Amended F1 2026 Spanish Grand Prix starting grid with all late penalties applied by the FIA

Hamilton looking cheekily at Norris who is smiling, stood under the same umbrella in Ferrari and McLaren kit respectively — Photo: © IMAGO

Spanish Grand Prix

Amended F1 2026 Spanish Grand Prix starting grid with all late penalties applied by the FIA

The grid is set for the Madring later today

Graham Shaw Consultant Editor

Digital sports specialist running global brands for 30 years

Sunday 13 September 2026 08:01

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The starting grid is set for the first ever Spanish Grand Prix to take place at the new Madring circuit later today (Sunday September 13).

Defending world champion Lando Norris (McLaren) will start from P1 after qualifying on pole by just one hundredth of a second from championship leader Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes).

Max Verstappen produced a terrific lap for Red Bull to claim P3, ahead of Ferrari pair Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. The entire world will be looking out for more first-lap fireworks after that early contact at Monza between the men from Maranello.

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George Russell's fading title hopes suffered another major blow as he could only qualify P6 - four places behind his Mercedes team-mate Antonelli.

So far we have two penalties which change the grid - Aston Martin's Lance Stroll starts from the back after taking a 40-place grid penalty for changing power unit components.

There is also bad news for local hero Carlos Sainz, who picked up a three-place grid penalty for impeding Cadillac star Valtteri Bottas during qualifying. He drops from P17 to P20.

Carlos Sainz gets a three-place grid penalty for impeding.

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F1 Starting Grid - 2026 Spanish Grand Prix

The final starting grid, subject to final confirmation by the FIA, is as follows:

F1 Spanish Grand Prix 2026 Starting Grid
Pos	Driver	Team
1	Lando Norris	McLaren
2	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull
4	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari
5	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari
6	George Russell	Mercedes
7	Oscar Piastri	McLaren
8	Liam Lawson	Red Bull
9	Franco Colapinto	Alpine
10	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi
12	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi
13	Esteban Ocon	Haas
14	Pierre Gasly	Alpine
15	Yuki Tsunoda	Racing Bulls
16	Alex Albon	Williams
17	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin
18	Sergio Perez	Cadilac
19	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac
20	*Carlos Sainz	Williams
21	Ollie Bearman	Haas
22	** Lance Stroll	Aston Martin

* Carlos Sainz starts P20 after a three-place grid penalty for impeding in qualifying.

** Lance Stroll starts P22 after a 40-place grid penalty for using power unit components outside of his allotted allowance.

Written by

Graham Shaw - Consultant Editor

Digital sports leader with 30 years of senior level experience running global brands. Built sportinglife.com to be a behemoth in the UK as well as being in charge of the Planet Sport network of sites including planetf1.com, football365.com, teamtalk.com and planetrugby.com. Then grew goal.com to be the world's biggest soccer website in 18 languages and 37 territories. Was GM of Portals for Perform Group (now DAZN) with overall responsibility for sportingnews.com, spox.de and voetbalzone.nl.

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F1 Spanish Grand Prix Madring