Formula 1 raced at Madrid’s new Madring circuit for the first time on Sunday, and Mercedes came away with the win. Kimi Antonelli took victory from a well-timed virtual safety car stop, while George Russell finished fifth. It is the team’s second win in a row and its 251st as an engine manufacturer, a total that now matches Ferrari’s.
A first winner at the Madring
Formula 1 visited Madrid’s new Madring circuit for the first time on Sunday 13 September, and the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix ended with Kimi Antonelli taking the chequered flag. His Mercedes team-mate George Russell came home fifth.
With no previous grand prix data to work from, tyre behaviour was the biggest unknown of the weekend. According to the team, the hard compound turned out to be unusually durable with very little degradation, and that single factor ended up shaping the strategies up and down the field.
The virtual safety car that decided the race
Antonelli started on the medium tyre, Russell on the hard. Both cars were brought in during a virtual safety car period on lap 14 for a cheap pit stop, and Antonelli rejoined with the net lead ahead of Lando Norris’s McLaren. He ran that set to the end, taking the lead on the road once Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari made its own stop. It was Antonelli’s eighth win of the season.
“It was great to take the win today. But we also know we had a bit of luck with the virtual safety car. Lando had everything under control at the front. We were able to pit at exactly the moment the virtual safety car came out, which let us make the cheap stop onto the hard tyres, take the net lead and run to the end. So we probably didn’t deserve the win today, but of course we’ll happily take it.”
Russell’s race went the other way. Having started on the hard tyre for a long opening stint, he had to switch to the less resilient medium at his first stop. The team considered leaving him out to the flag, but the yellow-walled tyre was not up to the job. He stopped again around mid-distance for a new set of hards as the team chose to run the opposite strategy to Leclerc, and finished fifth — exactly where he had been running when the virtual safety car appeared.
“Whatever we had done strategically today, we would have finished fifth. The virtual safety car came at the worst possible moment for everyone who had started on the hard tyre like me, and at the best possible moment for those who started on the medium. That’s racing sometimes, but it’s been a bit the story of my season so far. It was very hard to overtake today, but overall I enjoyed driving at the Madring this weekend.”
Level with Ferrari on engine wins
The result is the 251st grand prix victory for Mercedes-Benz as an engine manufacturer, which puts the brand level with Ferrari at the top of the list of the most successful power unit suppliers in Formula 1.
It also strengthens the team’s position in both championships. Mercedes now leads the constructors’ standings by 145 points from Ferrari, while Antonelli heads the drivers’ table with Russell second, 81 points behind his team-mate.
Team principal Toto Wolff pointed to the fact that the team has now won on two very different circuits in a row without a major update package since Canada.
“We’re delighted with the first win at the Madring. Kimi put in a good performance. Although the virtual safety car played into his hands, he brought the car home confidently on this very demanding track. To take another win on a circuit so different from Monza, and without having brought a bigger update package for the car since Canada, is very encouraging.”
Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said the pit stops themselves were decisive, and that copying Ferrari’s strategy with Russell would probably have produced the same fifth place because overtaking was so difficult.
What it means for the run-in
The championship now heads into its closing phase with nine races in eleven weeks, starting in Baku and including three triple-headers. Mercedes leads both titles, but with that many rounds left the margins are far from decisive.
The next round of the 2026 season takes place in Baku one week after the Spanish Grand Prix.
Source: media.mercedes-benz.com