The Spanish Grand Prix was held today in Madrid at a brand new venue called the Madring, (see above). New tracks bring endless new possibilities, which is a good thing IMO. But after the practice round it was said this track is "a Fast Monaco", meaning it is a really cool track, but you better qualify well because you ain't gonna pass much. And that surely played out.

Qualifying was fierce with Lando Norris pulling "one of my best laps ever" to pull a stunning Pole Position with Kimi Antonelli second and Max Verstappen 3rd. The Ferrari's were just below this with George Russell (the other Mercedes) just below this.

So, off the standing start in the Grand Prix, Norris and Antonelli along with Verstappen raced nip and tuck around the rigorous Spanish race course and when it settled Verstappen got by Antonelli and by doing so allowed Norris the opportunity to build a few second lead. Antonelli was on Verstappen's tail, but it turns out that Verstappen passed Hamilton off the track, and he was told to give the spot back which he did, but he DID NOT want to.

Hamilton went out early with brake issues. Disappointing. His teammate Charles LeClerc had a good race and sat just behind the leaders (and we will pick him up after this next point).

Then the most important event of the race happened, as our rolling chicane, Lance Stroll spun and had brake problems too, so a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) came out. VSC events can begin and end at any point in time, so it isn't structured really. So, when the Stroll Chicane brought out the VSC, Norris was already passed pit lane, but Antonelli and Verstappen dove in quickly and chanced tyres from Mediums to Hards. Under VSCs you have to go at slower speed. So, Norris was trying to get around quickly, but he was slow during the VSC and as he got to the pit lane the VSC ended AND McLaren had a very bad pit stop of 7 seconds, which put Norris down in 5th or 6th. As the race went on from here LeClerc didn't pit and he led the field on the Hard tyre and ran 54 of the 57 total laps on that one set of hard tyres. He pitted and came out just in front of George Russell and claimed 3rd place.

Norris would catch Verstappen on track, but in Verstappen's words "I just have to park the car in the middle of the track" and that's exactly what he did and held onto 2nd place. And Kimi Antonelli continues his stellar form and extends his Championship lead to 81 points. Incredible really.

Next race is in 2 weeks at Azerbaijan, which is a good street course that you can pass on more than the Madring, so should be entertaining.

Good summary @Purple88!

The VSC is an issue and I hate when it affects the outcome of a race like this. I would like to see F1 look at it.

One last thing, I love the Race in 30 segments on Apple TV. ESPN's race day coverage was awesome but Apple TV matches that and goes beyond with all the additional content available on demand. Not to mention from two different race broadcasts. Love it!

The last Grand Prix was in Azerbaijan. Where the heck is that? It's basically as far as you can go in Eastern Turkey and then throw a softball further east and your there. The race is run in the ancient city of Baku located on the Caspian Sea.

This was a decent race. George Russell of Mercedes was fast all weekend and earned pole. His teammate and championship leader young Kimi Antonelli hit the wall on his second run of the opening round of qualifying and had to start 16th for the race. He was noticeably cautious starting the race as that was his first error maybe of the whole season and he didn't want to repeat that error early in the race. But that mind frame (good or bad) didn't allow him to move up the board as timely as you'd expect and he settled in at 5th place at the finish line between the two Ferrari's of LeClerc in 4th and Hamilton in 6th. The two Red Bulls finished 2nd (Verstappen) and 3rd (Hadjar - who likely had the best drive - this his first race back from injury and in some way better than Verstappen, but Hadjar knows this is Verstappen's team. Why do I say that? Well early in the race Verstappen was on Hadjar's tail and team order mandated Hadjar let Max by, which he did. Multiple laps later the shoe was on the other foot for a lap or two and no team order could be heard. Is what it is.)

Russell probably had the best car overall and won even though some late yellows nearly allowed Verstappen to pass Russell for the win on the final run down the main straight.

So, Russell makes up about 20 points in the championship and now trails his young teammate by 66 points or just under 3 full races. So it's not over, but Antonelli would have to screw up a lot to lose it at this point even for the youngster he is.

