Raceday Recap: Clashing in Catalunya
The 9th race of the 2025 F1 season was a dramatic one: the Spanish Grand Prix was full of intense overtaking and angry radio messages. However, it made for a very entertaining broadcast for fans to watch. Let’s debrief what made this race so exciting, as well as recognize the outstanding drivers.
Oscar Piastri started the race on pole for the 4th time this season, with teammate Lando Norris completing the front row in 2nd. Behind the two McLarens were Max Verstappen starting from 3rd and Mercedes’ George Russell in 4th. Lewis Hamilton qualified 5th fastest, Kimi Antonelli 6th fastest, and Charles Leclerc 7th fastest. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly started from an impressive P8 on the grid, with Isack Hadjar in 9th and Fernando Alonso wrapping up the top ten.
Right after the lights went out, Piastri sped away from the pack to maintain the lead while Verstappen quickly overtook Norris for 2nd place. Hamilton squeezed past Russell, working his way up to 4th place while teammate Leclerc also gained a few positions around the first turns to occupy 5th place. 12 laps later, Norris used DRS to regain his 2nd place spot in front of Verstappen, speeding away from the Red Bull. On lap 29, Williams’ Alex Albon retired his car after brushing against Liam Lawson and suffering severe damage to his front wing and receiving a penalty from the stewards. 11 laps before the checkered flag, Antonelli’s engine failed, and a yellow flag was declared as he skidded into the gravel. The safety car came out for 5 laps (which Lewis Hamilton had a comment about), and on the return of free driving, Leclerc passed Verstappen, scraping wheels on the way past.
Leclerc and Verstappen about to run each other off the track. Photo courtesy of Formula 1.
Max Verstappen was the main source of the race’s drama, starting when his 3 stop strategy left him no choice but to use hard tires for the final laps of the race. This meant that his tires would take longer to warm up and would therefore negatively affect his race pace. Verstappen was outraged on the team radio, but there was no other tire option for Red Bull to give him. On lap 64, Verstappen overtook Russell by going off the track and was ordered to give the position back. Instead, Verstappen chose to go straight at one of the corners and “appeared to intentionally hit the Mercedes,” a decision for which Verstappen was given a 10 second penalty.
Piastri crossed the finish line in first place, his 3rd time out of 4 finishing P1 from pole position. It was a McLaren 1-2 weekend as Norris finished on the second step of the podium, and Leclerc rounded out the top 3. George Russell, for all of his effort, finished P4 while Nico Hulkenberg achieved P5: nobody expected him to have such a good race! Even the commentators were asking “What is going on right now?!” as he crossed the line. Hamilton took P6, Isack Hadjar took P7, and Pierre Gasly took P8. Fernando Alonso scored his first points of the season at his home race in P9, and Max Verstappen ended up in 10th after his penalty was applied. As of now, Max is in danger of a race ban: if he picks up any more penalty points at the next two Grands Prix, he will be banned from the following race - the pressure is on!
This weekend in Barcelona was a crazy one to watch, but also a disappointing race for hometown hero Carlos Sainz, who finished 14th overall. Hopefully next week in Canada, Sainz will be luckier. As always, thanks for reading!!
Lights out and away we go,
Lucy xx
