Kimi Antonelli extended his lead in the world championship with his eighth victory of the season at the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix at the Madring on Sunday.
The 20-year-old Mercedes driver finished clear of Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Lando Norris (McLaren) and is now 81 points ahead of his nearest rival, Mercedes teammate George Russell, in the title race.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished fourth ahead of fellow Briton Russell and Liam Lawson in the second Red Bull.
Franco Colapinto (Alpine), Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) and Niko Hulkenberg (Audi) rounded out the top 10.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who had scored points in every race this season, missed out completely, retiring his Ferrari on lap seven because of brake failure.
Russell was another big loser, with the Mercedes driver suffering badly from his team’s decision to put him on a two-stop strategy — the only one of the main runners to have this — which blew his chances of a podium and left him even further behind his teammate in the title race.
Norris will also rue his team’s poor strategy.
The reigning world champion drove a blistering lap on Saturday to claim pole position and was leading comfortably until the intervention of the virtual safety car (VSC) on lap 15.
While Antonelli and Verstappen immediately dived into the pits to change their tyres, McLaren kept Norris out for an extra lap.
As he prepared to come in, the VSC finished, meaning he lost time against his rivals, and the Briton was not helped by a slow pit stop of seven seconds.
By the time he came out, Norris was down in fifth with Leclerc, who had not pitted, and Russell also ahead of him.
He clawed his way past Russell and moved into third when Leclerc finally pitted on lap 48 of the 57, at which point the lead was handed to Antonelli, who cruised home to take the chequered flag.
• Meanwhile, Marc Marquez won the San Marino MotoGP on Sunday ahead of his brother Alex to move to the top of the world championship standings.
Seven-time MotoGP champion Marquez, riding a Ducati, moves level on 274 points with Aprilia’s Jorge Martin, who finished fifth.
Marquez has the edge over Martin with more race wins this season.
Marquez completed the double, having also won Saturday’s sprint race as he targets his eighth top-class championship and his 10th overall.
The 33-year-old finished 0.657sec ahead of his younger brother riding for the Ducati-Gresini team, with Spaniard Pedro Acosta of KTM crossing in third.
Pole-sitter Marco Bezzecchi crashed out of his home race in a blow to his title hopes.
The Italian Aprilia rider, who is chasing his first MotoGP world title this year after finishing third last season, crashed on the second of the 27 laps. — AFP
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