The 2 Haas drivers of Ocon (who will not be driving for Haas next season) and Bearman both scored which is great for them. And the Williams of Carlos Sainz in an upgraded package for this race gets the last point in 10th.

There was a major mess/crash on a restart with the Alpine of Colapinto who came into Turn 1 too hot and took out his teammate (Gasly) and Lando Norris among several others to end what was a really good day for Alpine. Shame really.

I have held off for awhile to not bash Aston Martin, but it's time. There has been alot of Laurence Stroll's billionaire money spent on this team getting the reported to me and everyone else the best racing designer/engineer in Adrian Newey who is now Aston Martin's managing director. They have a 2 time World Champion, although his best days are behind him. Just the facts. And they have the owner's son, who is clearly to me the worst driver on the grid.

They have been especially bad this season. So much so, that new startup Cadillac who has only been a team for a matter of months now seems ahead of Aston Martin, as both Cadillac drivers were ahead of both Aston Martin last week. Now they have resigned Fernando Alonso for the 2027 F1 campaign. While on one hand I understand that, on the other shouldn't you just clean house and restart next year as you are dumpster fire right now. Until that happens, I don't think Aston Martin is in consideration for anywhere in the midfield.

The F1 calendar moved to Malaysia, who raised their hand as a substitute for the Bahrain Grand Prix that was postponed/cancelled in April due to the War in Iran. The track in Malaysia is named Sepang and looked like an older airport turned into racecourse. F1 had raced there previously, most recently, back in 2017 as Max Verstappen prevailed at that time, but that was a totally different car era compared to these 2026 Technical Regs era cars. So, you knew this would be different and that's a good thing in a series that you basically know that one of 8 drivers from the top 4 teams (out of a total of 22 drivers on the track) will win each race. Just the facts.

Just a fascinating race really. It's really complicated to give sentence by sentence rehash of this race so I'm going to provide a series of important bullet points for this race instead:

• The track setting was very hot (90 degrees) and about 50% humidity leading up to race day with very high tyre degradation having the teams look at the potential for a 3-stop race, which is highly unlike most races that are one or two stops max. But I really like this strategy component as it adds to the overall product.

• Mercedes brought a new series of 7 upgraded parts for their car and were trying to get them to work. But as was said "all upgrades don't guarantee positive results" and overall, throughout the whole weekend it seems that instead of helping to gain 0.3 seconds a lap that the Silver Arrows were behind by about that much as compared to usual with last time out race winner George Russell tumbling down to 8th on the grid in Qualifying.

• Red Bull was strong from the get-go! The Red Bull/Ford power unit got their very first pole position with 4-time champ Max Verstappen earning a hard-fought pole. His first of the year!

• Ferrari were good early also, especially Lewis Hamilton who stormed through qualifying and sat on the Front Row with Verstappen.

• The McLarens were just on the back foot the whole weekend and couldn't find the pace they needed to and settled for 6th and 7th in qualifying.

• Well, I guess all it took was for me to say bad things about Astin Martin and the green cars came to life in Malaysia with Fernando Alonso earning 12th and Lance Stroll down in 14th, but that is WAY better than they have done all season long. So, shout out to them. I know it has not been easy.

• On to the race! All teams were really concerned about the high tyre degradation due to the heat and the abrasion of the track surface. But that all changed as the pop-up rain came calling and it was a washout and caused the race to be pushed back about 45 minutes and the temperature of the track plumetted.

• On the formation lap, they were going so slow that about half the cars including Verstappen and Hamilton at the front were stopped or heavily slowed on track. This caused a red flag situation, and all cars went to pit lane where they could change tyres to whatever they wanted. So do you put on intermediate tyres what have ridges and can repel some water and give you better grip or do you go with slicks and gamble that the track will dry fast, which it is reported to do and not have to pit for slicks later. Tough call.

• Well, this formed a group of intermediate cars vs a group of slicks cars. It turned out that the intermediates were the right call as they opened an over a minute lead in the race before the track dried enough to get their speed back up, which is plenty of time to come into the pits and change tyres and then get back out front of the original slicks guys.

