A three-stop strategy, a timely safety car, and a champion’s composure gave Ferrari its first win
Lewis Hamilton joined Ferrari before the 2025 season on one of the most anticipated moves in Formula One history. His first year with the team produced no podiums, no wins, and a sixth-place finish in the championship that he later described as a nightmare. Sunday in Barcelona, 31 races after that chapter began, he won.
The Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya was Hamilton’s 106th career victory and his first since the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, his final win with Mercedes. It was also Ferrari’s first Grand Prix win of the 2026 season, ending a run of six consecutive Sunday victories for Mercedes that had made the Silver Arrows the dominant force of the early campaign.
Hamilton, 41, becomes the seventh oldest race winner in Formula One history.
How Ferrari won it
Mercedes entered the weekend as favorites. High tyre wear was expected at Barcelona, and the Silver Arrows had shown no weakness in that area across the first six races of the season. What they had not planned for was Ferrari deciding to go on the front foot from the opening laps.
Hamilton started on soft tyres while the Mercedes cars ran mediums. Ferrari pitted him early on Lap 12, forcing Russell and Antonelli to respond earlier than planned and surrender track position. On Lap 28, Ferrari went aggressive again with a second stop, putting Hamilton on fresh medium tyres while the rest of the front-runners remained on older rubber.
Russell began struggling with tyre degradation and came under pressure from Antonelli, pulling both Mercedes drivers into a battle with each other. The critical moment came on Lap 41 when Fernando Alonso stopped on track, triggering a Virtual Safety Car. Hamilton pitted under the VSC, losing far less time to his rivals than he would have in green flag conditions, and emerged in the race lead with fresher hard tyres than anyone around him.
From that point, he was gone. He crossed the line 19 seconds ahead of Russell, with Lando Norris third for McLaren. It was the first all-British podium in Formula One since 1968.
What it meant to Hamilton
The win carries a weight that the lap time alone does not capture. Hamilton had spent 2025 watching a team he believed in fail to give him competitive machinery while his replacement at Mercedes, 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli, led the championship. Ferrari chairman John Elkann had publicly urged Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc to talk less and focus on their driving, a comment that landed poorly across the paddock.
Sunday’s result was Hamilton’s answer. He had spent the early part of 2026 building momentum, finishing third in China, then second in consecutive races in Canada and Monaco. Barcelona turned that trajectory into a win.
Elkann issued a personal statement after the race, congratulating Hamilton and crediting the entire team for its determination and effort at both the circuit and back at the factory in Maranello.
The championship picture after Barcelona
Hamilton’s win shakes up a title fight that had been developing in a predictable direction. Antonelli, who led the championship heading into the weekend, retired from second place with four laps remaining when his car shut down with a suspected power unit issue. The retirement cost him significantly. Hamilton now trails Antonelli by 41 points, while Russell closed the gap in the championship to 50 points after finishing second.
Antonelli’s car failure is the second reliability concern Mercedes has faced this season, and it arrived at the worst possible moment for the young Italian, who had just passed Russell on track when the car went silent.
Charles Leclerc, Hamilton’s Ferrari teammate, retired late after a steering issue developed while he was running inside the top five. His struggles in 2026 have continued across multiple rounds, and the contrast with Hamilton’s trajectory within the same team is becoming harder to ignore.
Max Verstappen finished fourth, one lap down on pace. The next race is the Austrian Grand Prix on June 26-28.