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Oscar Piastri Wins Another Lights-To-Flag Victory at the Spanish GP
(Photo: McLaren)

Oscar Piastri Wins Another Lights-To-Flag Victory at the Spanish GP

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Oscar Piastri again demonstrated a cool head under pressure to win the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday (June 1). The Australian was followed home by the second McLaren of Lando Norris, with some late-race drama allowing the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc to claim third.

“It was a nice way to bounce back after a little bit of a difficult weekend last week,” Piastri said over team radio on the cool-down lap. He expanded on his delight in the post-race interview, stating, “It was a great weekend overall. We could turn on the pace when we needed to, and it’s been a superb weekend.”

George Russell took fourth place, following a late safety car that put Verstappen on the less grippy hard tires. Nico Hulkenberg finished in sixth, making a pass on the second Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton in the closing laps. Isack Hadjar, Pierre Gasly, and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top ten.

How It Unfolded

The long-anticipated flexi-wing rule appeared to have had little impact on the starting order, the two McLarens again locking out the front row. Oscar Piastri lined up on pole, having outperformed Lando Norris by two-tenths in Saturday’s qualifying. Max Verstappen occupied third and George Russell started from fourth.

At just over 650 yards, the run from the start line to the first corner is longer than most other tracks, creating opportunities for passes due to slipstreaming. Piastri got a strong launch, and Verstappen took advantage of the slipstream behind Piastri’s McLaren to pass Norris through the first corner, taking second place.

By lap six, Piastri had opened a three-second gap to Verstappen, who was only 1.3 seconds ahead of Norris. Behind Norris, the Ferraris of Hamilton and Leclerc were in a close intra-team battle for fourth and fifth.

Almost all cars started on the red-striped soft compound tire, meaning early pit stops and two-stop strategies were on the cards. The midfield cars from Williams and Sauber were the first to stop on lap 10, followed by Alpine a lap later.

By lap 11, Lando Norris had closed to within striking distance of Max Verstappen, but was not initially able to find a way past. Norris finally reclaimed second position on lap 13, now 4.2 seconds behind Piastri.

One lap after being passed, Verstappen took to the pits for another set of soft tires, confirming that Red Bull was planning to stop at least twice. One lap after Verstappen, the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton responded, changing to the yellow-striped medium tire. On lap 18, Leclerc also stopped for mediums, re-joining the track well ahead of his teammate.

At the front, Piastri was gradually increasing the gap to Norris, the latter most likely having worn his tires after fighting Verstappen for second place. With 20 laps completed, both McLarens were yet to stop. The two Mercedes cars were also still on their first set of tires.

Two laps later, Lando Norris was the first of the McLarens to pit, and the Mercedes cars followed. Norris was once again in third, behind Verstappen, but on much fresher tires.

Piastri stopped for a set of medium tires on lap 23, allowing Verstappen to take the lead. However, the world champion had already run 10 laps on his second set of soft tires, so it was unlikely he would hold the position for long.

Verstappen took his second stop of the race for medium tires on lap 30, making it almost certain that Red Bull planned to stop three times. Piastri once again led the race, almost five seconds ahead of Norris.

An uneventful middle stage of the race saw some speculation on McLaren’s team radio that Verstappen might not be stopping three times, creating concern that he would leapfrog both papaya cars when they took their second stop.

At one point, Norris had closed to within 2.2 seconds of Piastri, but the Australian appeared to be managing his tires, quickly replying to open the gap back to five seconds in the space of just three laps.

The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton stopped for a second time on lap 47, rejoining the track in seventh position.

One lap later, Verstappen did stop for a third time, and McLaren quickly responded by calling the second-placed Norris in for red-striped soft tires. Norris re-entered the track just 1.8 seconds ahead of Verstappen.

Piastri was the last of the frontrunners to stop for a second time, maintaining a three-second gap to Norris, and setting up a 16-lap sprint to the finish. A battle between Liam Lawson and Ollie Bearman caused Lando Norris to lose time, allowing Verstappen to close onto the rear of the McLaren.

On lap 55, Kimi Antonelli ran off the track with an engine failure, causing a safety car to be deployed. McLaren immediately called in both cars for fresh rubber, and Red Bull called Verstappen in for a brand-new set of hard tires, which the team said was their only remaining option.

With the pack now bunched up behind the safety car, Piastri and Norris were on used soft tires, while Verstappen was on less grippy hard tires, and the Ferrari of Leclerc was also on softs.

The safety car left the track at the end of lap 60, setting up a six-lap sprint to the checkered flag. Piastri kept the lead, but Verstappen’s hard tires left him vulnerable, allowing Charles Leclerc to pass into third place.

Norris put Piastri under significant pressure for the lead, but the Australian kept his calm, pulling beyond the critical one-second gap, and then extending to almost two seconds.

Verstappen was asked to allow George Russell to pass, due to events at the restart, and Verstappen collided with the Mercedes as it went through. The incident was to be investigated after the race, leading to a 10-second penalty being awarded to Verstappen.

Oscar Piastri drove an almost perfect race to claim another win for the season, pushing his championship lead back out to 10 points.

The next race is the Canadian GP in two weeks, on Sunday, June 15.

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Peter Molloy began following Formula 1 during the 1985 Australian Grand Prix. He cheered for a certain Ayrton Senna, who was driving the same black and gold colors as a toy F1 car that Pete had been given. Pete continued to be a fan of Senna throughout his childhood. Fast forward many moons, and Peter now combines significant journalistic experience with decades of watching F1 to cover the latest on-track and off-track action.