Kimi Antonelli took another step in his quest towards winning the 2026 world championship by benefitting from pit-stop misfortune for Lando Norris to win the first Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring.

McLaren's Norris had looked in control of the race after converting his superb pole position into a comfortable early race lead but the battle for victory turned on a lap-15 Virtual Safety Car when Aston Martin's Lance Stroll stopped in a run-off area.

With a VSC offering the field the chance of a so-called 'cheap' pit-stop, McLaren were unable to pit Norris immediately as the Briton had just passed the pit-lane entry.

But the following Antonelli and Verstappen had not, allowing Mercedes and Red Bull to pit their drivers respectively while the rest of the field were running to a controlled reduced speed on track.

McLaren did pit Norris at the end of the next lap but, by then, the VSC had ended, meaning the field was back up to racing speed, with the misfortune then compounded by a slow seven-second service at his tyre change.

Norris rejoined in fifth place and, underling his prodigious pace, eventually finished on Verstappen's tail in third but was tantalisingly unable to find a way past the Red Bull through the closing laps.

With George Russell finishing only fifth in the second Mercedes behind a long-running Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, Antonelli's title lead grows to a season-high 81 points with a scheduled nine races remaining.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton is now 101 points back and all-but out of contention after he suffered his first race retirement of the season amid brake issues on his Ferrari early on.

Liam Lawson was sixth for Red Bull with Alpine's Franco Colapinto seventh ahead of Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren.

More to follow...

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