Oscar Piastri’s increasingly underwhelming and unlucky 2026 season has taken another hit, finishing eighth after an early contact in the opening lap of the Spanish Grand Prix.
In a race marred by botched pitstops and ill-timed safety cars, Kimi Antonelli came out on top piloting his Mercedes to victory to strengthen his championship lead.
Dutchman Max Verstappen finished in second, with pole sitter Lando Norris in third.
“It was a very difficult race - not straightforward at all, especially trying to manage tyres,” Antonelli said in a post-race interview.
“I think today it’s good to win but it doesn’t feel as good because I think Lando today deserved the win but overall, we [will] take it.”
It was an unfortunate day for McLaren, with Piastri suffering early contact on the opening lap and Lando Norris losing the lead of the race after missing the pitstop window during a virtual safety car.
Norris then weathered an agonisingly slow 7 second pitstop – a mixture of human error and a wheel gun problem. The reigning world champion still managed to salvage his race to secure a podium position.
Meanwhile Piastri– who started in seventh after a self-described “pretty shocking qualifying session” – had a solid start, but was hit twice by George Russell in the opening lap, before the first corner.
The Mercedes cut it in front of Piastri and the impact sent debris flying. It left Piastri with damage to his left front wing and marooned him back to 11th place.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown summarised the situation perfectly, noting the racing gods “were cruel today”.
Piastri still produced a commendable drive, showcasing stunning overtakes on Arvid Lindblad and had a great battle with Franco Colapinto.
He managed to get back into the points and clinch eighth place.
Speaking after the race, Piastri said: “It was pretty, pretty painful from Lap 1. And not much I could’ve done from there.“
“The timing of the VSC (virtual safety car) was certainly not ideal for us, starting on the hard… It was just a difficult afternoon.”
This weekend marks the first time F1 has raced at the Madring – the first track to debut on the F1 calendar since Las Vegas was added in 2023
The 57-lap circuit is 5.44km long and has incredibly fast corners and basically no margin for error, with limited overtaking opportunities.
Turn eight – “El Bunker” – is named after La Mata Espesa, two bunkers built in 1936 by the Republican forces to protect the eastern flank Madrid from attack during the Spanish Civil War.
The new hybrid street circuit has been one of the most highly anticipated tracks this year, with George Russell describing it as the “the most risky” track on the calendar and Lewis Hamilton characterising it as “massively challenging circuit”.
Meanwhile, Alpine driver Pierre joked that he’d hit the wall multiple times during his simulation trials for the new track.
Overall, most of the drivers fared reasonably well – excluding Lewis Hamilton and Lance Stroll who both retired from the race.
The next race will be the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on September 26.
Kimi Antonelli leads the 2026 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship by 81 points.
Anything can happen in F1. But so far, the Italian is on track to be the youngest world champion in history.
