Antonelli won the first Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid from second on the grid, 4.351 s ahead of Verstappen. Norris, on pole, was third, 5.089 s back. Leclerc, who led more laps than anyone, was fourth. There was no Safety Car. The race was neutralised once, by a Virtual Safety Car on lap 14, and that decided the front of the order.
Race trace, full race: every driver's position, lap by lap.
Ten cars, one cheap stop
The VSC was deployed 2.5 s before Norris crossed the line to complete lap 14. He stayed out. Ten cars behind him, Antonelli, Verstappen and Russell among them, stopped while the field was slowed. Norris came in on lap 15, 14 s after the VSC ended, and paid the full price of a stop at racing speed.
At the end of lap 13 Antonelli was 6.1 s behind Norris. At the end of lap 16 he was 15.6 s ahead. Norris rejoined fifth, behind Leclerc, Antonelli, Verstappen and Russell. From lap 16 to the flag Antonelli finished every lap ahead of Norris.
Leclerc's lead was a stop he had not made
Leclerc started fifth on hards and stayed out under the VSC. That put him in front from lap 16 to lap 47, 32 laps. The lead was never large. His margin over Antonelli peaked at 3.74 s on lap 30 and was 1.18 s at the end of lap 47.
The VSC stop had cost Antonelli 9.2 s against Leclerc, who stayed out: 7.7 s ahead at the end of lap 13, 1.5 s behind at the end of lap 16. Leclerc's own stop, on lap 48 at racing speed, cost him 27.8 s against Antonelli: from 1.18 s ahead to 26.6 s behind. His long first stint needed a gap of about half a minute to pay off; he had about a second. He finished 29.1 s behind the winner.
Norris had the pace, not the place
Norris was not slow. He led the first 15 laps, and over the 51 laps both McLarens ran clean he was quicker than Piastri on 49. On hards after his stop he closed on Leclerc from 17.1 s at the end of lap 16 to 3.2 s at the end of lap 47, and took third when Leclerc stopped on lap 48. The VSC lap he could not undo: he finished 0.74 s behind Verstappen.
Verstappen, third on the grid and the only one of the front three to start on softs, stopped under the same VSC, moved up to second when Leclerc pitted and held it to the flag.
The faster Mercedes finished fifth
Antonelli was not the quickest driver in his own team. Russell was faster on 27 of their 52 shared laps and set the race's fastest lap, 1:35.587 on lap 49. He also stopped under the VSC, but ran three stints (hard, medium, hard) and made a second stop at racing speed on lap 28. Antonelli stopped once, at the cheapest moment of the race.
Hamilton, who started fourth, retired after six laps. Our feed does not show why he stopped.
What the data does not show
Our timing shows when the VSC was declared and when each car crossed the line, not whether Norris could still reach the pit entry; 2.5 s before the line may already have been too late. So we call it the stop he did not make, not a mistake. The cause of the VSC is not in our feed either.