Prix

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.”

F1 faces a fresh challenge this weekend at the first Spanish Grand at the new Madring, a hybrid street circuit built on the Ifema complex near the city’s international airport.

Hamilton said: “It’s a massively challenging circuit. Of all the new tracks that I’ve gone to, this one, maybe Saudi, are the two closest in terms of how difficult it was to get on top of the car and find the right lines and such.”

Mercedes driver George Russell said: “It’s a crazy circuit, I would put it. Arguably one of the most risky circuits of the whole calendar.

“Because you have real high-speed corners, sort of Jeddah-esque, the walls are very close, so there’s no margin for error, but then you have other corners… where you’re coming from a high speed into a slow braking zone, you’re braking and turning at the same time, so locking tyres are going to be easy and if you lock up you’ll be straight in the wall.

“So, excited to try that out, I think it’s going to be really challenging for us as drivers, the race is going to be challenging to overtake, so on the whole it’s not an easy one.”

Russell heads into the race 66 points behind team-mate Kimi Antonelli after the Italian’s landmark victory in Monza from 19th on the grid.

The Briton acknowledged that his title hopes with nine or 10 races left, amid uncertainty about the end of the season, were fading fast.

“I would definitely need some luck and I need some good performances,” Russell said. “It’s not really something I’m thinking about, because he’s performing better than me, so he deserves to be leading the championship.

“There’s still a long way to go, but he’s yet to have a bad weekend in terms of performance.

“So he’s performing exceptionally well, my performances are better, but if I want to win this championship, I’m going to need some luck on the way. But it’s not something I’m focused on. I’m focused on driving faster and just finding more performance.”

Antonelli said: “I don’t really want to try thinking about the championship. I think Monza was the proof that I wasn’t driving thinking about, or worrying about the championship. I was just driving to win, to do my best. So that’s the mindset.”

The Italian said his win in Monza was “so far the best day of my life and definitely one I will remember forever”.

He said a day karting with Mercedes on Monday helped him move on from the excitement of the day before.

“After Monza, that night, that day overall, I was very excited. But then going karting on Monday helped me to go back to earth, just go back to the ground.

“It was a good day, good fun day with the team. It was also a way to remind myself where I came from, all the journey that was done.

“And then about pressure, I try to embrace it as much as possible. And I try to see it as a positive thing and try to see it as an opportunity too. That’s also what is helping me to stay calm under difficult situations.”

Antonelli’s penalty is caused by using too many engine components this season after reliability problems earlier in the year. Russell will take one at a subsequent race, most likely the Azerbaijan Grand Prix later this month.

Mercedes have chosen this race because they hope the long straights will give him a decent chance of recovering a strong result.

And the Italian, who leads Hamilton and Russell in the championship by 59 points, was the quickest on the race-simulation runs towards the end of the session.

The race runs were inconclusive as Mercedes used the hard compound tyres, Ferrari the softs and Verstappen the mediums.

Antonelli was more than 0.2secs quicker than Russell on average. Norris, also on the hard tyre, was just under 0.2secs slower than Russell.

Meanwhile, F1 has announced that it will host a three-day event for fans before next season in Milan on 18-20 February.

A successor to the F1 Live event in London’s O2 Arena in 2025, it will feature all 11 teams and their drivers as well as music and entertainment.

Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc have both won one race this season, with the Briton 59 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes.

“To win this weekend, the whole collective has to come together. Everything has to flow from the beginning,” said Hamilton.

“There is a first ahead of me, in the sense of if I was to win I go into new territory winning for the first time in Ferrari at Monza. It would be phenomenal.

“The pressure’s high. You want to do it for the team. Many of them will come to this race. The tifosi come out in huge numbers with a passion that’s unmatched.

“And my mum’s here. I don’t think she’s been to Monza, and certainly not (while I was) with Ferrari. I wanted her to experience this and bring any lucky dust she can bring.”

Ferrari’s hopes of a home victory are boosted by the fact that Italian Antonelli will have a grid penalty for exceeding his permitted number of engine parts and is likely to start at the back.

Hamilton said: “There is big gap between the top teams and the rest. Kimi will start from the back but with the power he has, and the performance he has, he should slide through that pack pretty easy and it’s probably why they chose this race to do that.

“So achieving eighth or sixth should be relatively easy. We have to focus on maximising our weekend and try and take the energy from the tifosi to hopefully push us to the front.”

Antonelli’s grid penalty was inevitable at some point after reliability problems earlier in the year meant they would need to exceed his allowance of four engines for the season.

