Spanish GP: Piastri Victorious Over Norris, Verstappen Penalised After Russell Incident

Oscar Piastri extended his championship lead over McLaren teammate Lando Norris by claiming victory at the Spanish Grand Prix. Max Verstappen was handed a penalty for a controversial collision with George Russell late in the race.

This marks Piastri`s fifth win in nine races this season. Starting from pole position, he took the lead and maintained control throughout the Barcelona race. Norris initially dropped to third, overtaken by Verstappen at the start.

Norris retook second place from Verstappen on lap 13 but couldn`t mount a significant challenge for the lead against his teammate. This result sees Piastri finishing the European triple-header with a 10-point advantage in the title race.

Defending champion Verstappen now trails by 49 points after a chaotic and debated conclusion to his race. He finished fifth on track but was demoted to 10th by the stewards.

Recognizing they might not match McLaren`s pace on a similar strategy, Red Bull attempted a three-stop strategy for Verstappen, unlike Piastri and Norris who opted for a more standard two stops.

This tactic kept Verstappen in contention for second behind Norris until a Safety Car was deployed with 11 laps remaining when Kimi Antonelli`s Mercedes stopped in the gravel.

The leading cars pitted for fresh tyres during the Safety Car period. However, Verstappen was at a disadvantage for the restart as Red Bull fitted his car with new hard tyres (the only option they had left), while competitors around him were on faster softs.

How Verstappen`s Race Unravelled Dramatically

Verstappen immediately came under pressure when the race restarted on lap 61.

After impressively saving his car from spinning out in the final corner, Verstappen lost momentum onto the main straight and was overtaken by Charles Leclerc before Turn One.

The two cars made contact on the main straight as the Ferrari passed. Stewards investigated the incident but later decided no further action was needed.

Having seen Leclerc exploit Verstappen`s difficulty warming up his tyres, George Russell of Mercedes then attempted to follow suit, going down the inside into the first corner.

However, the cars touched, forcing the Red Bull wide into the run-off area.

Verstappen rejoined the track after Turn Two still ahead of Russell. But the Red Bull pit wall, possibly anticipating a penalty from the stewards (which the officials later clarified would not have been given for that specific incident), instructed the Dutchman to cede the position to the Mercedes.

“What? I was ahead! He ran me off the road!” protested Verstappen on team radio.

His race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase replied: “But that`s the rules.”

However, on lap 64, approaching Turn Five, Russell moved to the outside to overtake as Verstappen seemed to slow on the inside. Verstappen did not give the position, and the two cars made contact.

“What the ****?” exclaimed a stunned Russell on team radio.

“He just crashed into me.”

Russell did eventually overtake later in the lap as the Red Bull ran wide, finishing fourth on the road. But stewards quickly reviewed the incident and imposed a 10-second time penalty on the four-time world champion as the race finished.

This penalty dropped Verstappen from fifth to 10th in the final results. Stewards also added three penalty points to his superlicence, leaving him just one point away from an automatic race ban before June 30.

Charles Leclerc finished third, with George Russell fourth. Nico Hulkenberg secured an impressive fifth place for Sauber, climbing from 15th on the grid and overtaking Lewis Hamilton late on. Hamilton struggled for pace all afternoon in the second Ferrari.

Hamilton had initially overtaken Russell at the start but fell behind the leading trio and was instructed to let the faster Leclerc pass. He was then undercut by his former teammate Russell during the second pit stops.

Isack Hadjar continued his strong rookie season, finishing seventh for Racing Bulls ahead of Alpine`s Pierre Gasly.

Fernando Alonso, competing in his 21st home Spanish GP, recovered from an early off-track excursion to score his first points of the season, finishing ninth for Aston Martin, ahead of the demoted Verstappen.

Verstappen`s Russell clash and 10-second penalty – reactions:

George Russell:

“I was as surprised as you guys were. I`ve seen those sort of manoeuvres 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:

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

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.”

Unruffled Piastri Takes Another Important Win

While the race ended poorly for the reigning F1 champion, the current favourite for this year`s title was largely undisturbed after converting his pole position into an early lead.

Piastri only surrendered the lead during his first pit stop when Verstappen briefly held the position on his out-of-sync three-stop strategy.

Although Norris briefly closed the gap during the middle stint, bringing his deficit down to a couple of seconds, Piastri appeared to have sufficient pace in reserve and had re-established his advantage by the time of their second planned stops.

Even the late Safety Car, which caused chaos behind the McLarens, did not disrupt the Australian`s composure.

“The pace was really good, we can turn it on when we needed to,” said Piastri, who achieved his eighth consecutive podium finish, a feat previously only matched by Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton for McLaren.

“Just very proud of the work we did this weekend. It`s a nice way to bounce back from Monaco. A superb weekend.”

Norris finished 2.5 seconds behind 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 GP Result: Top 10

The 2025 Formula 1 season pauses after the European triple-header before resuming with the Canadian Grand Prix.