Piastri on pole for the Spanish GP
Formula One championship leader Oscar Piastri seized pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday with teammate Lando Norris completing a McLaren front row sweep.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen qualified third fastest in the same time as Mercedes' George Russell, who will start fourth because the reigning champion finished his lap first.
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eNCA
11 hours ago
- eNCA
'Proud' Piastri extends championship lead with Spanish GP victory
Oscar Piastri drove with exemplary calm and control in a torrid race on Sunday to beat rival and team-mate Lando Norris as McLaren claimed a first Spanish Grand Prix victory since 2005 with a resounding 1-2 triumph. The 24-year-old Australian came home 2.4 seconds clear of Norris to extend his lead in the drivers' championship to 10 points with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finishing third after a dramatic finale. Four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull went for a three-stop strategy that resulted in him losing third place in the final laps before being handed a 10-second penalty for crashing into Mercedes' George Russell who finished fourth. It was Piastri's fifth win of the season and the seventh win of his career – and his eighth consecutive podium finish for McLaren, a feat that had only been achieved before by three-time champion Ayrton Senna and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton. Nico Hulkenberg was fifth, from 15th on the grid, for Sauber ahead of Hamilton in a Ferrari, Racing Bulls' rookie Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly of Alpine. Two-time champion and local hero Fernando Alonso finished ninth for Aston Martin with Verstappen classified 10th after his bruising late incidents which prompted 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg to suggest he deserved to be black-flagged and disqualified. - 'Great weekend' - "It was a bit of a surprise to see Max try a three-stop and it nearly worked for him," said Piastri. "But it's been a great weekend overall. The overall pace was really good and we could turn it on when we needed to – and I am just very proud of the work we've done this weekend. "It's a nice way to bounce back from Monaco. It's been a superb weekend." Monaco winner Norris started second but ceded his position to Verstappen on the first lap before battling back to follow his teammate home. "Oscar drove a very good race today," said Norris. "I didn't quite have the pace to match him. We gave it our best shot. It's a long race and anything could have happened at the end of the race. "We both got pretty sideways with the safety car restart. It was a good, fun race and for us as a team to finish one-two is even better." Leclerc said he was encouraged to attack Verstappen when he realised he had been given hards for the late re-start that followed a Safety Car intervention, while he was on softs. "When the engineers told me that Max was going on a hard tyre for the last stint, I was very optimistic because I knew how bad the hard was," he said. "That's when I knew I needed to have a good restart. Luckily, there was an opportunity. AFP | Pierre-Philippe MARCOU "It was a battle for track position to get the slipstream from the guys in front. Max wanted to bring me towards the inside where there was all the rubber, so I didn't want to go there. "I was trying to push him to the left, there was a little bit of contact. Fortunately, for us there were no consequences.'
eNCA
11 hours ago
- eNCA
Verstappen punished after ramming into Russell
Max Verstappen clattered into a fresh controversy on Sunday when stewards ruled he rammed rival George Russell in the closing laps of an eventful Spanish Grand Prix. The incident happened shortly after racing restarted with five laps left following a safety car. Verstappen immediately lost third to Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and then went off the track as he tried to hold off Russell's Mercedes. Verstappen's Red Bull team told their driver to hand the place to Russell, the Dutchman appeared about to do that as he slowed into turn five with two laps left. Instead he speared into the Mercedes. Stewards handed the Dutchman a 10-second penalty and he finished 10th. He said later that he was unhappy at the way Leclerc had passed him and Russell had tried to overtake. The 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg told British broadcaster Sky that Verstappen should have been disqualified. "It looked like a very intentional retaliation," Roseberg said. "Wait for the opponent, go ramming into him, just like you felt the other guy rammed into you at turn one." "I think the rules would be a black flag, yes. If you wait for your opponent to bang into him, that's a black flag." After the race, Verstappen accused Leclerc of driving into him while overtaking and said Russell pushed him off track, forcing him to take to the escape road to retain fourth place. Verstappen did not deny that his move on Russell – with whom he was involved in a war of words last season – was deliberate. "Does it matter?" he said. "I prefer to speak about the race than just one single moment." Verstappen brushed aside talk of his defence of his drivers' title. "We are way too slow anyway to fight for the title. I think that was clear again today," he said. Asked by Sky whether his reputation being tarnished by the collisions and penalty, he said: "Is it? Well that's your opinion. We will leave it there." Russell said Verstappen's move remind him of video games. "I was as surprised as you guys were," he told reporters. "I've seen these manoeuvres before on simulator games and in go-karting, but never in F1. "Ultimately, we came home in P4 and he came home in P10. I don't know what was going through his mind. It felt deliberate in the moment so, yeah, it was a bit surprising. "It is down to the stewards to decide if its deliberate or not. Max is such an amazing driver and so many people look up to him. It's a shame that something like that continues to occur. It seems totally unnecessary and it never seems to benefit himself." Leclerc and Verstappen were both called to the stewards' office after the race to assist in more investigations into their collision.
TimesLIVE
12 hours ago
- TimesLIVE
Verstappen one point from a race ban after clash with Russell
'Intentional retaliation'? The incident, as well as an earlier clash with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, triggered accusations of road rage and a return to the "Mad Max" days of old, before Verstappen's four world titles. "It looked like a very intentional retaliation. Wait for the opponent, go ramming into him, just like you felt the other guy rammed into you at Turn One," said Mercedes' 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg on Sky Sports television. "That's something which is extremely unacceptable and I think the rules would be a black flag, yes. If you wait for your opponent to bang into him, that's a black flag." McLaren's Lando Norris, who finished second, watched a replay in the cool-down room and commented: "I've done that before in Mario Kart." Russell told reporters he did not know what Verstappen was thinking. "It felt very deliberate. It is something I have seen numerous times in sim (video) racing and i-racing and never have I seen it in a Formula One race so that was something new," added the Briton. "It is a shame because Max is one of the best drivers in the world but manoeuvres like that are totally unnecessary. It lets him down and it is a shame for all of the young kids looking up to us, aspiring to be Formula One drivers. "It is something you see in go-karting but never in F1. It doesn't make sense to crash into somebody and risk damaging your own car and risk a penalty. And he could have come back to fight for the podium." Verstappen, who had accused Leclerc of ramming into him, accepted the two had different opinions.
