Lewis Hamilton acknowledged that his title chances in the 2026 Formula 1 season are over after retiring from last Sunday’s Spanish GP, and he now appears 101 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli.
Read more F1: Verstappen vents after incident with Hamilton in Madrid: “He would have crashed”
When he was in fourth, the seven-time Ferrari champion had problems as early as the seventh lap in Madring. “I have no brakes, guys,” he said on the radio to Carlo Sainz, before being instructed to stop the car in the pits.
Not only that, at the start of the race he was involved in an incident with Max Verstappen, with the Dutchman being instructed to give the position back, which he did unhappily on lap four, but almost immediately regained the spot.
Read more F1: Rosberg blames Sainz for layout that hinders overtaking in Madrid: «He was the ambassador»
Then, after retiring in Spain, Hamilton was asked if Antonelli is “hard to stop.” The 41-year-old driver told Sky Sports that “I don’t think there’s a way to stop him and Mercedes this year; they have done a phenomenal job and deserve it.”
Later, Hamilton explained the problem he faced in Madring during F1’s debut at the circuit. “I pressed the brake, the car started to slow down and then the pedal gave way. The car didn’t decelerate as quickly as it normally would, so I ended up entering the corner at too high a speed. Then, yeah, I scraped the barrier; after that the pedal returned to normal and everything was fine, but I think, a few corners later, the pedal went too ‘deep.’ I don’t know exactly what happened.”
Read more F1: Antonelli admits that «I got confused» about incident with Verstappen in Madrid
