2025 Spanish GP talking points: McLaren and Oscar Piastri dominant, Lewis Hamilton’s worst race yet, ‘Mad Max’ Verstappen suffers huge title blow, and more

For the last time on Sunday, June 1, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya hosted the Spanish Grand Prix to round off the second triple-header of the 2025 F1 season. 

And with new technical directives, surprise points-scorers, and a season-defining incident between Max Verstappen and George Russell, yet another chaotic race has left F1 fans with so much to discuss. 

Sports News Blitz’s F1 writer Henry Eccles analyses five key talking points to come out of the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix. 

Did the flexi-wing clampdown slow McLaren down? 

In January, the FIA announced that the tolerance on how much a car’s bodywork was allowed to bend under high speeds was to be reduced in 2025, and with stiffer rear wings already introduced in China, front wings had to be changed in Spain. 

Before Barcelona, when 100kg of vertical load was applied on the front wings, they were allowed to deflect 15mm on both sides of the wing, and 20mm when load was applied to just one side - that has now been reduced by 5mm each way. 

A flexible, flatter front wing acts much in the same way as the DRS at the rear, reducing drag, and providing more speed on the straights.  

In terms of the impact on racing, Red Bull in particular believed the new technical directive would impact McLaren, and help bring them back into the championship battle. 

So, what difference did it make at Barcelona? 

Well, with Oscar Piastri clinching pole position on Saturday by the longest margin in 2025 (0.209s), and McLaren dominating Sunday’s race to finish P1 and P2, it would appear very little. 

Piastri was back on top form in Spain, avoiding trouble in the opening laps and shooting off into the distance - his victory was almost never in doubt from the moment the race began. 

Team-mate Lando Norris, however, again made harder work of his weekend than perhaps necessary - highlighting the chief difference between himself and the more clinical Piastri.

In qualifying, during the final Q3 runs when pressure was at its peak, Piastri seemingly had the car on rails, while Norris was accused of ‘over-driving’ by former world champion Nico Rosberg.

On Sunday, Norris yet again lost ground, the Briton was cautious in the opening corners and that allowed Max Verstappen to get into P2.

The superior race pace of the McLaren was still on display as Norris later breezed past Verstappen to regain P2, where he would stay for the rest of the race.

But it was Piastri’s weekend once again, the Aussie extended his championship lead on Norris to 10 points.

The 24-year-old has also now scored eight consecutive podiums for McLaren, a feat only previously achieved by legendary racers Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton. 

Lewis Hamilton suffers his worst race yet

Barcelona was another new low for Lewis Hamilton in his whirlwind of a debut season for Ferrari. 

Despite out-qualifying team-mate Charles Leclerc by two places in P5, and gaining a position on the opening lap of the Grand Prix, Hamilton’s race pace fell to the floor as the race continued. 

By lap 9, Leclerc, who sacrificed a final run in Q3 to have an extra set of tyres in the race, had caught up to the back of Hamilton’s Ferrari, lapping one second per lap faster than the seven-time world champion. 

Hamilton was then ordered to let his team-mate through, but the worst was yet to come. 

On lap 47, a poor stint on Medium tyres ended with a slow pit stop of 4.9s - Mercedes’ George Russell and Kimi Antonelli both passed Hamilton on the pit straight, and the Ferrari driver came out just ahead of Isack Hadjar in P7. 

And following a Safety Car restart, with just one lap to go on lap 65, Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg then took P6, which later became P5, from Hamilton. 

Hulkenberg did have the benefit of fresher tyres, but getting overtaken by the slowest car on the grid for P6 sums up the miserable race Hamilton had. 

The former Mercedes man again had no answers in his post-race interviews, telling the media there were ‘zero positives’ to take away from Spain. 

“I have no idea why it was so bad. That was the worst race I've experienced, balance-wise.”

And when asked by Sky Sports F1 whether the team could find him some answers, Hamilton said: “I’m sure they won’t, it was probably just me.”

And to add to Hamilton’s woes, his team-mate Leclerc had another promising weekend, recovering from P7 to P3 - his second consecutive podium after his P2 finish in Monaco.

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Nico Hulkenberg shines for Sauber

An eventual P5 finish for Nico Hülkenberg was the German’s best race result since 2019 when he crossed the line fifth at the Italian Grand Prix. 

For Sauber, it was their best-ever result under the Stake name, and the team’s best finish since Valtteri Bottas’ P5 in the 2022 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix when they were known as Alfa Romeo. 

This season, Sauber had only scored points once previously- at the season opener under treacherous conditions in Melbourne - when Hülkenberg crossed the line in P7.

Hülkenberg started the race in P15 but gained a few positions during a frenetic opening lap, and after an early pit stop and successful overtakes, the 37-year-old was in P8 by the time the Safety Car was called on lap 55. 

Having a fresh set of Soft tyres thanks to failing to get out of Q1 in qualifying, he had a ‘golden ticket’ to gain ground on the restart, and got past both Hadjar and Hamilton on his way to P5.

