Spanish GP: Piastri Dominates Catalunya for Victory, Verstappen Penalized After Russell Clash

Oscar Piastri extended his championship lead over McLaren teammate Lando Norris with a commanding victory in the Spanish Grand Prix held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The race saw reigning world champion Max Verstappen receive a penalty for a controversial late collision involving George Russell, which significantly affected Verstappen`s final result.

This win marked Piastri`s fifth victory in nine races this season. He appeared in complete control from the start, converting his impressive pole position into the race lead. Norris initially lost a position, dropping behind Verstappen to third, but managed to overtake the Red Bull driver on lap 13 to reclaim second place. Despite regaining second, Norris couldn`t close the gap to Piastri, who managed the gap effectively. Piastri now leaves the European triple-header with a 10-point lead over Norris in the championship standings.

Verstappen`s Tumultuous Race and Penalty

Max Verstappen now finds himself 49 points adrift in the championship standings following a dramatic and highly debated conclusion to his race. Although he crossed the finish line in fifth, a post-race penalty saw him demoted to 10th place.

Recognizing they likely couldn`t beat the McLarens on outright pace with a similar strategy, Red Bull opted for a less conventional three-stop plan for Verstappen, compared to Piastri and Norris`s two stops. This strategy kept Verstappen in the hunt for second place during the final stint.

A Safety Car period triggered by Kimi Antonelli stopping in the gravel with 11 laps remaining prompted all the frontrunners to pit for new tires. Critically, Red Bull fitted Verstappen`s car with their only remaining option: new hard tires. In contrast, his direct competitors took quicker soft tires, making Verstappen vulnerable for the restart on lap 61.

Upon the restart, Verstappen immediately faced pressure. His car twitched at the final corner before the main straight, causing him to lose vital momentum. Charles Leclerc capitalised, overtaking him before Turn One. The two cars made contact on the straight as Leclerc went past, an incident investigated by stewards who later deemed no further action was necessary.

Seeing Leclerc`s successful move and Verstappen`s apparent struggle with tire warm-up, George Russell attempted to follow suit, challenging on the inside into the first corner. The cars touched, forcing Verstappen`s Red Bull off track into the run-off area. Verstappen rejoined still ahead of Russell.

However, the Red Bull pit wall instructed Verstappen to cede the position to Russell, based on their perception that he had gained a lasting advantage by going off track (though stewards later clarified they would not have penalised Verstappen for that initial incident). “What? I was ahead! He ran me off the road!” protested Verstappen over team radio. His race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, calmly replied, “But that`s the rules.”

Yet, the situation escalated on lap 64 approaching Turn Five. Russell moved to the outside, seemingly expecting Verstappen to yield the position as he appeared to slow on the inside. However, Verstappen did not fully back off, resulting in another collision between the two cars.

“What the ****?” a bewildered Russell exclaimed on team radio. “He just crashed into me.”

Russell eventually completed the overtake later that lap as Verstappen ran wide, securing fourth on the road. Stewards promptly investigated the Turn Five collision and issued Verstappen a 10-second time penalty immediately after the race finished. This dropped him from fifth to 10th in the final classification. Additionally, stewards imposed three further penalty points on his superlicence, leaving him just one point away from an automatic race ban if he accrues another penalty point before June 30.

Finishing behind the McLaren duo were Charles Leclerc in third and George Russell in fourth. Nico Hulkenberg achieved an unexpected fifth place for Sauber with a strong race from 15th on the grid, highlighted by a late pass on Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton (Mercedes) experienced a challenging afternoon, struggling for pace. He had initially passed Russell at the start but was later instructed to let the quicker Leclerc pass and was subsequently undercut by Russell during the second pit stop phase.

Isack Hadjar continued his promising rookie season, taking seventh place for Racing Bulls, ahead of Alpine`s Pierre Gasly in eighth. Racing in his 21st home Spanish Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso recovered from an early excursion into the gravel to finally score his first points of the season, finishing ninth for Aston Martin, just ahead of the penalized Verstappen.

Driver Reactions and Stewards` Decision

George Russell speaking after the race:

“I was as surprised as you guys were. I`ve seen those sort of maneuvers before on simulator games and go-karting but never in F1. Ultimately we came home in P4 and he came home in P10. I don`t really know what was going through his mind. It felt deliberate in the moment, so it felt surprising.”

Max Verstappen speaking after the race:

“Does it matter? I prefer to speak about the race rather than one single moment.”

Extract from the official stewards` verdict:

“From the radio communications, it was clear that the driver of Car 1 [Verstappen] was asked by his team to `give the position back` to Car 63 [Russell] for what they perceived to be an earlier breach by Car 1 for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage (in fact, we had later determined that we would take no further action in relation to that incident). The driver of Car 1 was clearly unhappy with his team`s request to give the position back. At the approach to Turn 5, Car 1 significantly reduced its speed, thereby appearing to allow Car 63 to overtake. However, after Car 63 got ahead of Car 1 at the entry of Turn 5, Car 1 suddenly accelerated and collided with Car 63. The collision was undoubtedly caused by the actions of Car 1. We therefore imposed a 10-second time penalty on Car 1.”

Piastri Maintains Composure for Victory

While the race concluded chaotically for the reigning world champion, Oscar Piastri, widely seen as a contender for this year`s title, had a relatively undisturbed path to victory after executing a perfect start from pole position.

Piastri briefly conceded the lead only after his first pit stop, when Verstappen`s out-of-sync three-stop strategy temporarily put him ahead through an effective undercut. Although Norris managed to close the gap to within a few seconds during the middle stint, Piastri appeared to have speed in hand and had re-established his advantage by the time they made their second scheduled pit stops.

Even the late Safety Car intervention, which caused significant drama for the cars behind the McLarens, did nothing to unsettle the composed Australian driver.

“The pace was really good, we can turn it on when we needed to,” said Piastri. “Just very proud of the work we did this weekend. It`s a nice way to bounce back from Monaco. A superb weekend.” Piastri`s podium finish also remarkably ties the all-time McLaren record, held by Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton, for eight consecutive podium appearances.

Norris finished 2.5 seconds behind his teammate and commented, “Oscar drove a very good race today. I didn`t quite have the pace to match him but we gave it our best shot. It was a good fun race and to finish one-two is even better!”

Spanish Grand Prix Final Classification