While Antonelli Wins At Madrid, Did Lance Stroll Really Cost Norris The Race? | Ep31 Spanish GP Review
Zac and Drew are back to cover Formula 1's long awaited arrival in Madrid, and it turned into one of the flattest weekends of the season on track even though the result did plenty to shake up the championship.
Kimi Antonelli won the first ever Spanish GP at the new Madring circuit after Lando Norris was denied by a Virtual Safety Car that landed at the worst possible moment, and this episode works through exactly whose fault that really was, along with Ferrari's costly gamble with Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton's early exit and a first look ahead to Baku.
What happened at the Spanish Grand Prix
Norris had taken a dramatic pole position by just 0.011 seconds from Antonelli the day before, and he made the most of it early on, stretching his lead to more than six seconds in the opening stint while everyone behind him struggled to find anywhere to actually pass on the new layout. Hamilton ran with the leading group for the first few laps too, but a brake problem that had him complaining of the pedal "going long" sent him off the road at Turn 1 and then again further round the lap, and he was out of the race not long after, ending his run of finishing every lap of every race weekend this season.
The race turned when Lance Stroll came to a stop with a brake failure of his own at Turn 20, triggering a Virtual Safety Car. Antonelli, Verstappen and Russell all dived into the pits under the reduced speed limit, but Norris had already passed the pit entry and was forced to stay out a lap longer than everyone else. By the time he did come in, the VSC had ended, and a painfully slow seven second stop compounded the problem, dropping him behind all three of his rivals and out of the lead he had controlled for most of the afternoon. Charles Leclerc, who had chosen not to stop at all under the caution, inherited the lead and held onto it until lap 48, when he finally came in and handed it straight back to Antonelli. From there Antonelli managed his hard tyres to the finish, reporting afterwards that the "steering wheel feels weird" and brushing the wall at Turn 7 along the way, while Verstappen and a recovering Norris went wheel to wheel again on the penultimate lap in a fight for second that Verstappen won by three quarters of a second before crossing the line 4.351 seconds clear of the winner.
The Debate: Did Stroll really cost Norris the win?
This was where the episode spent most of its time. Drew had originally written down mid race that McLaren had thrown the win away, but talked himself out of that view by the time recording started, walking through the timing lap by lap to show that Norris missing the free pit stop wasn't really the problem, since his tyres needed changing anyway and he'd already passed the pit entry before the VSC screens went up. What actually cost him, in Drew's view, was the seven second stop that followed it, since a normal two second change would have put him back out ahead of Verstappen and within five laps of Antonelli's gearbox by the finish. Zac took the more mischievous route and pinned the blame squarely on Stroll, joking that between failing to spin the car around on the way out of the barrier and then just rolling forward and giving up, it says something either about Stroll's own ability or about how little power the Aston Martin actually has, and possibly both. Both hosts agreed on one thing, which is that the stoppage barely needed a Virtual Safety Car at all given the car was still mobile in a huge run off area, and a waved double yellow for twenty seconds would have done the job just as well without wrecking anyone's race.
Ferrari's costly gamble and a wasted podium chance
Ferrari came in for some of the harshest words of the episode. Zac couldn't understand why the team left Leclerc's strategy entirely to chance, ignoring his own request to pit under the VSC in favour of hoping a safety car would arrive later in the race and hand them a free stop, a plan that Drew summed up as wishing on a star rather than actual strategy. The hard tyre turned out to be strong enough that the gamble nearly paid off anyway, with Leclerc leading for a long spell before his tyres finally gave up the ghost on lap 48, but both hosts felt a podium was there for the taking if Ferrari had reacted to the VSC like everyone else instead of waiting for a moment that never came. There was also time for a look at Max Verstappen's grumble about "Mickey Mouse racing" after Red Bull ordered him to hand back two positions gained off track, with both hosts agreeing the team made the sensible call to avoid a penalty even before it became clear Hamilton was about to retire anyway.
Beyond the result: Mercedes' record, Red Bull's climb and the wait for Hajar
Away from the top three, Oscar Piastri's race told its own story. Rather than fighting for position himself, McLaren had him running strategy cover for George Russell for most of the afternoon, a role Zac reckons confirms Piastri is currently more of a supporting piece for the team than a genuine second title contender. Red Bull continue to find form, with Verstappen looking capable of a first win of the season soon and Liam Lawson putting in his best showing yet while standing in for the still absent Isack Hajar, whose extended time out of the car both hosts admitted they can't fully explain given how strong his results were before the injury. Antonelli's win also brought up Mercedes' 250th victory in the sport, a stat that ties them with Ferrari and one both hosts think is going to matter a great deal when the next Concorde Agreement gets negotiated. As for the circuit itself, Zac's verdict was blunt: there was nothing spectacular and nothing disastrous about the Madring, it just sat there, and both hosts agree that whatever tweaks are being planned for next year will need to do more than add one extra passing zone if the racing is going to improve on a ten year contract.
Spanish Grand Prix Result
Position | Driver | Team | Gap |
1 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | Winner |
2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | +4.351s |
3 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +5.089s |
4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +29.116s |
5 | George Russell | Mercedes | +29.829s |
6 | Liam Lawson | Red Bull Racing | +86.746s |
7 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | +94.281s |
8 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +95.839s |
9 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | +1 lap |
10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi | +1 lap |
Championship Standings After Madrid GP
Antonelli's eighth win of the season stretched his lead at the top of the drivers' championship to 81 points over teammate George Russell, with Hamilton's retirement dropping him to third and letting Norris close to within five points of him for the final podium spot in the standings. Antonelli has now finished on the podium in twelve of the fourteen races this year, and at his current scoring rate he would need only a handful of podiums across the remaining nine rounds to wrap the title up regardless of what Russell does. Mercedes lead the constructors' championship by 145 points over Ferrari, with McLaren a further 52 points back in third.
Position | Driver | Team | Points |
1 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 292 |
2 | George Russell | Mercedes | 211 |
3 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 191 |
4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 186 |
5 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 167 |
6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | 145 |
7 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 120 |
8 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull Racing | 71 |
9 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | 59 |
10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 41 |
Looking ahead to Baku
The championship now heads into its first triple header of the season, starting with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at a circuit both hosts know well, unlike the blind guesswork Madrid forced on them. Drew and Zac also brought back the TMF Predictor to mark their own homework from Madrid, where Drew's early pole and top three picks looked briefly inspired before Hamilton's brakes and that seven second stop wrecked his card, while Zac's picks fell apart even faster. Both have locked in fresh predictions for Baku, and neither is feeling especially confident heading into a track that tends to punish overconfidence.
Our Predictions
Listen to the full episode
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Quick Answers
Who won the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid? Kimi Antonelli won the first Formula 1 race held at the Madring circuit for Mercedes, his eighth victory of the season, ahead of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.
Why did Lando Norris lose the lead at the Madring? Norris had already passed the pit entry when a Virtual Safety Car was called for Lance Stroll's retirement, so he couldn't take the free pit stop his rivals got. He lost further ground when his eventual stop took seven seconds rather than the usual two, which is what dropped him behind Antonelli and Verstappen for good.
How big is Kimi Antonelli's championship lead after Madrid? Antonelli leads George Russell by 81 points at the top of the drivers' championship, with Lewis Hamilton a further 20 points back in third after his retirement in Madrid.
Where is the next Formula 1 race after the Spanish Grand Prix? The championship moves straight into its first triple header of the season, beginning with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.
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