Race results
01
Talking Bull break down the race in Madrid
25 min
Back In The Fight! Talking Bull Debrief the Spanish Grand Prix 2026
Join Tommo McCluskey and Calum Nicholas as they debrief the Race Weekend at the at the Madring Circuit, presented by AvaTrade.
02
Hear from the Team after the Spanish Grand Prix
1 min
Hear from the Team after the Spanish Grand Prix 2026
Max and Liam debrief their races in Madrid
03
Max makes Madring magic with P2
Max Verstappen took a superbly controlled second place in the inaugural race at the Madring, holding McLaren’s Lando Norris at bay in the closing stages to take his sixth podium finish of the season behind race winner Kimi Antonelli. Liam Lawson doubled the celebrations with a strong climb from eighth on the grid to P6 at the flag.
“For us it’s a great result,” said Max afterwards. “Lando got unlucky with that VSC, so for us I think today P2 is an incredible result because you could see how much Lando was catching me. Around here you can’t pass, so I could keep him behind. And for us, of course, to be P2 is incredible.”
When the lights went out at the start, Max got away well but had to defend from a hard-charging Lewis Hamilton through Turn 1. Max was forced to cut the corner, but he rejoined ahead of the Ferrari driver. Ahead, Kimi was tangling with polesitter Lando, and the Italian went off track at Turn 5 and rejoined ahead of the McLaren. When Kimi handed the place back, Max pounced, slipping past the Mercedes to take second place. Further back, Liam, starting on Hard tyres, lost a place to Alpine’s Franco Colapinto but held his P8 starting position as McLaren’s Oscar Piastri dropped back after clipping the back of George Russell’s Mercedes.
Max began to chase after Lando, but the Team was soon on the radio, telling the Dutchman that he needed to give a place back to Lewis. Max complied on lap 4, but it meant allowing both Kimi and Lewis past, which almost allowed Charles Leclerc to attack as well. Max resisted, however, and slotted into fourth.
That became third on the following lap. Lewis suddenly slowed, reporting a long brake pedal. As the Ferrari driver was forced to brake early for corners, Max swept past on lap 5 and resumed his starting position, though he was now four seconds behind Kimi.
Liam was also on the move. After picking up a place as Lewis dropped to the rear of the field, the Kiwi uncorked himself from behind Franco on lap 10 with a good move into Turn 5 that promoted him to P6.
On lap 14, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll hit the barriers and a VSC was deployed. That gave Max the chance to make a cheap pit stop to shed his used Soft tyres. As Lando missed the pit entrance before the VSC was called, Max and Kimi pitted. Max fitted a set of Hard tyres and resumed in fourth place.
Lando looked to pit next time round, but the track went green just as he headed into the pit entry. When a wheel-gun issue on the front right led to a seven-second halt, the McLaren driver dropped back to fifth place. Charles, on the starting Hards, now led the race, with Kimi in second and Max in P3 on a new set of C2 tyres, eight seconds behind the new race leader and seven behind the Mercedes. Behind them, Liam, on Hard tyres, stayed out and continued in P5, six seconds behind Lando.
Just after half distance, George pitted ahead of a hard-charging Norris, putting the McLaren driver in P4, six seconds behind Max. George, meanwhile, rejoined in P6, just 3.3s behind Liam, who rose to fifth. The New Zealander’s starting Hard tyres were beginning to fade, however, and on lap 34 he made a small mistake into Turn 7. George pounced on the error and slipped past, dropping Liam to P6 once more.
On lap 43, Oscar went for an undercut on Liam, but the Australian came out behind a three-car battle involving Franco Colapinto, Gabriel Bortoleto and Arvid Lindblad. This gave Liam some breathing room, and after a strong in-lap, Liam made his pit stop. It was clean, and when he emerged he slotted in ahead of Gabriel, Franco and the frustrated Oscar.
Further ahead, Charles’ pace on aged Hard tyres was beginning to flag, allowing Kimi, Max and Lando to close right up behind the Ferrari driver, who was hanging out for a Safety Car.
It didn’t come, and on lap 49 Charles pitted for a set of Soft tyres, dropping to fourth, 24.5s behind Lando. At the front, Kimi now led, but Max was just 1.2s behind the Italian, while Lando was only half a second behind the Dutchman.
The McLaren driver soon ducked into Overtake Mode range, but though he piled on the pressure, Max kept his cool. Over the remaining laps, he hardly put a foot wrong as he raced to his 133rd career podium.
“I just kept the car in the middle, I think that works quite well around here,” he laughed when asked about keeping Lando behind. “And of course, yeah, just trying to keep the grip in the tyres, which I think was probably the hardest part of that final stint.”
Behind the top three, Charles took fourth for Ferrari ahead of George, while Liam took a strong sixth place, his best result with the Team. Franco was seventh ahead of Oscar, while VCARB’s Arvid Lindblad again finished in the points with P9, ahead of Audi’s Nico Hülkenberg.