Lewis Hamilton sees an impressive streak end after his retirement in Madrid

Lewis Hamilton’s retirement at the Spanish Grand Prix not only cost him valuable championship points. His brake failure also brought an impressive streak to an end as the Ferrari driver had finished in the top 10 in each of the first 13 rounds of the 2026 season.

Before Madrid, Hamilton was even the last driver on the grid to have scored points at every Grand Prix since the start of the year. An impressive consistency abruptly interrupted after only six laps at the Madring, when Ferrari chose to stop his car for safety reasons.

A brake failure ends his streak

Starting fourth on the grid, Hamilton had nevertheless perfectly launched his race. The Briton was particularly aggressive in the first corners before encountering his braking problem approaching turn 5.

The pedal suddenly sank more than expected, preventing his Ferrari from slowing down normally. Hamilton went wide and slightly touched the barrier, but did not feel any significant damage to his car.

“I had a good start. I didn’t see Max and I wasn’t fighting with him arriving at turn 5. But when I braked, the car started to slow down normally, then the pedal suddenly sank more and the car wouldn’t stop.”

The seven-time world champion managed to continue and, for a few corners, the problem even seemed to have disappeared.

“I went wide and that’s when I touched the barrier, but the contact really didn’t feel hard. Then the pedal returned to normal and everything was fine in the following corners, before it sank again.”

Ferrari didn’t want to take any risks

Ferrari engineers tried to fix the failure from the pit wall by asking Hamilton to adjust some settings. Since the failure was intermittent, the situation seemed temporarily manageable, but the pedal sank again shortly after.

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The Scuderia then decided it was too dangerous to continue the race. Fred Vasseur explained that Ferrari did not want to take any risks under these conditions, especially since the braking system’s behavior remained unpredictable.

The Italian team still does not know the exact cause of the failure. A thorough investigation has been launched in Maranello to identify the responsible component and determine why the problem appeared repeatedly during the first laps.

This failure now allows Lando Norris to hold the longest ongoing streak of points finishes. The McLaren driver has finished in the top ten in the last eight Grands Prix.

Hamilton’s title hopes collapse

Beyond this interrupted streak, the consequences are especially significant for the championship. Hamilton remains third with 191 points, but now trails by 101 points behind Kimi Antonelli after 14 rounds.

With nine Grands Prix still to go, a turnaround is still mathematically possible, but the Briton’s chances of winning an eighth world title are now extremely slim. Even an almost perfect end to the season would require a spectacular collapse from the championship leader.

Hamilton also has to contend with George Russell. The Briton is second with 211 points, 20 more than the Ferrari driver. To get back into the title fight, Hamilton would therefore need to regularly beat both Mercedes drivers while hoping for several poor results from his rivals.

The retirement in Madrid could thus represent the final blow to his ambitions for 2026. Until then, Hamilton had built his season on remarkable consistency, including a win and five podiums in the first 12 rounds, but his first retirement of the year comes at the worst possible moment.

The next chance to respond will be in Azerbaijan. On the Baku street circuit, Hamilton will need to immediately return to the points if he wants to keep any hope of catching Antonelli, but above all to defend his third place in the championship.

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