F1 Madrid LIVE: Spanish GP race updates as Hamilton retires

Everything is a little bit spread out now, with Norris leading the way and the pit window is about to open for those on the soft tyres. Any crashes now will jumble things about. 

At present, Norris will move ahead of Hamilton into third place in the championship. 

For the first time this year, Hamilton pits to retire from a race. His perfect streak in 2026 is over. 

A warning for track limits for Hamilton, and he will retire at the end of the lap. 

Hamilton locks up and runs off the track. He doesn't pit, and carries on. This is dangerous now. 

Hamilton was very slow out of Turn 3 and Verstappen charges past. Hamilton is now holding up Leclerc and he pulls aside. Hamilton will be out of this race. 

Oh dear. Verstappen has been noted for leaving the track and gaining an advantage at the start. Red Bull have told him to hand a place back to Hamilton, which means allowing Antonelli through too. 

He does as asked, and then Hamilton instantly reports a long brake pedal. 

It was all a bit chaotic into Turn 1. 

Hamilton has hit the wall with a rear tyre, and Russell has also been knocked about a bit. But we're now into the one by one phase. 

Hamilton is demanding that Verstappen must give him a place back, but that would mean dropping two places. 

At the end of lap one, Norris leads Verstappen, Antonelli, Hamilton, Leclerc, Russell, Colapinto and Lawson. 

Norris covers off Antonelli and Hamilton dives for the lead but almost wipes out Antonelli. 

Antonelli has run wide twice and in allowing Norris back through, Verstappen has taken second place. It's all relatively clean so far. 

We're back on the grid, and it's time to get going. 

On tyre watch, Norris and Antonelli are on mediums, Verstappen and Hamilton are on softs, but the next four are on hards. 

This is very much a case of no one knows what is about to happen. 

The clock ticks past the hour and here we go for the formation lap. 

The music has played. It is time.

Here we go. Just five minutes until lights out in Madrid. 

A little bit of admin, as Bearman will start from the pit lane after Haas was forced into a chassis change. Crashing heavily in FP3, Bearman took no part in qualifying, yet was still classified above Stroll. 

Well, that's a grand version of the Spanish national anthem. There is no other word for it. 

So let's look at the strategy options. The fewer stops that you can manage, the better. So you would think that starting on the soft tyres to get them out of the way would be the best, with crashes highly likely in the opening stages.

However, if there isn't a safety car incident, then that plan could drop you down the order with a green flag stop. 

To prevent that, you want to be on hards to go long and be able to take advantage of any chaos later on. But do you really want to be on the slower tyre for the start? 

This really is a complete trip into the unknown. 

A strong Real Madrid contingent on the F1 grid, and it's absolutely packed down there. 

Here come the drivers. The cars are being pushed down the grid with Norris' car just arriving on pole. 

It seems that Ferrari has been scrubbing its hard tyres on the formation laps to the grid. The tactics begin already. 

The engines have fired up and the pit lane is open. A couple of laps, and then the drivers will be lining up on the grid for the usual pre-race formalities. 

We are 45 minutes away from lights out in Madrid. The drivers will be leaving the garages in a few moments, and the first red flag is expected in...well, we'll see about that one. 

So far, the drivers have largely been well-behaved, but when the red mist descends, that could all change very quickly.