Lewis Hamilton wins maiden GP with Ferrari; Heartbreak for Kimi Antonelli after car failure

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How Hamilton’s historic maiden victory in red unfolded

By Hannah Kennelly

Despite being one of the revered teams in Formula 1’s history, Ferrari often find themselves the target of online mockery and memeification.

The famous Italian team has an unfortunate recent history of making bizarre strategy calls, incorrect tyre decisions and confusing radio messages, resulting in missed opportunities and botched race wins.

However, there were no signs of poor strategy calls at the Barcelona-Catalunya GP on Sunday.

Instead, Ferrari executed a flawless three-stop race, allowing Hamilton to snatch the lead from pole-sitter George Russell and cruise to victory.

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya features a mix of high and low-speed corners and the trademark hot weather increases tyre degradation and requires a race strategy with more pit stops.

In a cat and mouse game, Ferrari chose to pit Hamilton early on lap 11, forcing all the other drivers to swarm the pitstop and alter their strategies. The seven-time world champion pitted again on lap 27 and was able to swoop on race leader Russell and snatch the lead with fresher tyres.

A fortuitous virtual safety car, allowed Hamilton to pit a third and final time and cement his maiden victory in red, with Russell finishing in second place and Lando Norris in third.

Hamilton last won a Formula 1 Grand Prix on July 28, 2024, at the Belgian Grand Prix and (excluding a sprint race win) had not tasted victory with Ferrari until today.

“Ciao grazie, thank you so much for helping me achieve this dream,” a euphoric Hamilton said over the radio.

In a post-race interview, Hamilton said the team had brought so many improvements and changes this year and thanked everyone for “never giving up”. The team brought several upgrades to Barcelona.

“And, on top of that, I’ve got the greatest fanbase a sportsman could ever ask for,” he added

A beaming and emotional Hamilton stood on top of the podium, wiping his eyes with a towel before throwing his trophy up in the air.

However, it was a heartbreaking day for championship leader Kimi Antonelli who had to retire with three laps to go.

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The youngster had snatched second place from his teammate Russell after a sensational overtake and battle, but suffered power unit issues and spluttered on to the grass.

His retirement’s granted crucial points to title rival Russell, who said it was “good to be back on the podium”. At the start of the week, Russell was in a 66-point deficit to Antonelli.

The Italian younger still leads the championship, but his lead has been shaved to 48 points after Barcelona.

It was a miserable day for Oscar Piastri who finished in fifth after struggling with pace.

Piastri would have finished in seventh (the same place he started the race) but was aided by Antonelli and Leclerc’s last-minute retirement after power unit failures.

Despite showing some pace in qualifying, Piastri was never able to compete with Mercedes or Ferrari and was marooned in seventh for nearly for the whole race.