Piastri Wins Spanish Grand Prix, Verstappen Drops to Tenth After Russell Incident

Oscar Piastri extended his lead in the world championship over Lando Norris by winning the Spanish Grand Prix. His McLaren teammate Lando Norris finished second. Max Verstappen received a penalty for a controversial late collision with George Russell, dropping him down the order.

Claiming his fifth victory in nine races this season, Piastri was in control from the start at Barcelona. He converted his pole position into an early lead. Norris initially fell behind Verstappen into third place.

Norris regained second place by overtaking Verstappen on lap 13 but couldn`t close the gap to his teammate. Piastri`s victory means he finishes the European triple header with a 10-point advantage in the championship standings.

Reigning champion Verstappen is now 49 points adrift after a chaotic and disputed end to his race. He finished fifth on track but was demoted to 10th by the stewards.

Red Bull opted for a three-stop strategy for Verstappen, differing from Piastri and Norris`s more standard two-stop plan, seemingly hoping to challenge the McLarens` pace.

This strategy kept Verstappen in contention for second place behind Norris heading into the final laps. However, a Safety Car was deployed with 11 laps remaining after Kimi Antonelli`s Mercedes stopped in the gravel trap.

The leading cars all pitted for fresh tyres under the Safety Car. Verstappen was put on new hard tyres, the only compound Red Bull had left, while his rivals around him switched to faster softs, leaving him vulnerable for the restart.

How Verstappen`s Race Unravelled

Verstappen immediately came under pressure when the race resumed on lap 61. He managed to avoid spinning at the final corner but lost momentum onto the main straight, allowing Charles Leclerc to overtake him before Turn One.

The cars made contact on the main straight as the Ferrari passed. Stewards investigated this incident but ruled no further action was necessary after the race.

Seeing Leclerc pass due to Verstappen`s tyre struggles, George Russell of Mercedes also attempted to move past on the inside into the first corner.

The two cars touched, forcing the Red Bull off track into the run-off area.

Verstappen rejoined the track still ahead of Russell out of Turn Two. However, the Red Bull pit wall instructed him to yield the position to the Mercedes, anticipating a potential penalty from the stewards (which they later clarified would not have been issued for that specific incident).

“What? I was ahead! He ran me off the road!” protested Verstappen over team radio. His race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase replied, “But that`s the rules.”

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

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

Russell eventually passed later in the lap as the Red Bull ran wide, finishing fourth on the road. Stewards quickly reviewed the incident and imposed a 10-second time penalty on Verstappen just as the race concluded.

The penalty dropped the four-time world champion from fifth to 10th in the final classification. Stewards also added three penalty points to his superlicence, bringing him one point away from an automatic race ban if he accumulates any more points before June 30.

Charles Leclerc took third place, and George Russell finished fourth. Nico Hulkenberg secured an impressive fifth for Sauber, having started 15th, overtaking Lewis Hamilton late in the race. Hamilton struggled with pace throughout the afternoon in the second Ferrari.

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

Isack Hadjar continued his promising rookie season, finishing seventh for Racing Bulls, ahead of Pierre Gasly in the Alpine.

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

Verstappen`s Russell Clash and 10-Second Penalty – What Was Said?

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.”

Piastri`s Calm and Collected Victory

While the race concluded poorly for the reigning F1 champion, the current favorite for this year`s title remained largely untroubled. A flawless start from pole position secured Piastri the lead early on.

Piastri only briefly lost the lead after his first pit stop when Verstappen, on his different strategy, effectively undercut the McLarens.

Although Norris briefly threatened to challenge in the middle part of the race, closing the gap to a couple of seconds, Piastri maintained sufficient pace and had rebuilt his lead by the time of their second scheduled stops.

Even the late Safety Car, which caused chaos behind the McLarens, didn`t disrupt the Australian`s composure.

“The pace was really good, we can turn it on when we needed to,” said Piastri, who equaled the McLaren record held by Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton for eight consecutive podium finishes. “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 admitted, “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