Author Archives: PressBox

Lando Norris took pole position for the first Spanish Grand Prix at Madrid’s Madring, edging championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 0.011 seconds with a lap of 1:31.824. Antonelli will start alongside him on the front row, with Max Verstappen third and Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc fourth and fifth. The qualifying session was tightly packed, and it ran without red flags despite concerns about crashes on the new circuit.

Norris said the lap was one of the best of his career after he nearly hit the wall at the final corner, and McLaren boss Andrea Stella called it a masterpiece. Norris missed most of Friday practice because of a gearbox problem, which left him catching up on a track with little previous data. Verstappen said overtaking would be very difficult and criticized the Madring’s braking zones, while Antonelli, Russell and other drivers said tire degradation, track position and strategy would be key in Sunday’s 57-lap race.

George Russell qualified sixth, Oscar Piastri seventh, Liam Lawson eighth, Franco Colapinto ninth and Arvid Lindblad 10th. Hamilton said understeer and a dodgy set of tyres cost him a chance at pole after briefly leading Q3, while Ferrari teammate Leclerc finished fifth. Carlos Sainz was dropped to 20th after a three-place penalty for impeding Valtteri Bottas, and Fernando Alonso was knocked out in Q1 on his home weekend.

Mercedes set the benchmark across the opening practice sessions for F1’s inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at Madrid’s new Madring, with George Russell fastest in FP1 and Kimi Antonelli quickest in FP2 and FP3. In final practice, Antonelli topped the times with a 1:32.797 lap, ahead of Charles Leclerc by 0.166 seconds, with Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Russell following behind.

Ferrari kept Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton near the front, while McLaren lost most of Norris’s FP2 to a gearbox problem. Red Bull said it still needed more pace and better balance.

Carlos Sainz said Williams is treating its difficult 2026 F1 season as a rebuilding year, with most of the team’s focus already on next season. Speaking ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, he said Williams is “putting all the eggs in next year’s basket,” while an upgraded chassis due for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix should bring only a modest gain — enough to help the FW48 fight for a few points, but not to fix the team’s deeper issues.

Williams is ninth in the Constructors’ standings with 11 points and has not scored since Monaco, leaving Sainz and Alex Albon in a campaign that has fallen well short of expectations. Sainz said the team remains far from where it wanted to be this year, but believes the setback can help Williams identify and correct fundamental mistakes before a stronger rebound.

Sainz said he signed a multi-year extension because he wants to build a long-term project at Williams rather than move elsewhere. He pointed to drivers such as Max Verstappen and Lando Norris as examples of success built over time within one team, and said he believes his best F1 years are still ahead. Williams missed pre-season testing in Barcelona, and Sainz expects to be fighting for stronger results again when the team becomes more competitive in 2027.

Fred Vasseur moved to calm speculation about his Ferrari future after a difficult Monza weekend, saying he would not waste energy on rumors and would focus on improving performance. Pressure around the team grew after Ferrari failed to score strongly at its home race, Charles Leclerc crashed out early and Lewis Hamilton finished sixth. Hamilton also said Ferrari had waited too long to prioritize his title bid, while Italian newspapers reported that Vasseur was being closely watched by Ferrari leadership. Vasseur signed a new multi-year contract last July.

Vasseur rejected suggestions that Monza exposed an internal crisis. He said he held separate and joint talks with Leclerc and Hamilton after their clash and the comments that followed, and that the matter was cleared up. Ferrari would keep treating both drivers equally while they remain in the championship fight, he said, with any hierarchy considered only if one of them falls out of title contention.

Vasseur said Ferrari’s communication with the presidency remained open and said John Elkann, Benedetto Vigna and Piero Ferrari are regularly present at race weekends, calling that a good sign. He defended Ferrari’s ADUO 2 engine upgrade and said criticism of it was disrespectful to the Maranello staff. Vasseur said Ferrari had won two races this season, believed more wins were possible and expected a stronger response in Madrid.

Charles Leclerc used an older Ferrari power unit at the Spanish Grand Prix after the team held back its latest ADUO2 engine while it continued checks on the unit tied to his Monza crash. Ferrari said the power unit survived the Italian Grand Prix accident undamaged and that only the transmission casing needed to be replaced, so Leclerc did not face a grid penalty in Madrid. The team had initially feared the heavy impact may have affected the engine and did not want to take any risk at the new Madring circuit, with Leclerc set to use the older ADUO1 spec and Lewis Hamilton able to run the ADUO2 normally.

Leclerc’s Monza race ended on lap two when he lost control at more than 230 km/h entering Parabolica while battling McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. He hit a water drain and then the tire barriers, sustaining an impact of more than 50G. Leclerc said the crash caused blurred vision and neck pain for a short time, but he felt fine after medical checks and treatment, and FIA officials cleared him after precautionary examinations.

Ferrari said the ADUO2 unit passed external checks and would undergo more detailed X-ray inspections before it was used again. The team may still consider fitting Leclerc with the upgraded engine later in the season, even if that leads to a penalty for a fifth power unit. Leclerc was third-fastest in opening practice in Madrid, behind George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli.