With Oscar Piastri’s absolutely dominant weekend, he strengthened his championship lead after claiming P1 in the chaotic 2025 F1 Spanish GP. The Australian had an incredible race weekend at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit, where he sat in pole position in almost all sessions. The 66-lap race showed Piastri build a gap, separating himself from the rest of the grid since the start.
This victory furthered the point difference between him and his teammate, Lando Norris. The current standings put Piastri at a 10-point advantage over Norris. However, both drivers brought a 1-2 finish to their team, McLaren. Oscar Piastri showed competence and skill, finishing the race with Norris at a +2.471 behind him. Nevertheless, McLaren was in another league, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on P3 with a +10.455 gap.
First thoughts after the grand win
During the trackside interview, Oscar Piastri described this weekend as “superb” after achieving his P1 result at the F1 Spanish GP. The Australian driver gave a brief overview of his whole experience in sunny Barcelona. He also went over Max Verstappen’s race strategy, which almost put a damper on Piastri’s lead:
“Yeah, definitely. It was a bit of a surprise to see Max [Verstappen] try a three-stop, and it nearly worked for him. So, yeah, it was a great weekend overall, though. I think the pace was really good. We could turn it on when we needed to, and just very proud of the work we’ve done this weekend. It wasn’t the best first practice, and then we got our stuff together and, yeah, it’s a nice way to bounce back from Monaco. So, been a superb weekend.”
Moreover, this victory marks Piastri’s 7th win in his three years in Formula 1. Not only this, but the McLaren driver has dominated the 2025 season, gathering five P1 finishes already after 9 rounds. The Australian is extremely satisfied with both his performance and his team’s. Furthermore, Oscar Piastri shared his gratitude for the pleasant experience the F1 Spanish GP brought him:
“Hard to complain. Yeah, very hard to complain. It’s been a great year, and this weekend’s been exactly the kind of weekend I was looking for. You know, we executed everything we needed to when it counted, and that’s all you can ask for. So, the team gave me a great car once again.
“It’s a lot of fun winning races at the moment. So, I’ve been enjoying it, and I hope the team are too. So, thanks to the crowd for being out here. It’s been a great weekend, a lot of support out here. A lot of traffic as well, but that’s the sign of a lot of fans. So, it’s nice to be here.”
In terms of the race restart, Piastri felt as if he could have done better. Yet, he kept his cool and adapted to the track conditions again, after the low fuel changed the grip of the MCL39. The Australian also congratulated one of his fellow racing colleagues, Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg:
“I’ve seen that [Nico] Hülkenberg finished sixth [sic, P5], which is pretty impressive. So well done to him, I guess.
“But, yeah, my restart was okay from a time point of view. I’m not sure my rear tyres were very happy. I think I was wheel-spinning in sixth gear. So not the cleanest of restarts, but it was good enough. And then, just getting used to how much grip there was on low fuel again, it was like being back in qualifying. So that was a bit of an adjustment, but no, very well managed.”
The incredible Spanish GP experience
With Verstappen’s three-stop strategy, Oscar Piastri shortly encountered some difficulties throughout the F1 Spanish GP. During the post-race press conference, the Australian explained how he managed his race with all the strategy changes and pressure from behind. Piastri further added that he felt “in control” during most of the race:
“It felt mostly under control. I think I wasn’t really expecting Max to try a three-stop race, and I wasn’t really expecting it to work… Well, almost work as well as it did either. So there was a bit going on at that point, definitely, and just with all the traffic and the blue flags as well, that made the race a bit more interesting than I wanted. But, apart from a few laps trying to get through the blue flags, I felt pretty much in control and could increase my pace when I needed to.
“So, yeah, it was a really strong race and a strong weekend. I think we did a really good job of managing everything in that race: sticking to our plan on strategy, not getting distracted by the three-stop, really good pit stops. Yeah, I think we just did a good job all around.”
While the McLaren driver is only in his third year in F1, he has experienced some great victories already. Looking back upon his weekends, Oscar Piastri considered the Spanish GP to be pretty high up in his list in terms of performance:
“It’s definitely up there. I don’t know if it’s the best one, but certainly it’s been a strong one. You know, it’s pretty hard to complain with the results we’ve had this weekend. And I think more so than that, just the effort that’s gone in, and analysing some of the things from last week that we could have done better—I think we turned it around very nicely and got back to the form we wanted to be on. And, yeah, that’s what I’m very satisfied with this weekend. Definitely one of the strongest.”
Verstappen’s battle and the future of the season
Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen started this race on P3. However, during the final laps, he lost P4 and had a collision with the Mercedes of George Russell. This incident caused Verstappen to receive a 10-second time penalty, finishing the race in P10. Not only that, but he also got 3 penalty points added to his tally. While this conflict sparked a great discussion through the F1 Spanish GP paddock, Oscar Piastri gave his point of view on the whole situation:
“In all honesty, I don’t fully get the context of what happened. It looked a bit strange. Like, I thought he was giving the position back… So I don’t really get what happened there. I don’t know if it was a misunderstanding, whether he didn’t brake… I don’t really know. I think I need a bit more context on what happened, but obviously, it was not exactly a small touch. I don’t have that much more, but it obviously didn’t look great.”
Reflecting on the rest of his 2025 season with McLaren, the Australian spoke of any possible tracks where the MCL39 might struggle. Piastri hopes his team will keep their advantage over the others, but he will not leave Red Bull Racing out of the equation just yet:
“I have no idea. I don’t know. I think Imola, we probably expected to be a bit quicker than we were, and we got beaten. I don’t know. I think this weekend, we were probably a bit quicker than we expected compared to Red Bull. I think we thought they would be a really genuine threat this weekend. You know, I think they were with us in the race, but more through strategy, I guess, than pure pace. But it seemed like we had a little bit of an edge over them.
“So, I don’t know. There will be other tracks where our competitors get closer. There’s probably going to be some where they’re further away. I hope there’s more where they’re further away than closer. But I really don’t know.”
