{"id":22503,"date":"2026-04-26T15:12:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T15:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/22503\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T15:12:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T15:12:21","slug":"london-marathon-results-2026-f1-legend-sebastian-vettel-breaks-through-magical-time-barrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/22503\/","title":{"rendered":"London Marathon Results 2026: F1 legend Sebastian Vettel breaks through magical time barrier"},"content":{"rendered":"

F1 legend Sebastian Vettel<\/a> produced a fantastic performance to smash through the magical 3-hour time barrier at the 2026 London Marathon on Sunday. <\/p>\n

\nThe 38-year-old four-time world champion spends much of his life these days campaigning for worthy causes, and on Sunday he raised money for two with a brilliant performance in hot conditions in the English capital. <\/p>\n

\nVettel, who claimed four world titles during an epic run at Red Bull, reached the end of the 26.2miles in a sensational time of 2:59:08 – just inside three hours and a terrific effort for an amateur. <\/p>\n

Article continues under video<\/p>\n

\nF1 HEADLINES: Fernando Alonso talks retirement, Christian Horner meets Honda chief<\/a> <\/p>\n

Sebastian Vettel’s incredible race<\/p>\n

\nSeb, wearing number 45294 and racing for the Brain & Spine Foundation and the Grand Prix Trust, began his race at 09:35 local time and set a metronomic pace throughout the gruelling distance. <\/p>\n

\nGerman great Vettel, who retired from F1 racing in 2022, was remarkably consistent throughout the race, reaching half distance in 1:29:18, on target to break three hours but still needing a mighty effort in the second half to keep up that pace. <\/p>\n

\nThe former Red Bull, Ferrari<\/a> and Aston Martin superstar did just that, completing the second 13.1 miles in 1:29:50 to break through that 3-hour time barrier. <\/p>\n

\nIt was a record-breaking day all round in London, with Kenyan megastar Sabastian Sawe becoming the first athlete ever to break 2 hours for the marathon in normal race conditions. He clocked a mind-boggling 1:59:30. <\/p>\n

Vettel time splits <\/p>\n

\nVettel’s time splits for the race looked like this: <\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n Split
\n Time of Day
\n Split Time
\n Cumulative Time
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n 5K
\n 09:55:47
\n 20:35
\n 00:20:35
\n
\n
\n 10K
\n 10:17:01
\n 21:13
\n 00:41:48
\n
\n
\n 15K
\n 10:38:41
\n 21:41
\n 01:03:29
\n
\n
\n 20K
\n 10:59:51
\n 21:10
\n 01:24:39
\n
\n
\n Half
\n 11:04:31
\n 04:39
\n 01:29:18
\n
\n
\n 25K
\n 11:21:00
\n 16:30
\n 01:45:48
\n
\n
\n 30K
\n 11:42:27
\n 21:26
\n 02:07:14
\n
\n
\n 35K
\n 12:03:36
\n 21:10
\n 02:28:24
\n
\n
\n 40K
\n 12:25:09
\n 21:32
\n 02:49:56
\n
\n
\n Finish
\n 12:34:21
\n 09:12
\n 02:59:08
\n
\n
\nF1 great excited to achieve ‘ambitious goal’<\/p>\n

\nIt was a very happy Vettel who spoke with media after the finish line, and he said he’d loved the London Marathon experience. <\/p>\n

\n“It felt very long but it’s been my first time, I didn’t know what to expect so it’s been amazing how many people there were next to the course and how happy everyone is. So it’s a really great experience and I’m very excited still and very happy that I finished.” <\/p>\n

\nVettel said he had set himself that three-hour goal before the start, and was delighted to smash through that magical barrier. <\/p>\n

\n“I always wanted to do a marathon. obviously always kept fit, did a lot of running, cycling – so I thought it’s about time. I set myself an ambitious goal which I managed to achieve. I wanted to be just below three hours, which I did. <\/p>\n

\n“So I’m very happy with that. But I think even more so, happy that I finished, and having lived the experience I can only recommend it.” <\/p>\n

\nREAD MORE: F1 star claims Verstappen should be banned from the Nurburgring<\/a><\/p>\n

Related\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"F1 legend Sebastian Vettel produced a fantastic performance to smash through the magical 3-hour time barrier at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[10203,4453,10205,27,18,10204],"class_list":{"0":"post-22503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-graham-shaw","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-sebastian-vettel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116471656814609334","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}