The result will be most encouraging for Sauber, who brought an extensive upgrade package with them to Barcelona, one Hülkenberg thinks is a ‘big step’ in their bid to join the midfield battle. 

“Today, just everything clicked,” he said post-race.

“Good start, mega first lap, made a bunch of positions, which was the foundation for the race.

“After that, to be honest it was just a good car - good rhythm, good balance and harmony, the updates really paying dividends which was very enjoyable and great to see.”

Fernando Alonso scores points at home

At his home race, Fernando Alonso’s points drought came to an end after a hard-fought P9 finish. 

After a P10 in qualifying, his third consecutive Q3 appearance, Alonso was Aston Martin’s sole driver on race day after Lance Stroll’s withdrawal due to injury. 

The Spaniard’s race was almost over before it really started after he lost control of his AMR25 and slid onto the gravel at Turn 5 on lap 16. 

But the two-time world champion recovered and while out of the points for large parts of the race, he took P10 off Liam Lawson in the closing stages and saw that bumped up to P9 following a penalty to Max Verstappen. 

While the 43-year-old surely ought to be pleased to end his points drought, especially at his home race, he still expressed disappointment with his car’s race performance. 

”We had a lot of front tyre degradation, so the front left was done by seven laps into the stint. And then we lack top speed, you know. So on the straights, we were losing a lot,” Alonso explained. 

“I didn’t make any single overtake on the DRS. They were all made in Turn 3 on the outside, which is not a normal place to overtake, but we have to invent this kind of moves.” 

The moves Alonso had to ‘invent,’ for what it is worth, were seriously impressive, darting his Aston around Franco Colapinto on Lap 19 and then Ollie Bearman on Lap 54. 

The Spaniard still bemoaned Aston Martin’s competitive imbalance between Saturday and Sunday performances, adding that more consistency and making the car more ‘Sunday biased’ should help the team build momentum.

"We need to score points, also with Sauber scoring a lot of points today, it's mandatory for us that we score points every weekend or every two weekends, so we need to raise the level."

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Mad Max returns 

This race was looking promising for Max Verstappen, an aggressive three-stop strategy looked certain to clinch him at least the final podium spot in Barcelona. 

But then the yellow flags were waved. 

On lap 55, a power unit failure saw Antonelli beached in the gravel, causing virtually the whole grid to come in for fresher tyres. 

With everyone around him on used Softs, Verstappen was put onto fresh Hards, the only tyre available to Red Bull as he had already pitted three times. 

This enraged the Dutchman, whose exit on the final corner at the Lap 61 restart almost had him spin out of the race entirely, he simply could not heat up the hard compound. 

Leclerc was the first to pounce, making contact with Verstappen on the pit straight, but passing his long-time rival before Turn 1. 

Next came George Russell, and this is where things heated up.

The Mercedes driver went deep into Turn 1 and made contact, which forced Verstappen to take the escape road to stay ahead for a few more laps.

On lap 64, Red Bull themselves ordered Verstappen to let Russell pass, even though there was no indication that Verstappen had made any illegal moves. 

It is safe to say this was not received well by the four-time world champion, who slowed down into Turn Five only to collide with the Mercedes driver on the outside, in a move Russell, and many others, felt was a deliberate ram. 

The incident saw Verstappen receive a 10-second penalty and moved him from P4 to P10, a huge blow for the 27-year-old as he now sits 49 points from championship leader Piastri in P3.

Sky Sports’ Rosberg said the move was ‘extremely unacceptable,’ and that instead of a ‘lenient’ time penalty, the black flag should have come out and disqualified Verstappen. 

Speaking after the race, Russell was just as gobsmacked as viewers: “I've seen those sort of manoeuvres before on simulator games and go-karting but never in F1. 

"Ultimately we came home in P4 and he came home in P10. I don't really know what was going through his mind. It felt deliberate in the moment, so it felt surprising.”

Russell also added that he felt Verstappen let himself down in the incident: “You go to Imola with one of the best moves of all time, then this happens. It cost him and his team a lot of points.”

Initially, Verstappen was as brazen as ever in the post-race interviews, replying to Russell’s comments with: ”Okay, I’ll bring some tissues next time.”

On Monday morning, however, the Red Bull driver took to Instagram to say frustration with how he and his team handled the Safety Car restart led to ‘a move that was not right and shouldn’t have happened.’ 

That may well be the closest thing to an apology you are likely to get with a driver once nicknamed ‘Mad Max’ early on in his F1 career. 

The FIA also added three penalty points to his Super License, taking his penalty points total to 11 - one more in either Canada or Austria will result in a single-race suspension for the four-time world champion. 

With the second triple-header of the season wrapped up, F1 takes a week off before returning to the Canadian Grand Prix from June 13-15, with fans able to catch all the action on Sky Sports F1.

The race is set to start on Sunday at 7pm UK time.

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