Formula 1 Live Ticker: The race in Madrid now live!

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In ten minutes the first Formula 1 race at the Madring begins and we are moving the action to our session ticker for now. So there is a short break here, after the finish line it continues here with the voices on the Grand Prix.

And if you want to know how to watch Formula 1 live during the Spain weekend, you can find out here.

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Zak Brown just explained on F1 TV that the pole here is “not ideal.” This was seen in the support races. In fact, the polesitter did not always come through the first corner as the leader. Let’s see how it goes shortly.

All cars made it to the starting grid. Kimi Antonelli enters this race with a 66-point lead over his teammate. This means: He will definitely continue to lead the championship after Madrid and also after the next Grand Prix in Baku – no matter what happens in these two races.

Behind him, however, the situation is exciting, as George Russell (201 points), Lewis Hamilton (191), and Lando Norris (171) are separated by only 30 points. Theoretically, pole man Norris could already move into the top 3 of the championship with a win at this Grand Prix.

40 minutes left until the first Formula 1 start at the new Madring. The pit lane is now open. Drivers have ten minutes from now to make their way to the starting grid.

Who starts on which tires, we will find out as usual only immediately before the start.

Some cars had parts replaced after qualifying. This is allowed if they are identical components. Among other things, the brake-by-wire system was changed on Lando Norris’s pole McLaren.

Opinions on how today’s race will go differ completely. Some expect a boring Grand Prix because overtaking could be so difficult.

Nico Rosberg says on Sky: “It could be a really exciting race with red flags and safety cars that could cause excitement.”

And Martin Brundle also explains: “There will be some challenges during the afternoon.” Let’s hope the experts are right.

Two Spanish drivers are starting today, but scoring points will likely be difficult for both. “I think we don’t have a car to score points,” said Carlos Sainz just now at the drivers’ parade.

Therefore, one has to hope that something happens at the front, said the Williams driver, who starts only from P20. He received a penalty yesterday for blocking Valtteri Bottas once in Q1.

“I will still enjoy every lap and do my best,” he promises. Fernando Alonso also starts only from P17 and will likely have a hard time moving towards the top 10 under normal circumstances.

Two hours to go until the start and the obligatory drivers’ parade is now taking place in Madrid. Here you can get some impressions and a few voices before the race:

One more side note: Oliver Bearman not only had the power unit replaced, he also got a new chassis for the race. Team boss Ayao Komatsu does not blame his driver.

“He always pushes to the limit and was unfortunately just on the wrong side [in FP3], which doesn’t happen to him often. That we are currently doing quite well in the championship is largely thanks to him,” Komatsu reminds.

“You can’t just look at this one scene and blame him. If we say we win and lose together, then that’s how it is,” emphasizes the team boss.

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Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic just won the Formula 2 feature race from pole. This means that in all five races this weekend in Formula 3 and Formula 2, the decision was made at the start.

Not much has changed in the championship. Red Bull’s Nikola Tsolov remained without points, Ferrari junior Rafael Camara finished tenth and thus slightly reduced his deficit to seven points.

Only 21 cars will be on the grid later. Haas replaced the power unit on Oliver Bearman after he could not drive in qualifying. He would have started only 21st anyway, now he is driving the field from the pit lane.

You can find the updated starting grid here.

Mercedes does not want to favor any driver in the championship fight. “That has been part of our task for the past twelve years: managing both sides of the team well,” explains Toto Wolff on Sky.

“When you are in the title fight, after a race one is always disappointed and the other happy,” he knows from long experience. Basically, both drivers get the same chances.

“But that does not mean we don’t make difficult decisions,” he also makes clear and emphasizes: “It is a decision you sometimes have to make – by the way in both directions, no matter who is currently ahead.”

“These are decisions you have to make to win a championship. But there will always be a balance,” Wolff emphasizes.

“We can’t wait until 2031 to have real sport again,” says Fernando Alonso, renewing his criticism of the current Formula 1 regulations, which in his opinion take away too much of the driving challenge.

Because the new track in Madrid offers some special features according to him, which do not come into play at all with the current cars. “It is in a way sad to come to such a great track like this with this generation of cars,” says Alonso.

What exactly he means by that, you can find out here.

As usual, before the race today we also take a look at the possible strategies. Although tire wear was very high on Friday, Pirelli currently expects a one-stop strategy.

The background is the difficulty of overtaking and the long pit lane. This makes an additional pit stop cost a lot of time and also carries the risk of getting stuck in traffic afterwards.

If tire wear is really that high, some teams could still opt for two stops. And as always, a safety car or a red flag could throw all plans overboard anyway…

We have a new champion: Ugo Ugochukwu secured the title just now with a second place in the Formula 3 race ahead of Audi junior Freddie Slater. The former McLaren junior thus follows in the footsteps of drivers like Oscar Piastri (2020) or Gabriel Bortoleto (2023).

The race went almost without incident and without a red flag, and here too the driver who won the start, Tuukka Taponen, had the edge in the end. The Ferrari junior thus took his first Formula 3 win at the season finale.

Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli will be on the front row later. What do they have in common? They have never won the inaugural race on a new Formula 1 track. More on this in this photo gallery:

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Photo gallery: The last 20 winners on new Formula 1 tracks