Lewis Hamilton celebrated an emotional and historic first Grand Prix victory with Ferrari on Sunday to end Kimi Antonelli’s five-race sequence of success and become, at 41, Formula One’s oldest winner since Australian Jack Brabham in 1970.
The Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix triumph was the Briton’s first win since Belgium 2024 when he was at Mercedes, his record seventh in Spain at the Circuit de Catalunya and 106th of the seven-time world champion’s extraordinary career.
Italian Antonelli, the 19-year-old championship leader for Mercedes, retired five laps from the end with an electrical shutdown while in second place and saw his lead over Hamilton slashed to 41 points. It was his first setback of an otherwise prodigious season.
George Russell finished second for Mercedes, after starting on pole and being overtaken by Antonelli late in the race, with McLaren’s reigning champion Lando Norris third.
“Grazie a tutti a Maranello,” Hamilton said over the radio in a heartfelt message of thanks to everyone at the Ferrari factory he joined from Mercedes last year.
“Thank you so much. You’ve helped me achieve this dream and I can’t thank you enough. Thanks for everyone pushing so hard back at home. I’m so proud of you.”
The win was also a first since 2024 for Ferrari, and the first time three British drivers had shared the podium since the 1968 US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen saw Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and John Surtees sweep the top three places.
Thank you so much. You’ve helped me achieve this dream and I can’t thank you enough. Thanks for everyone pushing so hard back at home. I’m so proud of you.
Late triple champion Brabham was 43 and 11 months when he took his last F1 victory in South Africa. Hamilton turns 42 next January.
In more modern times, Briton Nigel Mansell won in Australia in 1994 at 41 and three months.
“I’m just happy in my life, so I’m in a good place. I love doing what I do. There’s no greater feeling than racing a Formula One car,” said Hamilton, who benefited from a virtual safety car triggered by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso to make a cheap third stop and come out still ahead.
“There is a long, long way to go and they (Mercedes) have still got great pace, as you can see. But we are going to keep working and trying to close that gap. It’s not over, that’s for sure.”
Red Bull’s four-time world champion Max Verstappen finished fourth with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri fifth and Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar sixth.
• Meanwhile, Toyota won the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday after a Hypercar battle with BMW and Cadillac in the 94th edition of the race.
BMW had started from pole position, and Cadillac led into the final quarter, but Toyota, whose last overall win came in 2022, were first to the chequered flag with Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi at the wheel of the number seven car.
It was Kobayashi’s second Le Mans triumph after success with Toyota in 2021 and the ex-Formula One driver shared the victory with Britain’s Mike Conway and Dutch driver Nyck de Vries.
The number 20 BMW of South African Sheldon Van der Linde, German Rene Rast and Dutch driver Robin Frijns finished second with Toyota’s number eight car third.
Japan’s Ryo Hirakawa shared the eight car with Switzerland’s Sebastien Buemi and New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley.
• This article has been updated with new information.
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