They chose this weekend because they calculated it was the most optimal race to do it, both in terms of the effect of a new engine on a track dominated by straights, and managing their engine pool through the rest of the year.

Team-mate George Russell will also have an engine penalty, most likely in Azerbaijan in two races’ time.

Antonelli said: “I am very much looking forward to this weekend despite starting from the back. I will be able to enjoy it more than I did previously and hopefully we will still be able to have a good race.

“In some ways it helps to release pressure, although I would very much rather fight for pole and start at the front.

“It makes me a bit more relaxed going into the weekend. I think this track can be very good for us but we have to take into account that McLaren, Ferrari, even Red Bull can be good this weekend.

“There are other tracks where it is possible to overtake but this one is very energy starved and there are a lot of places where you can race differently and it gives us the best chance to climb through the field.”

Antonelli referred to energy starvation because the hybrid engines will be without their battery power for a higher percentage of the lap in Monza than at most races this year, because of the long straights and the lack of opportunity for recovery.

Drivers are expecting a difficult and frustrating weekend, and for slipstreaming, which saves energy by reducing drag, to become a major feature in qualifying and the grand prix.

Antonelli said he expected speed would flat-line on the straights but not drop significantly, and that the situation would be “better than many expected”.

The Italian Grand Prix has been declared a heat-hazard race as high temperatures continue in the country following the summer heatwave.

A heat hazard is an official designation for an event where it is forecasted that temperatures will be more than 31C at some point during the race on Sunday.

The ambient temperatures around Monza, north-east of Milan, are expected to be in the mid-30C region all weekend.

They peaked at 36C on Wednesday afternoon near Milan’s Linate airport.

The ruling means drivers can use a system that flows cooled liquid, such as glycol, through a system of pipes in a fireproof top worn under their overalls.

The cooling kit is not mandatory, but any driver who chooses not to use it has to carry 5kg of ballast in their car to ensure they do not have a competitive advantage.

Washington, DC – Over the next two days, a portion of the United States capital will transform into a seven-turn professional-grade track for the city’s first-ever IndyCar race.

The Freedom 250 Grand Prix, championed by President Donald Trump, is one of several special events held to commemorate the country’s 250th birthday.

But the race, which has been billed as a means of “celebrating American greatness”, is not coming without a heavy dose of criticism.

Questions have been raised about potential disruptions to life in the capital, as well as Trump’s ties to the event’s sponsor, the transportation company Penske.

Here’s what you need to know about the weekend’s automobile tournament:

Why is this taking place?

In January, Trump signed an executive order establishing the race as a means of celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary and its history of motorsport.

“This will be like no other race ever,” Trump said in July. “It’ll be one of the most unforgettable racing events the world has ever seen.”

Trump, who has described himself as a racing fan, has participated in several high-profile motorsport events since returning to office in 2025.

Last year, Trump attended NASCAR’s Daytona 500 race, after serving as the grand marshal during his first term. A few months later, in April 2025, he hosted NASCAR and IndyCar drivers at the White House.

Have similar events been held?

The Grand Prix is one of several sporting events being held in honour of the country’s 250th anniversary.

Earlier this month, as part of the festivities, high-school athletes were invited to participate in the inaugural Patriot Games, broadcast on the sport channel ESPN. And in June, Trump hosted an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on the White House lawn, dubbed the UFC Freedom 250.

But members of the Trump administration have compared the race to early moments in US history as a means of highlighting its historic nature.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Washington, DC, has not seen a competition like this since Thomas Jefferson, the third US president, helped mark the country’s 25th birthday in 1801 with horse races.

Is the IndyCar race part of Freedom 250?

Not officially. While the Grand Prix bears similar branding to Trump’s Freedom 250 initiative, they are separate entities.

Trump’s Freedom 250 task force was a public-private partnership that put together events like the Patriot Games and the Great American State Fair, which took place in June on the National Mall.

But critics argued that the task force undermined America250, a separate bipartisan organisation created by the US Congress to arrange festivities for the anniversary. There was also a backlash to the perception that Freedom 250 would be a vehicle for Trump’s political agenda.

The Grand Prix, meanwhile, is being “administered by INDYCAR in coordination with the America 250 Task Force”, according to the District of Columbia government website. IndyCar is a subsidiary of Penske.

What response has the race received?

The race is arguably the most ambitious of all the events Trump has hosted for America’s 250th celebration. It has also drawn concern from preservation experts.

A temporary track for the race will run 2.7 kilometres, or 1.7 miles, including through the National Mall. Part of the race will therefore take place near several buildings that contain priceless historical works and documents.

