Oscar Piastri won his fifth race of the 2025 Formula One season as he put in a calm and composed drive in Barcelona to win the Spanish Grand Prix ahead of his teammate, Lando Norris. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished a crucial P3, making it back-to-back podiums after his P2 finish in Monaco last week.
In a race that saw little to no action, there was but a late Safety Car to spice things up, while reigning world champion Max Verstappen picked up a ten-second penalty post race for ramming into Mercedes’ George Russell.
Piastri’s win in Spain sees McLaren close out the European triple-header with two wins out of three, with Piastri and Norris winning one each. The Spain victory has also made the 24-year-old Australian the third McLaren driver to make it eight podiums in a row.
Piastri led from Verstappen off the line as the lights went out, as the Dutchman made up a place on the second McLaren driver, Norris, right away. George Russell, meanwhile, suffered a poor start and was overtaken by the Ferrari drivers. By Lap 5, Piastri was almost two seconds clear of Verstappen, with Norris over a second and half behind the Red Bull star.
The second Red Bull driver, Yuki Tsunoda, became the first to pit on Lap 9 and was followed by a couple of other backmarkers.
Norris, meanwhile was hot on the back of a struggling Verstappen, whose soft compound tyres were wearing off. He got past the Dutchman on Lap 13 for P2. Verstappen then immediately switched to a fresher set of tyres and was the quickest on the grid as he rejoined in P8, which he made P7 in no time.
Ferrari called Lewis Hamilton in on Lap 17. With most of the frontrunners pitting, Verstappen was back in the top three by Lap 19—gaining on the McLaren drivers at an alarming rate.
Verstappen inherited the lead of the race when Piastri pitted on Lap 22. He came out more than five seconds behind Verstappen, with Norris a further four seconds behind. The McLaren cars were now on medium compounds, while Verstappen led on a set of softs.
Further down the line, former Red Bull drivers Liam Lawson and Alex Albon came together at Turn 2 as the latter’s endplate came off. Albon was called in by his team following the contact with the Racing Bulls driver, which ultimately resulted in him retiring from the race.
Verstappen came in for his second stop on Lap 30. Switching to the medium compounds, he rejoined in P4—just ahead of Lewis Hamilton, with Piastri leading the race ahead of Norris and Charles Leclerc. Lap 36 saw Verstappen return to the top three as he breezed past Leclerc on the main straight, with just the McLaren drivers ahead of him.
Leclerc was the second of the top five to get his second stop out of the way. He came in on Lap 41—behind George Russell—and rejoined in P6.
As the race entered its final 20 laps, Verstappen came in for his third stop on Lap 48 and rejoined in P3. Norris also made his second stop on the same lap and was able to come out ahead of Verstappen.
Piastri was almost 29 seconds clear of the Brit when he was called in for his second stop the following lap. He managed to rejoin at the front—four seconds clear of Norris, with a fast-chasing Verstappen behind them. Norris lost some time after getting caught up in a scrap between Ollie Bearman and Lawson, which allowed Verstappen to close the gap slightly.
The race saw its first Safety Car on Lap 55 when Andrea Kimi Antonelli went off at Turn 10 and beached himself in the gravel. Piastri, Norris, and Verstappen all came in for a cheap stop. Almost the entire grid then slowly followed into the pits, with Verstappen’s switch to hard compounds becoming the talk of the paddock as everyone else moved to softs.
Racing resumed on Lap 60. With six laps to go, Piastri sped off as the Safety Car came in. Leclerc picked off Verstappen for P3 as the latter lost his rear; with George Russell also chasing him down, the Dutchman began to struggle on the hard compounds.
Russell pushed Verstappen off track, though Verstappen managed to hang on to P3. The two clashed again on Lap 64, after which Verstappen was asked to let Russell through. Further action followed: Nico Hülkenberg got past Lewis Hamilton for P6, while Fernando Alonso moved into the points by overtaking Gabriel Bortoleto and Lawson.
While the midfield action played out, Piastri eased to his fifth win of the season without any issues, finishing almost two and a half seconds clear of his teammate. Norris ensured another McLaren one-two, while Leclerc secured a crucial podium for Ferrari.
Russell and Hülkenberg secured top-five finishes after the race, as Verstappen was handed a ten-second penalty for his clash with Russell, which demoted him to P10—behind Hamilton, Isack Hadjar, Pierre Gasly, and Alonso.
The one-two has extended McLaren’s lead in the Team Standings, while Nico Hülkenberg’s P5 finish has lifted Sauber off the bottom of the table.
With the completion of the 2025 Spanish GP, this season’s European triple-header comes to an end. Racing will resume in two weeks’ time as the grid heads to North America for the Canadian Grand Prix.
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