2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix Race Review

Linus O'Howell
21 minutes ago
3 min read

Hamilton Scores Maiden Ferrari Win as Antonelli Retires

After winning all 6 Grand Prix’s so far, Mercedes’ 2026 dominance came to an end as Lewis Hamilton finally achieved victory for Ferrari! George Russell will have mixed emotions about finishing second, gaining 18 points on his teammate in the Championship, as Lando Norris rounded out the Podium after mechanical issues for Championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli!

The Biggest Talking Points

George Russell got off the line perfectly, keeping himself in the lead heading into Turn 1 as Charles Leclerc was able to jump up from 10th to 7th! Due to Lewis Hamilton starting on softs, he had to pit earlier, forcing Mercedes into pitting George earlier than what he would’ve ideally wanted! Everyone else also followed suit, with the only position change of note being Leclerc overtaking Oscar Piastri for P6! After a terrible start, Isack Hadjar was climbing his way back up the order, whilst Hamilton was the one making this event interesting by opting for an aggressive 3-stop strategy! What this also did was free Andrea Kimi Antonelli to hunt after George Russell, something that was easier than expected for Antonelli as Russell lost a lot of time trying to navigate all of the lapped cars! Whilst Kimi couldn’t pass George, Lewis was consistently lapping over 2 seconds faster than the two Mercedes, leading to Merc having to pit George and Kimi rather quickly, especially as Lando Norris was attempting an undercut! After Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas, and Nico Hulkenberg had already retired from the Grand Prix, the key turning point of the Race came when Fernando Alonso retired in the other Aston Martin, leading to a Virtual Safety Car being deployed, which allowed Hamilton to make his third pit stop and jump the entire top 3, taking the net lead of the Grand Prix!

The pace that Lewis Hamilton showed after this was pretty insane; he absolutely bolted, leaving the final key battle to play out between George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli for second place! To my surprise, Russell allowed Antonelli up the inside, meaning Kimi would move into P2 as George’s disappointing run of Sundays continued! However, just a lap later, Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes conked out, resulting in a massive DNF for the current Championship leader! Thankfully for Kimi, he had such a lead in the standings that he could technically afford a retirement, but Mercedes need to sort their reliability out; it’s shocking! Also, Charles Leclerc would end up retiring a lap later, commemorating another poor weekend for him, as the two Alpines and two Racing Bulls took advantage to score good points respectively!

The Standout Drives in the Race

I’ve actually only given out one 10 for the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, and that’s obviously for Lewis Hamilton! Whilst he was definitely helped by the VSC, Lewis was the quickest driver on track today; I think that he would’ve won anyway, and this is a special moment for both Hamilton and Ferrari! Alpine as a team had a brilliant afternoon, with Pierre Gasly heading Franco Colapinto in P7 and P8, but I can’t give either of them a 10 due to the late retirements! Elsewhere, both of the Mercedes drivers drove pretty well, with both of them facing their own sort of bad luck, whilst Lando Norris should be happy with a Podium finish! Racing Bulls will also take another double-points finish!

Drivers Who Had a Shocker

As expected, I haven’t given out a single 1 for today’s Race, and funnily enough, I haven’t given a 2 out either! Both Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas retired too early to be given a grade, whilst I don’t grade the teams! I will say that Alex Albon had a disappointing day; Williams as a whole were pretty slow, whilst Esteban Ocon struggled for Haas! Also, where was Oscar Piastri’s pace?! And finally, we do quickly have to talk about Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who's seen his Championship lead take a 25-point hit! Still Kimi's to lose, though!