Oscar Piastri wins Spanish GP as Verstappen faces possible ban after clash

Photo : AFP

Oscar Piastri, the leader in the Formula One championship, won the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday. His team, McLaren, made it a one-two finish with Lando Norris coming in second. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen faced the possibility of a race ban after a collision with George Russell from Mercedes.

Piastri started the race from pole position and finished 2.471 seconds ahead of Norris. This was his fifth win in nine races and the seventh win for McLaren this season. Charles Leclerc from Ferrari took third place, completing the podium.

Piastri said it was a great way to recover after the Monaco race. He called it a fantastic weekend. Last week, Piastri finished third, while Norris had won from pole position.

Verstappen had a tough race. He made four pit stops and ended up racing on hard tires, while many others had faster soft tires. After a safety car restart with six laps left, Verstappen collided with Leclerc and then hit Russell twice. The race officials gave Verstappen a 10-second penalty after the race for the second collision with Russell, which looked deliberate. Because of this penalty, Verstappen dropped from fifth place on the track to tenth place.

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Verstappen also received three penalty points, bringing his total to 11 points in the last year. If he gets one more point before the end of June, he will face a one-race ban.

Nico Rosberg, the 2016 world champion who now works as a TV expert, said Verstappen should have been disqualified from the race because his actions seemed like revenge for an earlier incident. However, the officials did not take any action over the crash with Leclerc.

Russell finished in fourth place. Nico Hulkenberg, driving for Sauber and the future Audi team, surprised many by finishing fifth. He passed Lewis Hamilton, who has won seven world championships, just before the final lap. Hamilton finished sixth. Other top finishers included Isack Hadjar in seventh for Racing Bulls and Pierre Gasly in eighth for Alpine, a team owned by Renault. Gasly’s good result came as he celebrated the Champions League win by Paris Saint-Germain football club.

The race had some special guests, too. FIFA president Gianni Infantino and most of the England football team were watching. The race ended with the flag waved by Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski.

In the team competition, Ferrari moved up to second place from fourth. They are now 197 points behind McLaren. Verstappen stayed third in the driver standings but is now 49 points behind Piastri, making it a close fight between the two McLaren drivers.

Fernando Alonso, a fan favorite from Spain, scored his first points of the season by finishing ninth for Aston Martin. Aston Martin only had one car in the race because Lance Stroll withdrew due to injury after qualifying on Saturday.

At the start, Piastri took the lead. Verstappen moved up to second place by passing Norris. Hamilton and Leclerc also moved up to fourth and fifth. Russell lost some positions.

On lap 10 of 66, Hamilton let Leclerc pass as the two Ferraris were racing closely. Norris took back second place from Verstappen on lap 13, and Verstappen did not try hard to defend because he planned to pit for new tires the next lap.

Verstappen took the lead again on lap 23 after Piastri made a pit stop. Norris pitted on lap 21 but came out behind Verstappen. Verstappen pitted again on lap 30, losing the lead.

Verstappen stopped for the third time on lap 47. Norris pitted the next lap to keep his second place.

On lap 55, a safety car came out after Kimi Antonelli, a new driver, got stuck in the gravel with his Mercedes. This safety car grouped all the cars closely and caused many drivers to make pit stops.

McLaren brought both their drivers in together for new tires. They managed to come out ahead of Verstappen, who only had hard tires left.

Verstappen said, "That safety car came at the wrong time," as it hurt his chances of winning.

Overall, it was an exciting race with a strong performance from McLaren and some drama involving Verstappen’s collisions and penalties.