Kimi Antonelli won the Spanish Formula 1 GP and extended his lead over George Russell in the championship, but acknowledged that Lando Norris was the one who most deserved the victory. The Italian’s triumph came after a favorable situation during a virtual safety car.
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Mercedes managed to get Antonelli into the pits while the race was neutralized due to Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin stopped on the track. Norris, who was leading the race, had just passed the pit entry when the virtual safety car was activated.
When the McLaren driver finally came in for his stop, the race had already returned to green flag conditions, and moreover, McLaren had problems changing the right front wheel of the British driver’s car, which made his stop take longer than it should have. As a result, Antonelli and Max Verstappen managed to get ahead of Norris, who finished the race in third position.
Antonelli received the checkered flag 4.3 seconds ahead of Verstappen, while Russell finished fifth, 29.8 seconds behind the winner. With the result, the Italian driver opened an 81-point lead over teammate Russell, taking another step towards the goal of becoming the youngest champion in Formula 1 history.
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After the race, Antonelli highlighted that the result did not fully reflect who had the best performance: “It was a very difficult race, nothing simple, especially trying to manage the tires, but I think it was good to win today, but it doesn’t feel so good because I think Lando deserved the victory today,” he said.
Despite the caveat, the Italian celebrated the result and highlighted the pace shown in the final part of the race: “But overall, we will accept it. Also, it was a very strong race. I think especially with the Hards at the end, we had a very good pace,” he added.
The Mercedes driver also stated that he intends to maintain the same approach in the upcoming races: “Now we will keep pushing. I want to keep progressing race by race, keep delivering and enjoying everything until the end,” Antonelli concluded.
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