Piastri leads McLaren 1-2 in Spain as Verstappen has a meltdown

Oscar Piastri beat McLaren teammate Lando Norris to victory in a frenetic late finish to the Spanish Grand Prix that saw podium contender Max Verstappen demoted to 10th for crashing into George Russell.

While Piastri controlled the race, Verstappen played a spoiling role throughout, testing McLaren’s pit wall on strategy with a three-stop strategy that came close to disrupting what should have been a comfortable one-two finish. But a late safety car for Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s failed Mercedes saw those tactics backfire, leaving him without a competitive tire for the restart and leaving him vulnerable Charles Leclerc and George Russell at the restart.

A big snap of oversteer exiting the final corner put Leclerc directly alongside him. The pair made light contact, but neither sustained damage, and the Ferrari driver slipped into third. The stewards confirmed after the race that they would open an investigation into the collision.

Russell saw his opportunity to demote Verstappen another place with a late-braking move at the first turn, but the two bumped wheels on the apex, sending the Dutchman to the escape road. He rejoined still in fourth but furious to have been hit twice within a matter of seconds – and was enraged by his race engineer suggesting he should give the place back to Russell to avoid a penalty.

He appeared to slow into Turn 5, and Russell obliged around his outside, but the reigning champion opened the throttle as they reached the apex to bump the Mercedes to the edge of the track. The stewards took a dim view of the saga, and though Russell made his move into fourth later around the lap anyway, Verstappen was slapped with a 10s penalty that dropped him to 10th and a damaging 49 points off the title lead.

But while the contentious series of events dominated the aftermath of the race, it was a sideshow for McLaren, which dominated the race after pre-weekend concerns that it would be vulnerable around this high-speed circuit.

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“It was a great weekend overall,” he said. “The pace was really good. We could turn it on when we needed to.

“I’m really proud of the work we’ve done this weekend. It’s a nice way to bounce back from Monaco.”

Norris’s race was compromised by a poor start relative to Piastri that left him vulnerable to a hostile second row on the grid. Verstappen, starting third, drew level with the Briton on the run down to the first chicane, while Russell had a look down the McLaren’s inside. Only one could make it through, and it was the Dutchman who prevailed, sweeping around the conservative Norris’s outside to take second place and open a gap.

It took Norris until lap 10 to stabilize and haul himself back onto the Dutchman’s gearbox. He nailed his exit from the final two turns, his superior grip obvious, to make an easy DRS pass into the first turn at the start of lap 12. By then, however, he was 4.4s off Piastri in the lead, a gap he would never meaningfully close, sealing him into second.

“Oscar drove a very good race today,” he said. “I didn’t quite have the pace to match him, but I gave it my best shot. It was a good, fun race, and for us a team to finish one-two is even better.”

Leclerc capitalized on Verstappen’s compromised strategy to finish third, having put himself in that position thanks to a great from seventh to fifth on the first lap and having better pace than Lewis Hamilton to take fourth.

“I think P4 in a normal race would’ve been our position,” he said. “But with a safety car we got lucky and a podium, so I’m really happy with that.”

Russell finished fourth with Verstappen's penalty ahead of a superb Nico Hulkenberg, who was up to 11th on the first lap and capitalized on the misfortune of others to run deep into the points, but a pass on Hamilton after the safety car secured the final position.

Hamilton finished sixth ahead of Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly, while Fernando Alonso made up places after the safety car to score his first points for ninth ahead of the penalized Verstappen.

Liam Lawson finished 11th ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto, Yuki Tsunoda, Carlos Sainz, Franco Colapinto, Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman.

Antonelli retired with a power unit problem, while Alex Albon suffered early crash damage that prompted him to retire from the race.