• But on the standing start, the Mercedes were rockets and blew by everyone into Turn 1 and assumed the lead of the raced with Verstappen in 3rd. Max would pass Russell, but Antonelli held onto the lead for a while.

• But Valtrie Botas went off the track on lap 9 and brought most of the field into the pits. On the restart, Verstappen took the outside line and eventually passed Antonelli. Thing was that Russell followed Verstappen and got around his teammate and led until lap 21 where Antonelli made a great move and repassed Russell.

• All the while Hamilton, refused to come into the pits and talked his team out of an early pit stop and kept track position and kept going and climbing. Guts!!!!

• Then out of nowhere, George Russell's power unit went out (on lap 50 of 55), and he was forced to retire from the race. That is the 4th time this year for the team and 3rd for Russell. You have to have luck to win the F1 title and Russell really hasn't had much this year!

• Lewis Hamilton on that restart would close in and ultimately pass Isaac Hadjar and gain 3rd place and was on the podium. GREAT drive! But you know he was upset at what might have been had he/his team selected the intermediate tyres at the beginning of the race. What might have been!

• And Max Verstappen wins the Bahrain Grand Prix! His first win this season and marks the first win for a Red Bull/Ford power engine! That's significant. Heck it is the first win for anything other than a Mercedes power unit this year.

• Kimi Antonelli finishes second and now leads the World Championship by 84 points. That is HUGE! He could clinch the drivers' championship in the next 2 or 3 races if things go his way and they mostly have this year!

• On to Singapore this coming week. Singapore is just a Valtrie Bottas bike ride (about 220 miles) down the road! Yes, Bottas is actually biking to the race. He left on Monday morning. Wow!

The Singapore Grand Prix is always interesting. It was F1's first ever night race; just a lot of uniqueness there alone with its great night skyline and lights and post-race fireworks make it a highlight on the F1 calendar. But it is one of the most if not the most physically challenging race the drivers face all season. They have cooling suits to help them deal with the persistent heat and grind this track puts on them.

2026 was the first race weekend where a Sprint Race was also incorporated here as well. That means more spectacle to watch, but much fewer chances to tweak the cars. So, there is a tradeoff for sure. The Mercedes of George Russell was very strong early on. Mercedes came from the last race in Malaysia where they introduced new parts that they refer to as an Upgrade, but that Upgrade was more of a downgrade in Malaysia. But when you are speaking about improving by tenths of a second to make a major difference it can certainly be tough to immediately get those results. With all that, Mercedes chose to keep the Upgrade on Kimi Antonelli's car and revert to the previous Baku version of the car that Russell won on for George's car and he was fast early and when they qualified for the Sprint Race he ran a great final Q3 lap to end on the front row in P2 alongside the Pole Sitter Max Verstappen of Red Bull. Verstappen was a Beast this weekend. He really wanted to win everything this weekend. Singapore was one of only 2 tracks where he has competed and not won the Grand Prix (the other being Madrid and the Spanish Grand Prix). Charles LeClerc (Ferrari) also had a good weekend and was particularly strong in the qualifying sessions, where he was P3 in the spring and P2 just clipping his teammate (Lewis Hamilton, who had a tough weekend). The McLarens were just medium and came in 4th and 5th in the Sprint Qualifying. Kimi Antonelli the Mercedes Championship points leader was down in 7th still struggling (7 tenths down to Verstappen) with the new Upgrade package. But Mercedes were invested with it because it would take over 2 hours to revert back to the old package, so that was not an option.

So, for the Sprint, guess what? It rained! Heavily but unevenly. So much so, that part of the 3-mile-long track had puddles of water on it while other sections were relatively dry. This caused F1 to mandate Intermediate tyres for all cars (smart move). But it was dicey off the standing start and George Russell powered into the lead beating Verstappen to Turn 1 and taking the Sprint Lead. He was in control as he headed into the final turn of lap one and went slightly wide and as he touched the white painted line his rear tyres lost grip and he spun and lightly hit the inside wall at Turn 15 ending his Sprint Race. The guy just doesn't have any luck this season. Verstappen would go on to win the Sprint Race. The Ferrari's were 2nd and 3rd and Antonelli climbed into 4th. Antonelli was in 4th because the McLarens hit each other on the last lap where Lando Norris' front wheel hit Oscar Piastri's back wheel and took the Aussi out of the Sprint Race. Norris recovered for 10th. McLaren head brass were NOT happy about that as McLaren are now in a real fight with Red Bull for 3rd place in the Constructors Championship and it means millions of dollars, so it's a big deal. Norris later apologized and it was his fault as he would have gained little with the pass; he isn't in the Championship Race, but he's a racer I get that, but he blew it there!

