Formula One 2026: Spanish Grand Prix qualifying at the Madring – live

Kimi Antonelli does not need luck. Last year his promotion to the second seat at Mercedes looked premature and he was exposed on occasion, but he thoroughly absorbed every lesson and is a deserved leader of the title race. But fortune has favoured him too, whether indirectly – such as the catalogue of agonies suffered by his teammate George Russell, who would otherwise be far closer in the standings than 66 points – or directly, as was the case with a red flag and a virtual safety car in last Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, which enabled him to turn 19th place on the grid into a win.

Antonelli does not hesitate to credit Toto Wolff and the rest of the Mercedes team, not just for producing the car. The biggest decision was promoting an 18-year-old into the seat for last season, but even in smaller ones they have been vindicated, such as choosing Monza, with its openings for overtaking, as the venue for Antonelli to take the penalties for utilising new power unit components.

But with Antonelli winning in such unpropitious circumstances, the title race – which looked as if it could open up after Lando Norris’s back-to-back wins – could soon be a procession. Maybe what F1 needs right now is a new track to spice things up.

Enter the Madring, which may or may not prove an unfortunate bit of nominative determinism. As Giles Richards reports, Russell described the circuit as “mental” after watching Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak crash in F2 practice:

Russell observed the Madring was set to be an even sterner test than Monaco. “I would put this as a circuit that has less margin, purely because of the speed,” he said. “In Monaco the walls are closer but because you’re going slower – if you make a mistake you’re not into the wall as quickly, and you can recover it sometimes. It’s more lock-up. Here, there’s less margin.”

The issue, explained Russell, was that the fast corners were combined with the angles of the barriers on exit. “You see at this barrier, it’s kind of like coming back on to the track,” he said, indicating where the smoking wreckage of Inthraphuvasak’s car was sitting. “So if you are to go wide and hit the wall, you’re not hitting it at the same angle as the car is going. The car is going towards the wall but the wall is sort of coming in.”

Oliver Bearman certainly found it testing in Saturday’s FP3, and so did Lewis Hamilton:

Lewis Hamilton crashed his Ferrari in final practice for the ⁠Spanish Grand Prix at Madrid’s new Formula One circuit on Saturday, bringing the ⁠session to a ⁠halt ​with just over half an hour remaining.

The seven-times world champion locked up and went ⁠into the barriers at the final corner. He managed to reverse out and tried to get ⁠the damaged Ferrari back to the Madring pitlane, virtually ​a whole lap, while ‌ignoring team instructions ‌to stop.

The Briton eventually did pull over, with the front ‌wing still wedged under the car which also had a punctured front right tyre.

“Stop the car. Stop in the safest place possible,” he had been told earlier.

“If I can make it back I will. If ‌not, I will do it safely,” replied Hamilton, who returned to the pits on the back ​of a moped after parking up. Press Association

A hybrid of streets and purpose-built sections, Madrid’s new circuit is certainly a challenge. Join me from 2.30pm BST in the buildup to the 3pm start to Spanish Grand Prix qualifying, and in the meantime here’s Giles’s full on-the-ground look at the Madring.