Lewis Hamilton has all but given up his 2026 title fight.

“There’s no stopping him and Mercedes this year. I think they’ve done a phenomenal job and they deserve it,” Hamilton said after retiring at the inaugural Madring race.

The Ferrari driver had started third and was inside the podium places when the brakes on his SF-26 began to fail in the opening laps of the race. Max Verstappen had briefly muscled past him at the opening chicane before stewards ordered the Red Bull driver to give the position back.

“Braking into Turn 5, I had hit the brake, the car started stopping and then the pedal took a step and the car didn’t decelerate as fast as it would normally and I ended up carrying a lot of speed in and… brushed the barrier,” Hamilton told reporters.

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“After that, the pedal came back, it was fine, and then a few corners later the pedal went long. Don’t really know where that’s come from.”

Ferrari called him in on lap seven. He was last on the road by then, passed on lap six by Verstappen and team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton believed he had a winning car

Hamilton was clear about what he thought had been possible in Madrid.

“I think we had the car to fight for a win today, and unfortunately it just didn’t work out,” he said.

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Leclerc salvaged fourth in the sister car, but that did little to soften the weekend. The previous Sunday at Monza, Leclerc had lost his SF-26 through the Parabolica on lap two of the Italian Grand Prix and slammed into the barriers, red-flagging the race and leaving Ferrari with no points from either car at their home round.

Two back-to-back weekends, two Ferrari retirements from strong grid positions.

76 points became 101

Kimi Antonelli, who took Hamilton’s old seat at Mercedes for 2026, won at Madrid for his eighth victory of the season. He now leads George Russell by 81 points; Hamilton, third in the standings, is a further 20 points adrift.

Before the race, Hamilton trailed by 76 points and had been within 32 as recently as the British Grand Prix in July.

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Nine races remain on the 2026 calendar. Ferrari left Madrid with 12 points from Leclerc’s fourth and none from Hamilton’s DNF, his first non-finish of the season.

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