The McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team finished the opening 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship European double-header with a podium finish for Lando Norris as the reigning World Champion secured P3 at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. Sharing the rostrum with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, Lando's trophy contributed to a historic milestone, marking Formula 1's first all-British podium line-up since 1968.
This, alongside Oscar Piastri's P5 finish at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, means that together with Ferrari, McLaren Mastercard scored the most Championship points this weekend with an overall total of 25.
With the challenges of hot conditions and high tyre degradation, the MCL40 showcased its core strengths, proving it has the pace to battle for podiums. However, further development is required to bridge the gap and challenge for victories with the two teams currently ahead.
Moving from the fourth most competitive car in Monaco to the third this weekend is pleasing, but the team's primary goal is to find the final few tenths of a second required to win.
This therefore highlights that the season will be decided by car development with key areas of focus including aerodynamics, adding downforce, and optimising tyre performance in both Qualifying preparation and race degradation. Consequently, McLaren Mastercard remains committed to continuous development throughout this long season with a clear pathway in place.
This afternoon, Lando's pace looked good but there is a requirement to review the Number 81 car's performance.
Overall, this weekend's performance represents a strong step forward from the recent challenges in Monaco and on Sunday in Canada. Thanks to excellent execution from both the garage and the pit crew during today's stops, alongside a strong amount of data collected over the last few rounds to analyse, the team is in a good position to make further steps forward. McLaren Mastercard now look forward to returning to Woking and working hard over the upcoming break ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.
Andrea Stella: "We saw a definite step forward today in our ability to compete with the front-runners, which is encouraging after the difficulties we faced in the last couple of races. It's good news that we were able to stay with Mercedes, and we can take positives from our improved reliability this weekend. However, Ferrari has clearly made significant performance gains, with recent upgrades now positioning them as race winners. Therefore, as competitors, we know there is more to do.
"Our analysis is very clear: we are reasonably competitive in the high-speed sections but need to add aerodynamic grip to improve in the medium- and low-speed corners, where we are currently losing out.
"Today, the key differentiator in the race came down to tyre management. The way the car and driver interact with the tyres over a long stint is an area we must investigate and improve upon. Reviewing strategy is also an area to highlight as the three-stop option may have been the better route. However, ultimately Lewis Hamilton looked the strongest on the day with Ferrari in condition to contest at the front regardless.
"Our focus is entirely internal at the moment: we have a clear development path to add performance to the car and will continue to bring upgrades. We need to maintain these high standards and concentrate on our own trajectory, making sure we improve race by race to close the gap to the leaders.
"The team both trackside and in Woking have worked extremely hard over the last two race weekends while experiencing the range of ups and downs this sport presents. I'm proud of everyone's commitment and resilience to work together in the McLaren way. We will now review the double-header before moving forward with our focus on the Austrian Grand Prix."
George Russell finished second whilst Kimi Antonelli retired four laps from the end of Sunday's Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. It was a tricky afternoon for the team with the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton and the McLaren of Lando Norris putting our duo under pressure throughout. Having started on the Medium compound, both George and Kimi ran a traditional Medium-Hard-Hard two-stop strategy. However, it was the three-stopping Ferrari of Hamilton who gained the advantage by being able to take a cheap final stop under a Virtual Safety Car period and return to the track in the lead. In the closing stages, Kimi moved past George to take P2 on track before suffering a race ending electrical shutdown moments later. George therefore re-inherited P2 but it was valuable points lost for both team and driver in the World Championships. With victory, Hamilton narrows Kimi's advantage in the Drivers' standings to 41 points whilst the team holds a 72-point advantage in the Constructors'.
Toto Wolff: Congratulations to Lewis (Hamilton). It has been a while since his last victory, and he has worked incredibly hard to earn the top spot again. We always say that if it can't be one of our two drivers then we hope it is him. Despite the Virtual Safety Car helping him at the final stop, he drove a great race and is a fully deserving winner. I am also happy for Fred (Vasseur). Being the Team Principal of Ferrari is not easy, and I am pleased for him as my friend.
It is disappointing that we've suffered another reliability issue that has cost us a lot of points today. We know that we will need to improve this if we are to fight for both World Championships. It was George who suffered in Canada and today it is Kimi. We know that to finish first, first you have to finish, and we will be working flat out to make sure we improve our reliability.
Today could certainly have played out differently. George's pace in the opening stint was superb and no-one behind could touch him. He wasn't as quick on the Hard tyre though and we were kept honest throughout by both Lewis and Lando (Norris). We have seen today just how competitive the field is, and we will not have this season our own way. We will need to redouble our efforts and come back stronger in Austria.
