Hamilton wins Barcelona GP for maiden Ferrari victory
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Lewis Hamilton won the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix — his 106th career victory and maiden Ferrari win — vaulting to second in the standings, 41 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who retired late in the race.
- Hamilton's win was assisted by Mercedes' strategy error (covering his early first stop) and a virtual safety car that gave him a cheap pit stop and preserved the lead, with BBC's Andrew Benson noting he would otherwise have needed to pass Norris and at least one Mercedes.
- Charles Leclerc had been struggling with brake characteristics in Canada and Monaco using different discs from Hamilton, switched to Hamilton's setup for Spain, and crashed in Q3 at Turn 4 trying to match Hamilton's late braking — though over the full season, Leclerc is actually 0.025secs quicker than Hamilton on average in qualifying.
- Mercedes principal Toto Wolff said the team would discuss internally how to manage George Russell and Kimi Antonelli's on-track battles, with Wolff calling Ferrari 'a third party' now in the championship fight; Russell and Antonelli had already been told by the team their duel was slowing them down in Spain.
- Aston Martin has delayed all performance upgrades to deliver one major aerodynamic package around the Belgian GP, with a revised Honda engine expected after the summer break — and even a two-second-per-lap upgrade would only move them to Racing Bulls/Audi territory.
- Fernando Alonso, out of contract at season's end, said he will decide his future 'after the summer' and is waiting to see how the Aston Martin upgrades perform; at 45, he has made clear he doesn't want to end his career after a depressing season and likely won't secure a top-four seat elsewhere.
Why it matters: Hamilton's Barcelona win required significant assistance — a Mercedes strategy blunder, a virtual safety car, and a track that masks Ferrari's engine deficit. The next three races (Austria, Britain, Belgium) are power-sensitive circuits where Mercedes still holds a clear engine advantage, making the 41-point gap to Antonelli potentially insurmountable without a rumored Ferrari engine upgrade. Meanwhile, Mercedes' handling of Russell vs Antonelli becomes decisive now that Ferrari is a real third force.
Ask SkimNews
