Winners and losers from F1’s explosive Spanish GP

While the reigning world champion suffered from a bout of red mist, F1’s new Iceman didn’t skip a beat to strengthen his championship lead. With that, our winners and losers from an eventful Spanish Grand Prix.

Winner: Oscar Piastri

McLaren as a whole can be called a winner for more than just its 1-2 win. After all the huff and puff some competitors (and media, in fairness) had made about flexing wings and other trickery, the team is still on top, on a circuit it had some questions marks about too. It seems rivals are starting to run out of ammunition both on and off the track to stop the papaya juggernaut.

But we’re going to hand this week’s bouquet to Oscar Piastri. While all hell broke loose behind him in a controversial podium scrap, Piastri simply had everything under control as he collected his fifth win of the season. A lot of the work was done in qualifying, with McLaren’s two drivers generally closely matched this weekend, but Piastri delivered a much cleaner lap when it mattered in Q3.

Having been passed by Max Verstappen at the start, team-mate Lando Norris was the first line of defence as the world champion tried to deploy a three-stop. Meanwhile Piastri never seemed particularly troubled, drove to the stint length and pace Barcelona’s tricky tyre situation required, and appeared to have enough speed in hand in the second stint to demonstrate he didn’t have to show his full hand. A late safety car restart didn’t matter one bit.

Loser: Max Verstappen

It has been a while since we saw red mist from Max Verstappen, but steam appeared to emanate from his lion themed helmet after his frustration in the race gradually built up; from a lack of grip, clutch issues and lapped traffic ‘idiots’ to Charles Leclerc’s glancing blow on the straight and ultimately his Turn 5 altercation with George Russell.

We can’t look inside Verstappen’s head to judge whether or not it being his nemesis Russell of all people who drove him off in Turn 1 made a difference, but it is never particularly great to see drivers deliberately work out their frustration on others while at the wheel. Verstappen was lucky to get away with the penalty he received.

In the bigger picture Verstappen has always been so brilliant at maximising the potential of the car and he looked on course for another best possible result behind the two McLarens until the safety car exposed his tyre disadvantage. Verstappen was going to lose a few positions regardless of Red Bull’s pitstop decision, but this time his red mist cost him a lot more than that, unnecessarily so as the stewards weren’t going to penalise him for going off the track in the first place in the Turn 1 Russell scrap.

There may be a bigger issue at play with the racing rules themselves, which Verstappen may feel are needlessly complicated. But this was entirely avoidable.

Winner: Sauber

Sauber has finally pocketed its first points since the season opening race in Melbourne. And this time the Swiss squad was good value for its points finish, showing its has made a big enough step to mix it up with the others in a tight midfield. Yes, there was some fortune involved in Nico Hulkenberg finishing fifth, as his Q1 elimination meant he had more unused sets of tyres left, which he was able to deploy at the final safety car restart.

Even without, its Hulkenberg was rapid in that upgraded Sauber, and passing Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari was just the cherry on top. The overriding emotion is a combination of elation and relief. No, the 2025 season doesn’t have to be a total write-off. Yes, team Hinwil has what it takes to fight and deliver a solid car upgrade to its cars.

Loser: Mercedes

Perhaps Mercedes looked better than it had feared beforehand in the Catalan heat, but it was another difficult weekend on pace, long looking like the fourth quickest team in those hot conditions. 

Russell was able to salvage a very creditable fourth with an opportunistic move on a struggling Verstappen on the late restart, while team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli was still struggling to get to grips with Mercedes’ tyre wear on a hot and high downforce track like this. That was until a suspected power unit issue saw him retire for the second time in three races.

There will be a lot to unpack from this triple header as Mercedes attacks the rest of the 2025 season.

Winner: Fernando Alonso

While team-mate Lance Stroll had to sit out the race due to recurring issues with his right hand, there was finally some fortune for Fernando Alonso. Or should we say absence of misfortune, as the cartoon anvil that has chased the Spaniard around has finally left his Aston Martin alone.

Alonso enjoyed a bit of a premature victory lap in qualifying by offsetting his run to momentarily go quicker than Verstappen in fifth, before sliding down to 10th. The wily Spaniard – and indeed the Barcelona event’s newly minted ambassador – knows how to play his home crowd like a fiddle.

But Alonso overcame a trip to the gravel to score points in a car that was not as competitive in race trim as it had been over one lap and lacked top speed, and therefore didn’t really deserve to finish in the top 10. The late safety car helped Alonso to finally get off the mark in 2025, but after the bad luck he has had he was due some positive karma.

Loser: Lewis Hamilton

Out of 365 starts, Lewis Hamilton labelled his 2025 Spanish Grand Prix the “worst I’ve ever experienced”. There is likely some hyperbole here in the heat of the moment, coming just out of the car that had suffered a late, undisclosed issue – at least according to team boss Fred Vasseur.

But it was quite telling the seven-time world champion had to quickly let team-mate Charles Leclerc by — having started on the same strategy, no less — and Hamilton suffered from a lack of grip and pace throughout the afternoon. If Hamilton was re-energised after a good display in front of the tifosi in Imola, then that energy has dissipated once again.

“Where do you go from here?” one journalist tried after a terse and taciturn media scrum. “Home,” came the reply.

Winner: Isack Hadjar

It’s starting to get a bit predictable, such is Isack Hadjar’s impressive consistency as a rookie. Fresh from watching his beloved PSG (Paris Saint-Germain) win the UEFA Champions League, Hadjar didn’t put a foot wrong to remain the best of the rest on pace, getting his elbows out in a tight midfield fight that he was looking like winning.

Hadjar had no reply for Hulkenberg’s fresh soft tyres on the late safety car restart, but he can be extremely satisfied coming out of a busy triple-header while ninth in the drivers’ standings. Knowing Hadjar, he won’t be. He will want more. Even Racing Bulls’ own team chiefs admitted they have been surprised by how quickly he has adapted.

Loser: Williams

Much like fellow PSG enthusiast Pierre Gasly would have warranted a winner’s medal, it was a bit of a tie between two other midfield outfits for the last spot. Haas has been blowing hot and cold again after a difficult to dissect race for the team, while Williams has been so much improved in 2025 only to fall flat in Carlos Sainz’s home race.

Williams introduced a front wing upgrade to coincide with the new technical directive on flexing, but that proved but a band aid for the grove squad’s long standing weakness in Barcelona, partly because of the circuit’s many long corners.

“The moment you put combined forces in this car, the downforce falls away from the car,” Sainz said after qualifying. Both he and Alex Albon had also been unlucky as they suffered front wing damage from early, so maybe it is just as well that contact happened at their weakest track. Sainz slumped home to 14th while Albon retired quickly. On to Canada, which should be a much better circuit for Williams.