On to Qualifying which was just a few short hours after the 20-lap Sprint Race! Wow! You better eat your Wheatie's in Singapore! The track was relatively dry for Qualifying and Verstappen was the car/driver to beat for sure. He put in some great laps and earned his first Pole Position ever at Singapore with a one lap time over the 3 miles track of 1:31.373 seconds. Lewis Hamilton looked to be on the front row, but Charles LeClerc pulled a great lap out just to clip his teammate for the front row. Kimi Antonelli was 4, but this time legitimately. The young 20-year-old, soon to be champion made up toughly 5 tenths of a second as Mercedes were starting to find the window of where to put the car to operate more efficiently. He is a really super driver at such a young age! The McLarens were 5th and 7th split by George Russell in 6th. But Russell was forced to endure a grid penalty for a new power unit. Just more bad luck for Russell.

On to the race! At the standing start, LeClerc had a better launch than Verstappen but IMO LeClerc game him too much room into Turn 1 and Verstappen held the lead out of the first corner and that was basically it for the overall race as Verstappen was never really threatened again, although LeClerc did stay with the Dutchman early in the race.

Lewis Hamilton pitted first of anyone trying the undercut approach pitting on lap 18. Those around him (LeClerc in front and Antonelli behind) didn't pit until lap 23 and 24. But Lance Stroll, the human Chicane, brought out Virtual Safety Car on lap 39. LeClerc and Antonelli pitted, but Hamilton chose to stay out and gain track position. It proved to be a poor one for the 7-time World Champion. Hamilton simply couldn't keep competitors behind on the oldest tyres on the track and slide all the way down to 6th place. He apologized to the team on the radio after the race. That's the thing about F1; Hamilton makes the call the previous race (Malysia) where he chose to stay out and it got Hamilton on the podium. In Singapore, he does the same thing, and it takes a podium away from him. Tough call, but this is where his LONG-term relationship with Bonnington is missed most IMO as Hamilton listened to him. I think he is just making his own calls now, which he has a right to, but he needs that sounding board IMO.

His Teammate Charles LeClerc had a great race really and finishes in 2nd place. Kimi Antonelli kept it clean and came home in 3rd on the podium but some are calling foul on this as he was noted with 4 track limit penalties meaning he should have had a 5 second penalty which would have promoted Lando Norris to the 3rd place spot. But a deeper technicality of the track limits rule states the track limits cannot be done while the driver has a counting lap. That means out-laps or laps where you are getting back up to speed do not count in this tally. One of the 4 track limit penalties was on an outlap and therefore was not levied on the young driver. Interesting, but shows the luck he has and where his teammate doesn't. Russell would drive well and end up coming from the back and ending up 9th. Not bad for a track that is hard to pass on.

As for the non-Big 4 teams, Liam Lawson is in great form at the moment. He drove great in the sprint finishing 5th in very tricky conditions earning 4 of a possible 8 points. Then qualified 9th and drove a great race and finished 7th; higher than anyone else in the midfield. He may get a look at a Big 4 team sometime soon. But I think the Kimi Antonelli effect hurts a guy like Lawson, as seeing a team's young driver come up and have near-term success makes more teams want to take a chance on a new younger driver. But Lawson has had a great year! Really impressed with him.

Nico Hulkenburg also drove great this weekend ending up 8 and keeping George Russell behind him at the end of the Grand Prix! Well done!

Next up: The United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas in 2 weeks! Going to be a fun race.

Kimi Antonelli will have a real chance to win the outright Driver's Championship in Austin! Tune in!