Oscar Piastri takes his sixth win of the season in a Spanish Grand Prix that featured strategy intrigue and soap opera drama.
The green lights went out almost immediately, which Piastri was much better prepared for than Norris alongside him on the front row.
While Piastri was able to comfortably head down into turn 1 in the lead, Norris was almost swarmed by those around him, and would ultimately drop to 3rd behind Verstappen.
Russell had something of a poor start to the race, losing a position to Hamilton at turn 1, before then being overtaken by Leclerc about half way through the first lap.
There was also some more chaos throughout the pack on the opening lap, such as Hulkenberg managing to gain five positions and Albon appearing to pick up some wing damage, which he would need to replace a few laps later.
The race quickly turned into one of tyre management, and many gaps of over one second quickly formed.
However, the two Ferraris were locked together in the opening laps, with Leclerc clearly quicker than his teammate, though Hamilton would not yield for another laps.
Ferrari would eventually order a swap between Hamilton and Leclerc, doing so on lap 10.
Norris had began to push to regain 2nd, eventually getting back ahead of Verstappen on lap 13, just over four seconds behind Piastri.
The first pit stops came early in this race, with a frontrunner in Verstappen coming in on lap 14, with speculation coming in regarding whether those who stopped at this point in the race were going for the three stop.
Hamilton would be another to pit early on, doing so just a few laps after Verstappen. However he would question this decision, for which he was told it was for protecting from a potential undercut.
The McLarens would pit on lap 21 and 22 respectively, and they would find themselves falling to 2nd and 3rd, with Verstappen’s undercut bringing him roughly 5 seconds ahead of Piastri and 10 seconds ahead of Norris.
Albon’s day would go from bad to worse as he had another incident that caused damage to his front wing, having been picked up after Lawson overtook him around the outside of turn 1. Williams would ask him to retire the car.
Albon would be given a 10 second penalty for a prior incident with Lawson, which he first had to serve before retiring though.
Verstappen would pit around lap 30 for his second stop, and would fall down to fourth, a lot of ground to make up if he wanted to challenge for the lead.
Lawson found himself in another incident, having dived in on Bearman from a long way back into turn 1, with the two making minor contact but fortunate to not have a bigger crash.
Verstappen would make the first move on his hunt back to the front, making an easy pass down the start finish straight on Leclerc on lap 36. Norris’ engineer had informed him that Verstappen was indeed in his race, so it was anybody’s race to win just past the half way point.
Norris had began to pick up the pace after Verstappen overtook Leclerc, as he began to cut into Piastri’s lead.
However, this would only be somewhat short lived, as Piastri would start to pick up his own pace, getting back to being over 4 seconds ahead in the lead.
There was a slow stop by Ferrari for Hamilton, who came in on lap 47. This meant that he would now be behind both Mercedes drivers, having already been undercut by Russell.
Verstappen would make his third and final pitstop on lap 48, with Norris responding one later. Verstappen would now be within DRS range of Norris thanks to a great undercut.
Lapped traffic had proven to be a bit of an issue for those fighting at the front. First, Tsunoda had unintentionally caused Verstappen a bit of time loss when coming out of the pits, and then both Norris and Verstappen were slowed to different extents thanks to a battle between Lawson and Bearman.
Verstappen had began to drop off in the final stint, while the gap between Piastri and Norris was going slightly in the former’s favour.
However, everything was then turned onto it’s head when a safety car was called out for Antonelli going off at turn 10. McLaren would perform a wonderful double stack onto used soft tyres, while Verstappen would pit onto fresh hard tyres.
When racing resumed, Piastri managed to get away nicely, keeping ahead of Lando Norris. Verstappen’s restart was not as good, as he lost out to Leclerc and nearly Russell as well, heading onto the escape road to stay ahead.
Verstappen would be told to give the position back, for which he would be apoplectic. In a bizarre turn of events, Verstappen appeared to purposefully hit Russell at the moment he was meant to give the position back, for which he would receive a 10 second penalty.
After conceding the position properly and receiving the penalty, Verstappen would drop to tenth place.
Just behind this drama, a close fight was brewing between Hamilton and Hulkenberg. The Sauber of Hulkenberg would manage to overtake Hamilton on the penultimate lap, taking 6th place on track, which would turn into 5th after the Verstappen penalty.
Piastri was able to manage the pace out front in the final laps, taking home his 6th win of the season.
The next race is the Canadian Grand Prix, which will take place on June 15.