Andrew Shovlin: Despite getting a car on the podium, we leave Barcelona with a feeling of disappointment. We were not fast enough today and know that we can't afford to be retiring with a reliability issue.
Both cars got off the line well despite being on the Medium compound and the first stint ran broadly to plan. Lewis (Hamilton) triggered the stops early and as we had to cover, that made a three-stop a little more attractive. Our simulations were still showing that a two-stop was the optimum strategy though.
Through the second stint, we didn't have the pace to build a sufficient gap to Lewis to be able to cover his three-stop with George, so we elected to commit to the two-stop to keep track position. Lewis' pace on that third stint was strong, and we were losing a bit with backmarkers, then more time with our two cars interacting. When Lando (Norris) stopped on lap 35, we had to cover with both shortly after, which ultimately created the situation where Lewis was able to benefit from the Virtual Safety Car and come out in front rather than having to overtake on track.
We'll be working hard to understand why Kimi's car stopped and similarly working out where we can find a bit more pace, as ultimately, we lacked the speed to control the race and that's what cost us the win.
Laurent Mekies: The race produced an accurate picture of where we are with our current package on this sort of track. Coming into the weekend, we knew that a power and high speed corners circuit like Barcelona would present a slightly more complicated challenge than other types of circuit. What we saw today mirrored the situation in qualifying, in that we could fight with the other top teams but we did not have the pace to challenge for the win today. To do that, we still need to find between four and five tenths. Nevertheless, we have made progress compared to where we were at the start of the season, although as always, the final tenths are going to be the hardest to find. Everyone in Milton Keynes is working flat out to bring further developments as we push to close this gap. Today, we picked up all the points that were available to us based on our pace: a very strong race from Max who was on a well-managed and quite different three-stop strategy to those ahead. As for Isack, after a dramatic launch which saw him lose several places, he stayed cool and fought back with some great overtakes and a strong pace to score good points. And from a Red Bull Ford Powertrains point of view it was great to see that all cars finished in the points.
The Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix delivered Scuderia Ferrari HP's first victory of the season thanks to Lewis Hamilton, who produced a flawless performance to secure his maiden win at the wheel of a Ferrari. Remarkably, it came at the very circuit where the great Michael Schumacher claimed his first victory in red. Today's success is Ferrari's 249th Formula 1 win, Hamilton's 106th career victory, and makes him the 41st driver to win a Grand Prix for the Maranello marque. Unfortunately, this outstanding result was tempered by the disappointment of Charles Leclerc's retirement. The Monegasque driver was forced to stop just a few laps from the finish while fighting near the front of the field due to a reliability issue.
Hamilton started from the front row on used Soft tyres and held onto second place at the start. Leclerc, who lined up tenth on new Medium tyres, made rapid progress through the field, climbing to seventh by the end of the opening lap. The race featured differing strategies and particularly strong pace from the SF-26. Hamilton built his victory on perfect tyre management and an excellent strategy, supported by flawless work from the team during his three pit stops. The key moment came on lap 40, when Fernando Alonso stopped on track, triggering a Virtual Safety Car. This allowed Hamilton to make his final pit stop in effectively half the usual time while retaining the lead ahead of the two Mercedes drivers. Once out front, Lewis made the most of having fresher tyres than his rivals, setting a pace that nobody could match. Up until his retirement, Leclerc had driven an aggressive recovery race. After breaking into the top six in the early stages, the Monegasque demonstrated a competitive pace that would have allowed him to secure a valuable haul of points. Unfortunately, with four laps remaining, a hydraulic issue forced him to retire.
Today's result marks Scuderia Ferrari HP's sixth podium finish in seven races this season, further evidence of the progress made by the team and of the value of the work carried out both at the track and in Maranello, where the aerodynamic upgrades that contributed to this victory were developed. Formula 1 now pauses for a week before returning to action on 28 June for the Austrian Grand Prix at Spielberg.
Fred Vasseur: This is a very good day for the whole team, for Lewis and for all the guys at the factory who are pushing flat-out all the time. This result is the best way to thank them. The past year and a half has been quite difficult, with plenty of ups and downs, so to win today is a huge push for us. It is a strong start to the European part of the season. Before this, we had two consecutive podium finishes in Canada and Monaco and now we can add the win, having had a strong enough pace to fight for pole yesterday.
From lap 1, we knew tyre management would be the key and in that respect Lewis did a fantastic job all race long. He was in control of the situation, pushing when we asked him to. Our strategy was aggressive but that is what you can afford to do when you have the pace for the win. Charles was unlucky as he had to retire a few laps from the end but I'm sure he will be fighting for victories together with Lewis in the coming races.
