Lewis Hamilton ended a 41-race wait for victory and claimed his first win for Ferrari at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, snapping Mercedes' perfect 2026 record on a sweltering Sunday that turned on tyre strategy and a perfectly timed Virtual Safety Car.
It was Hamilton's first win since the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix in Mercedes colours, and at 41 it made him the seventh-oldest race winner in F1 history. George Russell finished second for Mercedes and Lando Norris third for McLaren — the first all-British podium since the 1968 United States Grand Prix.
The decisive call came from the Ferrari pit wall. While Mercedes ran a two-stop, Ferrari committed Hamilton to three stops, pitting him early to undercut and again on lap 28. When Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin stopped on track and triggered a Virtual Safety Car, Hamilton was able to take his final stop while losing minimal time, emerging in front on fresher tyres. "It's the critical moment. We have our chance," his engineer told him, as reported by The Guardian. From there he pulled clear to win by 19.5 seconds.
Crossing the line, an emotional Hamilton could barely contain himself on team radio. "You've helped me achieve this dream and I can't thank you enough," he said, in comments carried by Sky Sports. "I'm so proud of you. To my family, I love you. To my fans, thank you for continuing to remind me who I am."
Afterwards he reflected on a moment he had imagined for decades. "I watched Ferrari have all that success when I was younger, watching it on TV and as I have been racing, I've always watched the screens and wondered what it will be like to win in that car and it has come," Hamilton told the BBC. He credited the execution, too: "Great pit stops today, great strategy. The car felt fantastic. Forza Ferrari."
For Russell, pole position turned into frustration as his hard-tyre pace faded in the second half. "I made a great start, the first stint was solid, but the last two stints on the hard [tyres] wasn't good enough," he told The Guardian. "I'm coming out of this race thinking the performance was not strong enough. I'm going to control the controllables and keep trying to apply pressure."
The result, combined with championship leader Kimi Antonelli's late retirement, cut Hamilton's title deficit to 41 points — and that prospect clearly unsettles his old boss. Mercedes principal Toto Wolff, speaking to The Guardian, made no secret of how dangerous he believes a winning Hamilton can be. "I'd rather not fight with him for a title because I know what he's capable of," Wolff said. "If he smells blood, he goes. I've seen it many years where suddenly the Lewis Hamilton train started to go, and it's very difficult to stop it."
Behind the podium, Max Verstappen took fourth for Red Bull ahead of Piastri and Hadjar. Ferrari's joy was only partial: Charles Leclerc, recovering from a qualifying crash, retired late with a steering problem. Formula 1 now pauses before the Austrian Grand Prix on June 26-28.
---
