New Wings, Same Leader: McLaren Maintains Its Dominance!

The 75th anniversary season of the Formula 1 World Championship continued with the Spanish Grand Prix, marking the beginning of the season’s second third. Held in Montmelo near Barcelona, the race stood out due to new FIA technical regulations regarding front wing flexibility. Teams arrived with updated cars, but the competitive order remained unchanged — McLaren once again showcased its strength.

On Friday and Saturday, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris outperformed their rivals and secured the front row in qualifying. Oscar claimed his fourth career pole position, giving McLaren its 170th in history.

At the race start, Max Verstappen overtook Norris, but his pace dropped due to rapid tyre degradation. On lap 13, Norris retook second place while Piastri had already built a 6-second lead. Verstappen’s early pit stop paid off temporarily, but he couldn’t maintain the pace.

A technical failure on Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s car brought out the Safety Car and erased all time gaps. Teams rushed into the pits for fresh tyres. Interestingly, while most switched to soft (red) tyres, Red Bull fitted Verstappen with hard (white) tyres — a costly decision.

After the restart, Charles Leclerc overtook Max to take third, and Verstappen was handed a 10-second time penalty for violation of on-track rules. In the end, Oscar Piastri took his fifth win of the season and seventh in his career. Lando Norris finished second, securing a McLaren one-two, and Leclerc completed the podium.

George Russell narrowly missed out on the podium in fourth, while Nico Hülkenberg (Sauber) delivered a surprise by finishing fifth. Points also went to Hamilton, Hadjar, Gasly, Alonso, and Verstappen (despite the penalty).

With this result, Piastri leads the standings with 186 points, Norris trails by 10, and Verstappen follows with 137. Ferrari has moved up to second in the Constructors’ Championship but still trails McLaren by nearly 200 points.

The next stop in the championship comes in two weeks — Canada.