We start over again in Austria in a fortnight's time, approaching the weekend in the same way we did here, keeping in mind that we were not nowhere two weeks ago and we are not world champions today.
James Vowles, Team Principal: "An incredibly difficult Barcelona. The positives are that there is some evidence of what we need to review in terms of car setup and balance for future learning. Well done to Alex and Carlos, who really did a fantastic job all weekend to extract everything they could from the car. For Carlos there was potentially one more place in it if we had everything perfect and the VSC hadn't come out, but that's where the car pace lies and he did the best he could with it. In the case of Alex, we are going to thoroughly review his car because I don't believe we are giving him the best package possible so we will dig into that to improve it for future races. This track is an outlier, we have Austria in two weeks, and our focus is on fighting back for points again.
"Well done to Lewis. I caught up with him in Monaco and it is great to see the spring back in his step. He drove a brilliant qualifying, and a brilliant race. Well deserved."
Alan Permane: "There are mixed feelings following today's race in Barcelona. After a strong weekend, it felt as though we retreated a little bit in the race. The Alpines definitely had the measure of us today, but it also demonstrates that our ambitions and expectations are higher than what we achieved, with both cars in the points in P8 and P9 following Franco Colapinto's time penalty. We were a long way off the pace of Alpine back in Miami, which also had some high-speed corners, so we've made a big jump since then. We'll certainly be looking at our Qualifying-to-race pace, which will form much of the work we'll be doing this week to see where we could've improved. Overall, it was a decent weekend, however we're always striving to do better, and the team will be working hard to make important adjustments ahead of Austria."
Mike Krack: "A difficult weekend came to an end with a DNF for both cars. Lance reported a gearbox issue, whilst Fernando had to stop due to a problem with the battery. We'll now regroup and look ahead to Spielberg.
"I want to thank all the Aston Martin Aramco fans here - it was nice to see all the green in the grandstands and we really appreciate the support. We'll keep pushing hard to hopefully give you more to cheer about in future races."
TGR Haas F1 Team finished the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix on Sunday with Esteban Ocon taking 13th while Ollie Bearman was forced to retire.
Ocon took the start from 17th position on Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires and made up a couple of positions through the opening stint. Ocon pitted on lap 13 for White hard tires and came in again on lap 34 for Yellow mediums. Owing to the high tire degradation Ocon pitted once more on lap 61 for another set of soft tires and classified in 13th at the checkered flag.
Bearman started the race from 16th place on medium tires and held position through the first stint, before extending to lap 19 until switching to hard tires. Bearman made his second pit stop under a virtual safety car period on lap 41, coming in for soft rubber, but was forced to retire his VF-26 a handful of laps from the end.
TGR Haas F1 Team holds seventh position in the Constructors' Championship on 21 points.
Up front Lewis Hamilton claimed victory for Scuderia Ferrari, the 106th of his grand prix career, ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell and McLaren Racing's Lando Norris.
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "This weekend the car wasn't quick enough and I think operationally we weren't good enough. If you look at part of the race where Ollie was on the hard tire, his pace was decent, but from day one this weekend we didn't operate at the level we should be operating at and that has had a knock-on effect into today. In the race, communication wasn't good enough. Yes, the car needs to be improved and be faster, but we're not getting the best out of it. As a team we need to look at ourselves and improve very quickly."
Audi Revolut F1 Team was left to rue bad luck as a freak incident robbed it of a potentially strong result at the Grand Prix de Barcelona-Catalunya. Nico Hulkenberg, starting within the top ten for the first time this season, was well into the fight for a points position when gravel, kicked up by Liam Lawson's car, hit the emergency fire switch on his R26 - triggering an immediate shutdown of the car. It was an unfortunate and unpredictable end to his race, which gave no reward to a strong performance across the weekend.
On the other side of the garage, Gabriel Bortoleto delivered a strong recovery drive after a difficult start: dropping to 17th from his starting position of 12th, he climbed through the pack with an aggressive race, while nursing significant aerodynamic damage sustained from the impact with gravel kicked up by a competitor on lap one - eventually only missing out on the points as he finished 11th.
Allan McNish, Racing Director: "It was a very frustrating end to what had been a very good weekend for us as a team. Nico's car shut down after Lawson ran wide and kicked up gravel, which struck the safety fire switch. That triggered an automatic safety function designed to shut the car down in an emergency situation. Nico was able to coast back to the pits, but unfortunately that was the end of his race.
