Barcelona GP: A Race of Attrition
- therookiereporters
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
The Barcelona Grand Prix has just wrapped up with a whole lot of DNFs and a lot of drivers struggling with tyre life because of the heat. It’s time to wrap it all up.
A Clean Start
Alonso started from the pit lane, so there has still only been one race start this year with a full 22-car grid on track. The race start was pretty standard; the top five all got a good launch and held position. Isack Hadjar had too much wheelspin and lit up his rear tyres, tumbling down to the midfield as a result. Hamilton and Verstappen were the only ones in the top five to start on soft tyres.
Russell sped ahead to a 2.5-second lead and slowly started to build a gap to Hamilton. Norris was struggling with grip, sliding around, and Verstappen said he was also struggling with his softs, even on the straights, which he said was quite impressive.
Early Retirements
Stroll had to retire with a gearbox problem on Lap 6, the first but not the last retirement of the day. The soft tyres started to falter, so Lewis Hamilton boxed on Lap 11, and this is where the Ferrari strategy did its thing—but not for Hamilton. Mercedes boxed Russell onto mediums far too early, compromising him to Antonelli.
DNF number two was Bottas, who retired with a problem. Hadjar fought back impressively, rocketing through the midfield to get himself back into the points. The top four built a huge gap to Verstappen in P5. By Lap 27, the fastest drivers on track were Antonelli and Norris.
Strategy Chaos
Hamilton boxed again, hoping to force the other teams into a three-stop strategy. Hamilton’s stop left Mercedes in a bit of a pickle. Russell and Antonelli were separated by less than a second, with Russell ahead, and not knowing who or when to box, Mercedes brought Russell in first and then Antonelli shortly after. Kimi was shown a black-and-white flag for track limits, and Hulkenberg was told to box and retire because his engine had stopped. That was DNF number three.
A Dramatic Finish
The drama began when Alonso went off at Turn 9, bringing out the VSC (DNF number four). Hamilton and Verstappen completed their final stop thanks to the perfectly timed VSC. Antonelli hunted Russell down with some aggressive racing and got ahead into P2, but the drama continued. DNF number five came when Kimi Antonelli’s engine died, bringing out another VSC with only four laps remaining.
The order looked set until Charles Leclerc lost power steering and hydraulics (DNF number six). Finally, DNF number seven came for Ollie Bearman, whose retirement not even Sky Sports noticed. Alex Albon was so far behind that he wasn’t classified due to technical issues. Hamilton wins his first race in a Ferrari, Russell finishes second, and Norris completes the podium in third.
Article written by Iuliana Mihai © Iuliana Mihai 2026
