Buy tickets<\/a><\/p>\nAntonelli appeared on course to finish second after making a late move on Mercedes teammate George Russell, which would have ensured Hamilton\u2019s win only made a modest dent in his championship advantage.<\/p>\n
But with five laps remaining, Antonelli slowed and pulled to the side of the circuit, recording his first retirement of the season.<\/p>\n
In the space of a few laps, Hamilton had gone from making useful ground to slashing Antonelli\u2019s lead from 66 points to 41.<\/p>\n
That leaves the 41-year-old less than two race wins away in points terms from the championship leader, reigniting a title push that had looked unlikely after a miserable first season with Ferrari.<\/p>\n
Hamilton failed to score a single podium in 2025 and ended the year sixth in the standings, his second-lowest championship finish across his entire Formula 1 career.<\/p>\n
It was a bruising start to one of the sport\u2019s biggest ever driver moves, and raised questions over whether Hamilton would ever return to genuine title contention.<\/p>\n
Barcelona offered a very different answer.<\/p>\n
The key question now is whether Barcelona was a one-off high or the start of a genuine title charge.<\/p>\n
Ferrari\u2019s race pace was emphatic, with Hamilton beating Russell by 19.4 seconds and controlling the final stint once he emerged from his last stop in the lead.<\/p>\n
Russell, who had led much of the race before Hamilton\u2019s alternate strategy came alive, conceded Ferrari had shown serious pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday was a real surprise for us as a team. And then the pace today was insane from Lewis. So yeah, they\u2019re coming I think,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n
That warning will not be lost on Mercedes.<\/p>\n
Antonelli still holds a healthy lead and five wins in a row before Barcelona remains a clear reminder of his form this season.<\/p>\n
Even with his late retirement, the Italian remains the benchmark in the standings and has shown a level of consistency and speed that made his championship lead feel increasingly secure before the Spanish weekend.<\/p>\n
But Hamilton now has momentum.<\/p>\n
After claiming his first Ferrari podium with third in China, Hamilton followed it with second-place finishes in Canada and Monaco before finally ending Ferrari\u2019s victory drought in Spain.<\/p>\n
For the first time since his heartbreaking 2021 title defeat to Max Verstappen, Hamilton appears to have a realistic path back into championship contention.<\/p>\n
There is still a long way to go, and Antonelli\u2019s 41-point buffer means Hamilton cannot afford many off weekends.<\/p>\n
But after Barcelona, the question no longer feels hypothetical.<\/p>\n
So in this week\u2019s poll presented by Michelin, we ask you \u2014 will Lewis Hamilton overhaul Kimi Antonelli?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton celebrates his win in Barcelona. Image: XPB Images It took 31 races, but Hamilton finally broke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,826,813,816,10115,823,6490,85],"class_list":["post-737719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-kimi-antonelli","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-slot3","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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