Oscar Piastri Dominates Spanish GP; Max Verstappen Penalized After Russell Incident

Oscar Piastri significantly increased his world championship advantage over Lando Norris by claiming victory in the Spanish Grand Prix. His McLaren teammate finished second, while Max Verstappen was given a penalty following a late, controversial collision with George Russell.

This marks Piastri`s fifth win in nine races this season. He controlled the race from the start at Barcelona, converting his impressive pole position into the lead. Norris initially dropped to third behind Verstappen.

Norris managed to overtake Verstappen on lap 13 to regain second place. However, he couldn`t mount a significant challenge to Piastri, leaving the Australian with a 10-point lead in the title race after the European triple-header.

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

Recognizing they might struggle to match the McLarens on the same strategy, Red Bull opted for a three-stop race for Verstappen, contrasting with Piastri and Norris`s more standard two-stop approach.

Verstappen`s strategy kept him in contention for second behind Norris in the final stages. However, a Safety Car deployed with 11 laps remaining due to Kimi Antonelli`s Mercedes stopping in the gravel changed everything.

The leaders pitted for fresh tyres. Verstappen was disadvantaged for the restart as Red Bull could only fit him with new hard tyres, while his rivals were on faster softs.

How Verstappen`s Race Unraveled

Verstappen immediately faced pressure after the race restarted on lap 61. After a brilliant save to avoid spinning at the final corner, his loss of momentum on the main straight allowed Charles Leclerc to pass him before Turn One.

The two cars made contact during Leclerc`s pass. Stewards investigated this incident but later decided no action was needed.

Seeing Leclerc capitalize on Verstappen`s tyre warm-up difficulties, Mercedes` George Russell attempted to follow suit, trying to go down the inside into the first corner.

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

Verstappen rejoined the track after Turn Two ahead of Russell. Despite this, the Red Bull pit wall, anticipating a possible penalty (which the stewards later stated they would not have issued for this specific incident), instructed Verstappen to yield the position to Russell.

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

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

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

Russell did eventually overtake later in the lap as the Red Bull went wide, finishing fourth on track. However, the stewards quickly reviewed the previous incident at Turn Five and imposed a 10-second time penalty on the four-time world champion just as the race concluded.

This penalty dropped Verstappen from fifth to 10th in the official classification. Stewards also added three penalty points to his superlicence, leaving him just one point away from an automatic race ban if he receives any more before June 30.

With Leclerc securing third and Russell fourth, Nico Hulkenberg achieved an impressive fifth place for Sauber, having started 15th. He passed Lewis Hamilton late in the race; Hamilton struggled for pace in the second Ferrari throughout the afternoon.

Hamilton had passed Russell at the start but dropped behind the leading trio. He was told to let the faster Leclerc by and was later 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 in eighth.

Fernando Alonso, competing in his 21st home Spanish GP, recovered from an early excursion into the gravel 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 – What They Said

George Russell speaking to Sky Sports F1:

“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 speaking to Sky Sports F1:

“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 concluded poorly for the reigning F1 champion, the current championship favorite remained largely undisturbed after a perfect start from pole secured his early lead.

Piastri led for nearly the entire 66 laps, only losing the lead temporarily after his first pit stop when Verstappen`s out-of-sync three-stop strategy briefly put him ahead.

Although Norris briefly narrowed the gap in the middle part of the race, closing within a couple of seconds, Piastri appeared to have speed in reserve and had extended his lead again 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