Antonelli

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli won the Spanish Grand Prix after McLaren’s Lando Norris lost out because of the bad timing of a virtual safety car.

Norris was leading comfortably from pole position when the VSC was called on lap 15. The timing was terrible for the world champion – he had already passed the pit exit when the VSC was called.

That meant Antonelli and Verstappen were able to pit under the VSC, saving time, while the caution period ended before Norris could make it around to the pits again.

He did then come in but, to make matters worse, the stop was slow and he rejoined in fifth place.

Norris was able to recover only to third around this track where overtaking is next to impossible.

Antonelli’s eighth win in 14 races this year puts an even tighter stranglehold on the championship for the Italian.

He is now 81 points ahead of team-mate George Russell, who finished fifth after a difficult race on a confusing strategy, and 101 clear of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who retired early on with brake failure.

The key stories of the maiden race on the new Madring were:

Norris knew that holding on to the lead would be tough from pole but he robustly defended from Antonelli into the first corner.

The Mercedes driver cut the chicanes at Turns One and Two, and again at Turns Five and Six, each time getting into the lead, each time having to give it back.

After that, Norris set about building a lead and looked to be in control of the race as he extended his lead progressively, moving 5.6 seconds clear 10 laps in, and 6.2 when Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin stopped at Turn 20 with brake failure.

The VSC was called, but Norris had already reached the pit straight, while Antonelli and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had not and could come in.

Norris came in the next time around, but the VSC ended a couple of corners before he reached the entry to the pits, allowing the cars still on track to get back up to racing speed – a stop under a safety car saves a driver about 10 seconds over one under green-flag conditions.

To make matters worse, McLaren’s mechanics had trouble with both the right-hand side wheels, and the stop took seven seconds rather than the usual two.

Norris came out in fifth place, 6.3secs behind Russell, and his hopes of winning were gone.

More to follow

The world champion said: “I’m shocked. I’m a little bit surprised to be here. It was probably one of the best laps I’ve done ever in my career.

“One of those laps when everything came together. I had a good idea of what I wanted to do, it was whether it came together but my brain let me do it almost perfect. It’s one of those laps when you look at the time and go: ‘Oh, that was pretty good.”

The session had started with predictions of a crash-fest, after drivers had been warning about the high-risk nature of the new Madring street circuit, with tricky entries to corners and walls coming back at the drivers on the exits.

Two red flags during final practice had led some teams to have private sweepstakes as to how many stoppages there would be in qualifying, but the session ran cleanly, with no incidents.

Pole looked to be a battle between Antonelli and the Ferraris, with Verstappen perhaps in the mix.

In the end, the Ferraris faded, as they so often have this year when it really matters, and Norris rose to the front with a breathtaking performance.

“The adrenaline was high on the last lap,” he said. “You have to relax and let it all flow.

“It’s easy to get tense around here. There’s a lot of walls that come at you pretty quickly. I have been feeling pretty good, I just wasn’t relaxed.

“I was pretty much perfect apart from the last corner, where I thought I was in the wall. Everything I wanted to achieve I achieved and it’s one of those moments when I was in that flow state.”

Hamilton, who had crashed at the final corner in practice and missed the final half of the session, did improve on his last lap, but only by 0.06secs and it was not enough to prevent him falling backwards.

He edged Leclerc by just 0.006secs as Ferrari rued yet another tantalising chance slipping through their fingers.

Hamilton said: “I felt pretty awesome in Q3 run one, and then just didn’t have any more grip or power in the last one.”