Lando Norris took to the top step of the podium after a hectic race, giving McLaren their first win of the 2026 Formula 1 season. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ teenage talent Kimi Antonelli finished in second and third respectively, largely thanks to their strategy.
Norris was the polesitter after qualifying on Saturday but lost out to McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in the first lap as he went wide in Turn 2 and Piastri overtook him on the inside. Norris spent much of the race in second place but was suddenly favoured midway after a small collision between Piastri and Williams driver Carlos Sainz.
Sainz was shown the blue flag eight times to let Piastri go since he was being lapped, but failed to do so and collided with Piastri – ruining the Australian’s strategy and a potential victory.
Piastri later stopped in the middle of the track on Lap 56 with gearbox issues, and eventually retired from the Grand Prix. With the McLaren stopped in the middle of the track, a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was triggered, seeing many drivers scramble to get new tires under a cheap pit stop.
Verstappen and Antonelli stayed out of the pits, benefitting from not losing position with the opportunity cost of having to finish the race on old tires as the ones who pit chased them down.
Although Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton had come out of the pits ahead of Antonelli, replays showed he had overtaken before the assigned line to overtake during the VSC period.
Hamilton was forced to return the spot to Antonelli and chased him down for the third podium place. Hamilton was also booked for speeding in the pit-lane, getting himself a five-second time penalty, and chasing Antonelli and the podium looked out of the cards.
This dropped the Briton below his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, and finished in 5th as Leclerc took 4th place.
The race seemed to fall apart for Antonelli’s Mercedes teammate George Russell from the beginning. The Briton was victim to Anti-Stall issues during lights out and fell towards 18th place, leaving him to come back as far as possible.
Norris also came in for new tires during the VSC, but had built a large enough lead to stay clear of any contenders for the top spot. He inched away every lap from Verstappen in second place, eventually finishing the race 15 seconds in the lead.
“My pace today was probably some of the best pace I’ve ever had,” he said. “The car was beautiful to drive and I felt very confident, so a great race. I’m just happy to be back and see the number one again.”