Immediately adjacent to the motor speedway will be the National Gallery of Art, featuring paintings spanning the history of Western civilisation, and the National Archives, which includes the original Declaration of Independence and US Constitution.

With race cars set to pass by at speeds nearing 321km/h (200mph), the National Gallery has boarded up some windows on its building and put barriers around several of its outdoor works.

A preservationist group has also warned that historic New Deal-era murals in the nearby Cohen Federal Building could be damaged “due to vibratory impacts”.

A Freedom 250 Grand Prix spokesperson told The Associated Press (AP) news agency that IndyCar has “tremendous respect for the history and the structures” surrounding the track.

But the race’s impacts are being felt by Washington’s residents and travellers as well.

In the days leading up to the race, commuters were plagued by hours-long congestion caused by the closure of some of the city’s popular thoroughfares as organisers prepared for the event.

The Federal Aviation Administration also announced that flights at the nearby Ronald Reagan Washington national airport will be paused for three hours on Sunday so flyovers associated with the event can take place.

Who’s paying for this?

With an expected price tag of $35m, the 147-lap race will be among the most expensive on IndyCar’s calendar.

Bud Denker, the president of Penske Corporation and chairman of the race, told AP his company will pay for the “vast majority” of the event, while the city will cover some “very limited” costs to repave streets and seal manhole covers.

A spokesperson for Washington, DC’s transportation department, German Vigil, told Al Jazeera the city “will be getting reimbursed” by the Grand Prix for those repairs.

The Freedom 250 Grand Prix website explains that the event is supported “by a group of key partners”, including Harbinger, a production company with ties to at least one previous Trump-hosted event.

CNN previously reported that the firm was hired to solicit corporate sponsors for the 2025 White House Easter Egg Roll.

The race’s website identifies Harbinger as an “official event partner” that will “coordinate logistics and the fan experience” for the Grand Prix. A spokesperson for Harbinger told Al Jazeera it was only handling “production”.

Several of the race’s sponsors have government contracts, including the aerospace firm Boeing and the telecommunications firm Verizon.

One, the building manufacturer WillScot, was in discussion with the second Trump administration about leasing mobile structures to house detainees slated for deportation, according to the publication Semafor.

Another, the aircraft company Gulfstream, was the recipient of nearly $200m in a controversial deal Trump’s Department of Homeland Security undertook to buy luxury jets for executive travel.

WillScot and Gulfstream did not return Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

How much does it cost to attend?

A reported 100,000 general admission tickets have already been given away for free, while premium viewing of the race comes at a steep price.

Tickets for the Champions Club, which offers views of the racetrack, cost $5,000 per person, while luxury suites are priced upwards of $250,000.

Will Trump attend?

Media reports have indicated that Trump himself is likely to attend the event.

The New York Post reported that the president may take a lap on Sunday around the track in his motorcade, to kick off the last day of the race.

But Trump’s involvement raises concerns, including from IndyCar drivers, that the event could be politicised. McLaren Racing’s Pato O’Ward, IndyCar’s only full-time racer from Mexico, has said it would be “ironic” if he won, given the president’s aggressive political stance towards immigration and Mexico itself.

A competitor has died following a crash involving two riders during qualifying for the Manx Grand Prix on the Isle of Man.

The session was red-flagged at about 18:50 BST following the incident at Cruickshanks, in Ramsey, on the opening lap of Tuesday evening’s session.

Organisers said the other competitor involved had suffered minor injuries and was being treated at the island’s main hospital, Noble’s. The riders have not been named.

The road between Ramsey Bus Station and Lheaney Road in Ramsey remained closed for more than three hours after the crash.

In a statement, organisers said: “It’s with profound sadness that the Manx Grand Prix Races confirms that one competitor sustained fatal injuries.

“In accordance with the event’s standard operating procedures, a multi-agency investigative process is now underway.

“Our thoughts are with the competitors, family and friends of those involved, who have asked for privacy at this time.”

Tuesday marked the second day of qualifying for the 2026 Manx Grand Prix (MGP) and Classic TT following the cancellation of Monday’s sessions because of rain showers.

Sunday’s opening session was cut short following a red-flag incident that saw Italian rider Salvatore Sallustro taken to hospital for treatment and a later deterioration of the weather.

Qualifying for the MGP, which runs in parallel with the Classic TT on the 37.7 mile (61km) Mountain Course, is scheduled to take place daily until Saturday, followed by racing in the two events until 28 August.