"Gabi had a difficult start and didn't get off the line well. He ended up boxed in a group of cars and was pushed into the gravel where he picked up some damage to his car. From there, he was in recovery mode, fighting his way back through the field and ultimately finishing 11th, just outside the points.
"From the team's perspective, it had been a strong weekend up until the race. It's disappointing that we couldn't convert the pace we showed into points, but the underlying performance was there. We will take the positives, keep working hard and now turn our focus to the next race in Spielberg."
Flavio Briatore: "It was a great comeback from the team today considering where we started the day. To go from starting well outside the top 10 to finishing with both cars inside the points. Our car seems to perform better and be more competitive on Sundays compared to Saturdays and we need to quickly find ways to improve our overall performance. Credit to both Pierre and Franco for their cooperation and working as a team to maximise our position in the race and score as many points as possible, which is always our number one priority. Finally, congratulations to Ferrari and Lewis [Hamilton] on the victory. It's great to see a champion like Lewis on the top step once again, so well done to them on a fantastic race."
The Cadillac Formula 1® Team has finished the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix with Checo Perez in 14th position overall following an intense race at the Spanish track.
The finish - Checo's best official finishing position this year - comes following 66 laps of strategic tire management. Valtteri Bottas retired on lap 15 as a precaution.
Cadillac Formula 1® Team will be out in action in just two weeks at round eight of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship™, the Austrian Grand Prix, with the British Grand Prix one week later.
Graeme Lowdon, Team Principal: "Going into the weekend we knew that Barcelona would be a much tougher track for us, reflecting where we are on pace right now. We nevertheless gave it every shot to race with the cars in front and achieve track position wherever possible. Checo continues our record of getting one car to the finish every time out, but sadly Valtteri experienced an issue early on and we retired from a precautionary standpoint. We now head to Austria, which will be a very different track yet again, but with some upgrades to come we are hopeful of continuing the solid progress demonstrated this year."
Lewis Hamilton has won the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, writing a new chapter in his story in red. It marks Hamilton's first victory at the wheel of a Ferrari. Behind him, George Russell finished in second place and Lando Norris in third.
From a strategic standpoint, the race was extremely interesting. Hamilton adopted a three-stop strategy: the Ferrari driver started on Softs, switching to Hards on lap 11. After lap 27 he made his second stop for Mediums, which he then replaced on lap 41, during a VSC phase, once again with Hards that carried him to victory.
While the Ferrari driver used all the available compounds, Russell and Norris relied only on Mediums and Hards. Both opted for a two-stop strategy, starting on Mediums and switching to Hards for the final two stints.
On a hot day, with track temperatures reaching 53°C, strategies ranging from two to four stops were seen, with all compounds widely used. Nine drivers used each of the three compounds selected for the race weekend.
In the championship battle, Hamilton has reduced the gap to leader Kimi Antonelli. The Italian, who retired in the closing stages of the race, still leads the standings with 156 points, while Hamilton now trails by 41. George Russell occupies third place with 106 points, 50 behind the leader.
Dario Marrafuschi: "The Barcelona Grand Prix was one of the most interesting races since the start of the season, particularly with regard to tyre usage. Tyres played a central role: aided by pronounced degradation, due to the high temperatures and the choice of softer compounds compared to 2025, they became the key pieces in an intense game of chess, highlighting both the drivers' skills and the teams' strategic capabilities.
"The two-stop strategy proved very effective in terms of race pace, but the real winning move was the insight shown by some teams in opting directly for three pit stops on Sunday. Scuderia Ferrari, for example, chose to differentiate the strategies between its two drivers. Leclerc, starting from tenth position, pitted twice, while the decision to stop Lewis Hamilton three times delivered the Briton his first victory in red.
"By significantly anticipating the first stop compared to the recommended windows, the team maximised the undercut, forcing their rivals to respond on the same strategy. It was an option that Ferrari had likely already identified from the outset as the most competitive for Hamilton. The advantage was then managed all the way to the chequered flag, also thanks to the time gained during a Virtual Safety Car.
"No significant changes were observed in tyre behaviour compared to Friday's second free practice session. Tyre management and track evolution helped to slightly reduce degradation in the final stints, as did the use of both sets of Hard tyres retained by some teams.
"The Medium was probably the most effective compound over race distance, offering an excellent balance between grip and degradation. The two Ferrari drivers demonstrated this in the third stint by adopting different strategies: before his retirement, Leclerc was unable to match his team-mate's pace.
"All three compounds selected for the weekend were nonetheless used in the race. Even the Soft, despite its rapid performance drop-off, found a place in strategies, both at the start and in the closing stages, with mixed results."
