At the front, Lando looked completely in control. He created a comfortable lead while Kimi briefly went off the circuit and Max continued chasing behind. For a while, this looked like Lando’s race. 

Then Lance Stroll stopped with a brake problem and triggered a Virtual Safety Car.

That changed everything. Kimi, Max and Russell reached the pits at the perfect moment and received a much cheaper stop. Lando had already passed the pit entry, so he had to complete another lap. When he finally came in, McLaren delivered a painful seven-second pit stop.

Seven seconds, Seriously guys?

**That is all it took to turn a victory into fifth place. **Lando entered the pits as the man controlling the Spanish Grand Prix and returned to the track wondering who had stolen his Sunday. Somewhere inside the McLaren garage, several people suddenly became extremely interested in the floor.

Kimi inherited the advantage, although even he gave Mercedes a small heart attack when he reported that the steering wheel felt strange. The team checked everything and told him the car looked fine.

 Charles Leclerc stayed out much longer than everybody else, hoping for another Safety Car or perhaps a red flag. It was a proper gamble from Ferrari.

Yes, Ferrari doing Ferrari things. But this time, I could understand it. Charles eventually stopped and finished fourth, while George Russell came home fifth.

Before the race, I predicted a fight between George, Kimi and Lando, with Russell taking the victory.
Well…
Kimi won. Lando finished on the podium. George finished fifth.

Two out of three is not terrible. Please do not inspect the details. ha! ha! 

I genuinely wanted George to win after seeing him booed on the Monza podium, but Madrid was Kimi’s day instead. George tried to push Mercedes towards a different strategy and also set the fastest lap, but the opportunity never arrived.

AND MAX, From being forced to surrender two places during the opening laps to standing on the podium ahead of the driver who had dominated most of the race…

That was a proper Max Verstappen recovery drive.

He did not have the fastest car, but he turned anger, strategy and stubborn defending into P2. He was also voted Driver of the Day. Kimi crossed the line first to take his eighth victory of the season and extend his championship lead to 81 points. Afterwards, he admitted that Lando deserved to win and that the VSC had decided the race. That honesty from Kimi made me like him a bit more… 

He knew luck Gods are at his side and they hate Russell at the moment.

The circuit looked spectacular. La Monumental looked brilliant on television, the crowd brought proper energy and Madrid treated the Grand Prix like a major city event.

But the racing? Ahem. In my pre-race blog, I called MADRING a semi-Monaco circuit.

I did not realise I was making a prediction about the overtaking.

Following another car looked difficult, passing was even harder and most of the important changes came through strategy, mistakes or the VSC. Even with fresher tyres, Lando struggled to attack Max properly at the end.

Overall, Madrid’s first F1 weekend was a huge success as an occasion. The race had an exciting opening, angry radio messages, strategic chaos and a tense finish, but the lack of overtaking stopped it from becoming a classic.

I rate the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix a solid A2W 8/10.

Kimi won the race by luck again. Max saved his Sunday. Lando lost everything in seven seconds.

I kept looking at George’s position
aKi Malik