Oscar Piastri led a one-two for McLaren in the Spanish Grand Prix as the team covered off the threat from Max Verstappen.
But the race ended in acrimony as the stewards announced they would investigate Verstappen for colliding with George Russell at turn five.
Verstappen had chased the McLaren drivers all afternoon, but came under attack following a late Safety Car period. He split the two McLarens at the start of the race, taking up second place behind Piastri. But Verstappen couldn’t hold on to second place ahead of Lando Norris, who passed him late in the first stint.
Red Bull chose to attack McLaren by switching Verstappen to a three-stop strategy. He closed on the tail of the McLaren drivers then made his final planned stop before the two orange cars made their second. But McLaren were able to keep Piastri and Norris ahead by making pit stops on the next two consecutive laps.
That would have been the end of the contest at the front, but on lap 55 Andrea Kimi Antonelli skated into the gravel trap at turn 10 after suffering a power unit failure. The Safety Car was deployed and the drivers scrambled into the pits for fresh rubber. The McLaren drivers switched to used soft rubber, but Verstappen had depleted his stack of tyres so much that Red Bull chose to put him on a fresh set of hards.
As the field reached the pit straight at the restart, Verstappen almost lost control of his car, which gave Charles Leclerc a clear run to pass. The Ferrari driver squeezed him and they made contact, an incident the stewards are investigating.
George Russell pounced to dive down the inside of Verstappen at turn one. The Red Bull driver dived off the track and kept the Mercedes behind.
When Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase told him to let Russell past, the Red Bull driver reacted furiously. He initially let Russell by approaching turn five, then accelerated and collided with the Mercedes driver. Verstappen initially regained the place, then handed it back again. The stewards handed him a 10-second penalty for causing a collision, which dropped him from fifth place to 10th.
The big winner from the late Safety Car deployment was Nico Hulkenberg, who passed Lewis Hamilton for sixth, before being promoted to fifth. Isack Hadjar took seventh ahead of Pierre Gasly, while Fernando Alonso claimed his first points of the season for ninth.
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2025 Spanish Grand Prix
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