Piastri Leads McLaren 1-2 as Verstappen Loses His Cool

Oscar Piastri delivered another commanding performance to win the Spanish Grand Prix, heading a McLaren 1-2 finish in an action packed race.

Papaya Prowess & Red Bull Risk  

Starting from pole position, Lando Norris again found himself losing a position into turn one due to being too cautious, this time to the charging Red Bull of Max Verstappen. McLaren’s race pace proved to be top of the field again, and Norris managed to re-take P2 from the Dutchman on lap 13.

While he was unable to compete with the McLarens on pure pace, Verstappen and the Red Bull team opted for a risky and highly aggressive three-stopp strategy which was perfectly executed and ensured Verstappen was in the mix for the race win until the final stage of the race. 

Battleground Barcelona

The tightly packed midfield provided plenty of action. In his home race, Fernando Alonso made bold moves on Isack Hadjar and Nico Hulkenberg in the opening laps, which ultimately failed to result in actual overtakes. Despite an unusually mistake-prone race, the only Aston Martin driver to participate in the race (with Lance Stroll opting to not participate to further treat the wrist injuries he suffered before the start of the 2023 season) collected his first points of the year, finishing in P9. 

The two Ferraris drivers experienced very different races. Charles Leclerc was very quick throughout the race, having optimized his setup for race pace instead of one-lap qualifying performance. This saw him start behind team mate Lewis Hamilton, who soon became a roadblock to Leclerc’s progress through the field. Ferrari eventually resorted to team orders to get Leclerc ahead of Hamilton. The lowlight of the 7 time world champion’s race was being passed by Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber on the penultimate lap of the race. "That was the worst race I've experienced, balance wise," Hamilton said afterward. "Zero [positives]."

The Circuit de Catalunya has been a historically challenging track for the Williams team, and this year was no exception. Both drivers damaged their front wings in opening lap incidents. The afternoon went from bad to worse for Alex Albon, who found himself in a multi-lap battle with Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson. The two made contact on consecutive laps, resulting in further front wing damage for Albon, who subsequently retired the car. In a highly unusual sequence, he then left the garage again to serve a 10-second time penalty he picked up for his scuffle with Lawson, before retiring for good, avoiding a grid penalty for the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix.

With 14 laps to go, the top 3 of Piastri, Norris and Verstappen were within 3 seconds of one another, when they came up to Lawson and Haas rookie Oliver Bearman who were battling for 11th place. The fighting pair blocked the front-runners, despite being shown blue flags, which ultimately helped Piastri keep Norris and Verstappen at bay.

A Vicious Verstappen

The retirement of Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli, which brought out a full safety car, kicked off the highly dramatic final phase of the race. After the leading cars had pitted, Verstappen was audibly unhappy with the hard tires that he received. According to race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, these were “the only option”. After the restart, Verstappen had a huge moment in the final corner, almost losing his car. This led to Leclerc overtaking him on the main straight, with the cars making contact during the maneuver. 

While defending from the fast approaching George Russell in turns 1 & 2, Verstappen went off-track but stayed ahead of the Brit. Following an incorrect team call to cede the position, Verstappen then deliberately drove into the Mercedes, before finally giving the position to Russell. For this, the stewards handed him a 10-second penalty, dropping him from P5 to P10 in the final classification.