Antonelli doesn’t stop anymore and after Monza he conquers another victory, this time favored by a double stroke of luck, which the Italian was able to seize by racing with consistency and intelligence. Kimi’s joy contrasts with Norris’s disappointment, with a McLaren once again very fast that now tastes the assault on Ferrari’s second place in the constructors’ championship. The Prancing Horse hoped for a big hit at Madring, attempting an almost desperate gamble with Leclerc, who however had no alternatives.
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Antonelli, merits beyond luck
Only a week ago Mercedes was dominant on the Monza straights, while the 22 corners of Madring brought the W17 back to more human levels. In Spain the Silver Arrows showed good competitiveness, not enough to be considered the benchmark, but sufficient to fight with the leaders and be ready for every opportunity. This is exactly what Antonelli did, helped in his victory by a double stroke of luck. The most obvious was Norris’s slow pit stop just after the Virtual Safety Car ended, while a few laps earlier the Italian had inherited second position from Verstappen, forced to let Hamilton pass who was behind Kimi.
Antonelli deserves credit for capitalizing on the favorable opportunity, starting from the pace shown after the stop. The Italian driver kept Leclerc’s rhythm, following the pit wall’s advice to stay at a proper distance to avoid degrading the tires too much. When at the end of the race Verstappen and Norris were on his tail, Kimi still had enough life in the tires to extend and put himself out of reach, winning a very precious victory.
Indeed, the lead in the standings over Russell is now 81 points, who finished only fifth. The British driver paid the choice to stop during the Virtual Safety Car, having to abandon the hard tires at that point. After fitting the medium tires, the team did not feel confident to go all the way, calling George back to the pits for a second stop, costing him the position to Norris and likely to Leclerc. The Spanish Grand Prix, however, brings the two world titles closer to Mercedes, which is also preparing to introduce important aerodynamic and engine updates to definitively close the deal.
McLaren was faster
The biggest disappointment of the day is certainly Lando Norris, deprived of a well-deserved victory. Surely the timing of the Virtual Safety Car compromised the world champion’s race, but looking at the monster pace of the MCL40, one wonders if it wouldn’t have been better to delay the stop to try to open a gap on the pursuers. Also, the five seconds lost during the tire change certainly didn’t help, but it is unlikely anything would have changed.
The problem for Lando Norris was not so much the delay accumulated from the lead, which he then managed to recover, but the positions lost on track. Madring, in fact, confirmed to be a difficult circuit for overtaking, even if McLaren still has to complain about the low top speed of the MCL40. At least, the excellent performance in Madrid and earlier the wins in Budapest and Zandvoort legitimize the ambition to attack Ferrari’s second place in the constructors’ championship, especially considering the arrival of the updated Mercedes engine in a few races.
Read more Vasseur: “Unlucky, with a Safety Car we could have fought for the victory”
Lando Norris’s comeback stopped behind Max Verstappen, second at the finish. This is the second consecutive podium for the Dutchman and Red Bull, this time on a very technical track, a result that could be a sign of progress in understanding the RB22. Winning a race by the end of the year does not seem an unreachable goal for Verstappen, despite the team having long since shifted resources to 2027. Those who are already celebrating a personal victory are Franco Colapinto, seventh overall and first of the others with an Alpine revitalized by updates, capable of reigniting the fight for fifth place with Racing Bulls.
Ferrari without alternatives
The main story on Madrid Sunday was also Ferrari, long in the lead with Leclerc, searching for a stroke of luck that never came. The Prancing Horse could be criticized for a strategy entirely based on a gamble, but the reality is that for the Maranello team there were no alternatives. Calling the Monegasque during the Virtual Safety Car would have meant condemning him to a double stop, having the obligation to replace the hard starting tire with the soft, which could never have lasted for forty laps.
Leclerc thus stayed on track with the hards, giving Ferrari fans hope to keep up with the pace of the pursuers, who were actually just managing their tires. Ferrari could have called the Monegasque earlier to fit the soft tires and then try a comeback, but there was the awareness that the softer compound would not perform like the hard, as shown in the final stages. With nothing to lose, Ferrari played the card of staying out as long as possible hoping for a neutralization, coming in at the last useful moment to cover the position against the charging Russell.
It would be pointless to judge Leclerc’s SF-26 pace, distorted as a strategy by all competitors and flattened by the ultra-hard tires, while it would have been interesting to evaluate Hamilton’s rhythm. The Englishman, however, was forced to retire due to one of Ferrari’s rare reliability problems this year, with a too long brake pedal that points to the pump and brake-by-wire as suspects. Unfortunately for the Prancing Horse, there will hardly be a chance to redeem themselves at the next appointment in Baku, whose long straights will expose all the power unit’s weaknesses.
Madring rated average
More than any driver, the great awaited of the weekend was the new Madring circuit, on which the protagonists expressed a positive opinion regarding the layout and driving challenges. Different is the story for overtaking, choked by too short straights and combined braking zones. Improving for the future is possible, acting not only on the layout but also on the choice of compounds and parameters of the overtaking mode. With softer tires and a bigger energy advantage for the pursuers, the first race at Madring could have offered more overtakes and the winner, perhaps, would not have been Antonelli, increasingly the leader of this world championship and this Formula 1.
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