Winners and losers from F1's 2026 Spanish Grand Prix

Not many winners from Formula 1's 2026 Spanish Grand Prix - and even the actual race winner felt he really deserved to be second.

Here's our full winners and losers rundown.

Loser: McLaren (3rd + 8th)

A race it should have won, and therefore not had a car finishing eighth in, either. A really tough day at the office.

The VSC giving an advantage to every other car on track apart from Lando Norris was the sole issue. He drove almost perfectly, a clip of the Turn 7 wall his only blemish as he appeared to have the race sewn up before it was taken from him.

Oscar Piastri's race was much more complicated. How much did the damaged wing from clashing with George Russell on lap one really hamper him? And was it his lack of pace, the pitstop, or McLaren's strategy bods to blame for him being caught behind Gabriel Bortoleto and Franco Colapinto in the closing stages? It chose to pit him, knowing being stuck in that pack was a possibility.

Piastri has struggled relative to Norris with the 2026 car, but this felt like a poor weekend even in the circumstances. - Jack Benyon

Loser: Lewis Hamilton (DNF)

Lewis Hamilton didn't really put a foot wrong at the start. He was quicker than Max Verstappen off the line and the Dutchman did eventually have to concede after cutting the opening chicane.

Then a long brake pedal quickly turned into a malfunction and Hamilton had to stop his Ferrari. 

"Braking into Turn 5, I had hit the brake, the car started stopping and then the pedal took a step and the car didn't decelerate as fast as it would normally and I ended up carrying a lot of speed in and… brushed the barrier. 

"After that, the pedal came back, it was fine, and then a few corners later the pedal went long. Don't really know where that's come from," was Hamilton's post-mortem.

What could have been a podium finish turned into a DNF for the driver, who then conceded that Antonelli was unstoppable in the title race. 

Given McLaren's rate of development, it could prove to be a stinging points loss for Ferrari - whose advantage in their fight for second in the championship is now down to 52 points. - Samarth Kanal

Winner: Kimi Antonelli (1st)

Another race, another win for Kimi Antonelli - and another VSC capitalised upon.

Antonelli didn't need to make an overtake on track for this one, as first polesitter Norris's race unravelled as the VSC was deployed a moment too late and his pitstop one lap later was slow.

Then Charles Leclerc had to relinquish the lead late in the race having forgone the VSC pitstop.

Low tyre degradation, a lack of overtaking opportunities and McLaren's unfortunate timing and poor strategy made this one Antonelli's least remarkable win of the season.

He was gracious in victory, saying he "felt a bit bad" for Norris and that the McLaren driver would've been the deserving winner.

With victory here, Mercedes has tied Ferrari for most grand prix wins by a power unit manufacturer (251).

More consequentially, Antonelli is on 292 points to team-mate George Russell's 211.

He's on course to become F1's youngest world champion by some margin. - SK

Loser: Carlos Sainz (DNF)

The Madring event ambassador was never expecting a particularly competitive home grand prix, but he'd have hoped for better than an incident-filled Sunday.

It began on lap one with a rather clumsy first lap where he clunked into Yuki Tsunoda's Racing Bulls, and was followed by squeezing his fellow countryman Fernando Alonso into the wall. 

Thankfully Carlos Sainz was at least able to serve that penalty before he retired - so it won't carry over to Baku - but it rounded off a disappointing and sloppy weekend. - Josh Suttill

Loser: Fernando Alonso (17th)

After the worst-case scenario at Monza, there was hope the Madring would provide a better chance for Aston Martin to challenge for points like at Zandvoort. 

But it never materialised nor looked likely. He certainly wasn't helped by Alonso carrying damage from Sainz squeezing him, and that makes it particularly hard to know the true potential of the Aston Martin here.

"The engine was very bad today," Alonso said. "I think the boost control was difficult today. I nearly stalled on the pitstops.

"With some of the blue flags as well, letting the people go and slowing down. The engine was struggling to recover after that, so I was losing a lot of time on the blue flags.

"We need to analyse what happened." 

He ultimately finished two laps down in 17th while Lance Stroll pulled off the track 15 laps into the 57-lap race. - JS

Winner: Franco Colapinto (7th)

Colapinto led the midfield with an accomplished drive to seventh.

He led a train of mid-pack cars that pitted under the Stroll-induced VSC, and then pressured Bortoleto and held off Piastri in the closing stages.

While the gap was three seconds at one point to Piastri - expertly extended by Colapinto under pressure from what was a much quicker car - it did come down towards the end. But that doesn't change the scale of the achievement.

Colapinto's only four points off 11th-placed Arvid Lindblad in the drivers' championship now, and Alpine's gap to Racing Bulls in the chase for fifth in the constructors' has reduced from 13 to nine. - JB

Loser: Madring

The Madring did plenty right this weekend, but it's difficult to describe the first F1 race as anything but dull.

The lack of overtaking opportunities around the circuit certainly didn't help, nor did the lack of significant tyre degradation. 

But what's perhaps most painful is that this is exactly what many F1 drivers warned would happen when the layout was revealed. 

So for all the great things the Madring has done, the first event will most likely be best remembered for its underwhelming Sunday product. - JS