Kimi Anotnelli wins in Maiden Madrid race

Kimi Antonelli’s winning first race at the Madrid circuit was more about the Mercedes strategy and race management.

At the start of the Grand Prix, Lando Norris was on pole position after beating Kimi by 0.011 seconds. Lando controlled the opening stint of the race, while the Italian struggled with medium tires and actually ran wide twice while trying to attack. There’s controversy later in the race as Lewis Hamilton, a Ferrari, would breakdown with a brake failure on lap seven suffering his first DNF of the season and suffering his first race without points. A decisive moment came later in the race when Lance Stroll had a Brake problem; a virtual safety car was deployed, and Kimi Antonelli, followed by Max Verstappen and George Russell, were able to pit under the safety car.

Lando Norris already passed the pit entry when the virtual safety car period began, and he could not pit until the following lap, which, if it wasn’t bad enough, his pitstop was seven seconds which ruined his time and giving Kimi Antonelli, the leader of the race and effectively ended it where Antonelli managed to race well like a game manager under little to no pressure behind him Charles Leclerc stayed out on a different strategy which led to a long stretch with older tires causing him to pit very late in the race on lap 48 which caused Antonelli to win the race by 4.351 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen, who finished second followed by the pole sitter Lando Norris in third place.

With this win in Madrid, Antonelli has won his first victory in Formula One and his eighth victory of the season, extending his lead over Mercedes teammate George Russell to 81 points. Later in the post-race interview, he acknowledged that Norris had deserved the victory, but that Mercedes had just benefited from the timing of the virtual safety car.