Hamilton Back on Top

Lewis Hamilton has been one of the greatest drivers to take the wheel in Formula 1. He started out nearly two decades ago with McLaren, where he became Formula One’s youngest world champion at the time in 2008. He would later sign with Mercedes, and go on to dominate the 2010s with 6 more titles. 

As the years passed, Hamilton faced increasing competition, particularly from Max Verstappen. And despite all the titles with Mercedes, Hamilton would leave them at the end of the 2024 season to join Ferrari. He had his most recent win that year as well, in the Belgian Grand Prix where he was awarded the win after George Russell (who finished P1) was disqualified for his car being underweight. Hamilton hasn’t celebrated on top of the podium since his home race at Silverstone that same year. 

Since then, Hamilton has seen a tough year at Ferrari, struggling through most of the 2025 season, not making it to the podium all year. However, things began looking up this year, as Lewis Hamilton has come back to form, with three podium finishes in the earlier parts of the season, and now he continues his impressive momentum with his best result yet.

Hamilton had already set a good pace earlier this weekend, qualifying at P2, just behind his former teammate George Russell. Hamilton continued to have a good pace throughout the race, keeping pace with the ever so fast Mercedes. 

While the Mercedes drivers battled again, Hamilton was gaining ground. Soon, after the Mercedes Drivers pitted, Hamilton found himself at the front of the pack. Things would soon take a big turn in Hamilton’s favor as his former rival, Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin broke down, bringing out a Virtual Safety Car. This gave Hamilton a perfect opportunity to get into the pit for a fresh set of tyres.

Hamilton was able to make it out of the pit lane, just ahead of George Russell. With fresh tyres and perfect timing, Hamilton was able to run away with the lead, all the way to the checkered flag. This marks Hamilton’s first victory with Ferrari, and makes him the oldest driver to win a Grand Prix since 1970. 

The same feeling of triumph eluded his teammate, Charles Leclerc, who, for the second weekend in a row, has failed to finish the race. Leclerc found himself in the barrier last week at his home race in Monaco, and this week found himself facing a power steering issue, resulting in him going off-track and then taking a trip to the pits.

George Russell Back on Podium as Antonelli’s win streak Comes to an End

The same story of triumph and tragedy echoed through Mercedes. Mercedes has been dominant from the start of the season, with George Russell opened the season as the championship favorite after winning the Australian Grand Prix. Things soon flipped, as 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli took the next six races, while Russell fell behind the pace of his young teammate.

The two teammates continued their on-track battle this weekend. Earlier in the race their battle had allowed Lewis Hamilton to catch up to them. Later in the race, the two drivers found themselves in a battle for second. Russell was defending P2 as he tried to get some much-needed points. Meanwhile Antonelli was hot on his heels, fighting to continue his impressive second season. The pair went wheel-to-wheel, and eventually Antonelli was able to get past Russell. 

This was a short-lived victory, as only moments later Antonelli’s car broke down, ending the young driver’s impressive 6-race podium streak. Meanwhile, the path was clear for Russell to claim P2, and his first podium finish since round 2 in China. 

Lando Norris Gets Second Podium of the Season

This year has been a tough one for the defending champions. McLaren had a dominant 2025 season, but both Oscar Piastri and defending champion Lando Norris have faced multiple issues with reliability, facing several DNFs and DNSs

While McLaren has struggled to match its dominant 2025 campaign, Barcelona offered some encouragement. Norris finished third to secure his second podium of the season, while Oscar Piastri brought home a fifth-place finish.

Yet Again, More DNFs

Earlier today, a bunch of teams raced for 24-hours straight in a little known endurance race known as The 24 Hours of Le Mans. Meanwhile every F1 team’s best hope is that they can get through 2 hours of racing as they all try to perfect that whole reliability part of building a car. The first to suffer this was Lance Stroll who made it five laps into the race before his Aston Martin’s gearbox gave out. 

Later laps claimed Valtteri Bottas, Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso, Alexander Albon, Oliver Bearman, Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli, although Albon did manage to get back on the track in time to finish the race 11 laps behind the rest. 

As for now, Kimi Antonelli is still at the top of the drivers’ standings, although now Hamilton has shaved the margin down to 41 points.