Formula One's European tripleheader came to a fiery conclusion in the dying laps of the Spanish GP. Oscar Piastri led a McLaren one-two finish in a slow-burn run around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, but the Woking team wasn't the focus of post-race attention. Instead, Max Verstappen provided talking points for the two-week gap until Canada after driving into George Russell.
A late-race Safety Car wrecked Verstappen's hopes of a podium finish, and the reigning champion drove the final miles angry after contact with Charles Leclerc and Russell. Seemingly seeking revenge for the Russell incident, Verstappen followed team instructions to let the Mercedes driver by before driving into the Briton's car at Turn 5. The two drivers have a long-standing rivalry, and the altercation stretched an already strained professional relationship. The FIA punished Verstappen by adding 10 seconds to his race time and three penalty points to his superlicence. The four-time champ is now one incident away from a race ban.
Although the late-race drama dominated the Sunday discourse, the first 60 laps suggested this would be another relatively quiet Spanish GP. Piastri led from pole position with a strong launch down to Turn 1 to keep a lead he would never give up. Behind, the sister McLaren of Norris was left to fight with the chasing Verstappen. The Red Bull driver swept around the outside to steal P2, leaving Norris down one position and needing to battle to keep within reach of his championship-leading teammate.
More moves followed behind, too. Lewis Hamilton followed Verstappen's Turn 1 move to take P4 from Russell, with Charles Leclerc following suit at Turn 4. The midfield avoided any spins or crashes, but both Williams cars suffered front wing damage in the close running and taps in the first corners. Both took early pit stops to replace their damaged parts, effectively ending hopes of further points in their 2025 resurgence. All teams had tweaked front aerodynamics to adhere to a new Technical Directive from the FIA in Spain. A later collision for Albon and another front wing breakage forced him to retire as the team went through four of their new parts in just half a race.
With Piastri maintaining a gap on those trying to close him down, the chasing pack provided the overtaking action. Norris used DRS on the main straight to slide past a passive Verstappen to reclaim P2, but it wasn't so simple for the Ferrari pair behind. Leclerc, again, looked the faster of the Scuderia racers and was losing time to the top three drivers with Hamilton's pace. Team orders came from the pit wall for the two to swap positions, but the Monegasque driver had fallen too far behind to challenge the Norris-Verstappen duel ahead.
Red Bull tried a contrary Pirelli tyre strategy for the second successive race. The team left Verstappen out on a long stint until the last laps in Monte Carlo, but they instead went for a three-stopper in Barcelona. Radio messages about their run plan suggested they were trying to pressure McLaren into less favourable strategies for their drivers. Still, Verstappen simply didn't have the pace for victory, no matter which compound he had equipped.
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Verstappen's final scheduled stop did create an opening for an attack on P2, however. Red Bull looked to undercut Norris but released their Dutchman into a battle that his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, was fighting. That lost time allowed Norris to stop and emerge ahead, but the McLaren man was stuck behind a backmarker brawl. With both frontrunners racing with Pirelli's red-walled Soft rubber, the duo had to navigate a multi-lap scrap between the Medium-running Ollie Bearman and Soft-tyre Liam Lawson. The brief opening for Verstappen in Sector 1 soon closed when Bearman allowed Norris through at Turn 4 but hesitated with the Red Bull. A thrown hand gesture from Verstappen towards the Haas driver showed the frustration in the champion's cockpit that would soon boil over.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli's second mechanical failure in three races ended the Italian teenager's maiden Spanish GP in the gravel and triggered a rare Safety Car appearance on the Barcelona track. Everyone in the top 10 aside from Lawson stopped for fresh tyres, but Verstappen's three-stop strategy left him stuck on the Hard Pirelli for the final laps. His radio concerns during the lengthy Safety Car proved correct at the restart. He lost control of the car at the final corner's exit and allowed Leclerc to close in and pass, with Russell following closely. High-speed contact between Leclerc and Verstappen at the start-finish line as Leclerc took P3 preceded a collision between Russell and Verstappen at Turn 1, leaving the reigning champion seething.
Verstappen took to the Turn 2 escape road and rejoined ahead of Russell to keep P4. His engineer's advice to let Russell through did little to cool Verstappen down; he argued that he was ahead at the apex. Rapid slowing by the Red Bull car when exiting Turn 4 made it seem Verstappen followed the advice as Russell passed on the racing line. Verstappen unexpectedly then accelerated as Russell took the Turn 5 left-hander and slammed into the Mercedes' wheels in what the stewards deemed deliberate contact. Russell eventually got through later in the lap, but the resulting 10-second penalty dropped Verstappen from P5 to P10 to score a solitary point in a woeful day for Red Bull.
More late-race excitement came as Nico Hulkenberg sped by Hamilton to take Sauber's first 2025 points and a P6 finish. With Verstappen's penalty, that became P5 and an incredible 10 points for the Hinwil-based team. Fernando Alonso, too, took his first points of the year after passing Lawson after the Safety Car in a Spanish GP that exploded in the final six laps. Although Piastri barely featured on the broadcast, the Australian secured his seventh F1 victory to extend his gap on Norris to 10 points in a championship that now looks out of Verstappen's reach.
