Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain gestures at the podium after winning the Spain F1 Grand Prix race at the Barcelona Catalunya racetrack in Montmelo, near Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

SPAIN — Early in the weekend, most Formula 1 (F1) pundits were lauding McLaren as the team to watch in Spain as the drivers took to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya circuit for the 36th straight year. While Lando Norris relied on some luck to get his McLaren into 3rd place by the end of the race, the challenge to Mercedes drivers came not from McLaren, but the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton who won his first race with Ferrari and his 106th race in his career.

Hamilton did not participate in the first practice session as reserve driver Dino Beganovic took his seat in one of the two sessions required for new drivers to get into F1 cars. In the second practice session, topped by Norris, Hamilton found himself 1.205 seconds off the pace. By the third and final practice session, Hamilton was doing a little better, finding himself 0.702 seconds behind George Russell’s Mercedes.

Qualifying was supposed to be a shootout between Mercedes and McLaren, but Russell grabbed pole position and Hamilton, the last person to cross the line in the final session, was able to put his car in second place. Hamilton himself seemed a little surprised at his pace, but said he was pleased with the pace they’d found for his car things looked good for the race. McLaren could only manage 4th and 7th.

The Mercedes starting issues from the beginning of the season seem well and truly behind them as the first five drivers left the grid in the same position from how they started. There was no passing on track in that front group for a majority of the race, so team strategy surrounding pit stops became the thing to watch to predict how the race would unfold.

Temperatures were high in Barcelona which led to higher tire degradation at a course that is already hard on the tires. Teams knew a one-stop strategy would never work as too much time was lost per lap on older, worn-out tires. The question was if teams would do two or three stops and which tires would they use (there are three grades every weekend: soft, medium, and hard).

Hamilton started the race on soft tires which would degrade the fastest, so it was no surprise he was the first to come in for a pit stop on lap 11. Russell, who had a three-second lead over Hamilton at the time of the pit stop, was clocking slower and slower laps on his old tires and Mercedes saw Hamilton set a blistering pace on newer tires. They called Russell in for a pit stop earlier than expected in response.

While Hamilton went from soft tires to medium tires, Russell started on medium and switched to hard tires in his second stint, suggesting he was planning on a two-stop strategy while Hamilton would most likely try for three stops. On lap 25, Hamilton pitted again and put on hard tires, but Mercedes did not respond this time, leaving their drivers out.

While Hamilton caught up the Mercedes at a pace of several seconds per lap, they were more focused on making sure to cover off Norris lurking in fourth place just behind the Mercedes duo. Kimi Antonelli, Russell’s Mercedes teammate, caught up Russell and challenged him for the lead a few times. Mercedes was soon on the radio to Antonelli asking him not to fight with Russell because it was allowing Norris to catch up and decreasing the chance for both their drivers to get out ahead of Norris on the next pit stop.

Eventually, Russell, Antonelli, and Norris all came in for their second pit stops, putting on another set of hard tires to take them to the end of the race. They came out in second, third, and fourth place respectively, all behind Hamilton’s Ferrari.

On lap 39, Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin expired from not quite last place, putting the Spanish driver out of his home race which was an unhappy event for his fans, but a gift to Hamilton when the Virtual Safety Car was enacted. The amount of time lost in a pit stop drastically decreases when the field is slowed down during a safety car period, and so Hamilton was able to pit and retain the lead.

This denied us of seeing Hamilton on fresher tires after his third pit stop trying to slice his way through the field again, but all signs were pointing to the idea he could’ve done just that. Instead, he was able to stay in the lead and cruise to a victory over Russell by nearly twenty seconds.

Hamilton switched from Mercedes, where he won six driver championships, to Ferrari for the 2025 season which surprised many people. He credits Fred Vasseur, current team principal and general manager of Ferrari, as the main reason for the transition as well as a childhood dream of winning in a “prancing horse,” a nickname for Ferrari’s based on their rearing stallion emblem.

While Hamilton had his worst season ever in an F1 car last year with Ferrari when he didn’t get a single podium, his form in 2026 has been much stronger and he now has his first win. Though ecstatic about that win, he has his sights set on a championship with the scarlet Ferrari team now.

Even though Russell fell further behind Hamilton in the current F1 points standings, they both gained on Antonelli. The young Italian driver harassed Russell once again and managed a stellar pass on his teammate to take second place, but his car expired later on the lap giving him his first setback in his otherwise fantastic 2026 campaign.

Currently, Antonelli is still the youngest leader of an F1 championship series with 156 points, Hamilton is in second with 115, and Russell is in third with 106. Charles Leclerc, Hamilton’s Ferrari teammate, had another weekend where he struggled as he crashed out of qualifying and had a mechanical failure on the same lap that Antonelli did, forcing him to retire from the race. Still, Leclerc is in fourth with 75 points.

A few fun facts from the weekend: Hamilton becomes the first F1 driver over the age of 40 to win a race since Nigel Mansell did so in 1994. With Hamilton, Russell, and Norris on the podium, this was the first all-British podium in F1 since 1968. Michael Schumacher won his first race with Ferrari at the same circuit where Hamilton achieved the same success, with Schumacher’s win coming 30 years ago.

For anyone interested in attending a race at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit, consider waiting until 2036 as the years ending in a six have proved the most eventful. This racetrack joined the F1 calendar in 1991, so Schumacher’s first Ferrari win is the first entry in this category in 1996. In 2006, fan favorite Alonso won his first home grand-prix, the first Spainard to ever win a home grand prix! In 2016, 18-year-old Max Verstappen won a rain-soaked Spanish race making him the youngest ever driver to win in F1, a record that still holds.

One final thought: the San Antonio Spurs lost another double-digit lead on Saturday night, something they did in all five games of the NBA Finals, and that got me thinking as I watched this race on Sunday morning. George Russell is the Spurs equivalent in F1. He’s been doing so many things right this season and often has the lead of the race, but those behind him just keep hounding him, much like the Knicks did to the Spurs. Every time Russell thinks he’s back on the front foot, something happens like a mechanical failure or his teammate passing him on track that deals him yet another setback.

Russell will hope to get another win on June 28, at 9 a.m. Eastern Time, to fight over a win in Austria. The Mercedes stranglehold on the season was broken by Hamilton, but is that pace sustainable by Ferrari? Will Mercedes regain the lead or can a new challenger like McLaren or Red Bull find some upgrades to get them to the front? Though a lot has already happened, the season still has a long way to go, so tune in and see who can come out on top.