PURE DOMINANCE!!!

 SPANISH GRAND PRIX 2025

photo credit: outlookindia.com

OSCAR PIASTRI WINS IN BARCELONAA!!!

After Lando's Monaco win, Oscar Piastri answered back and that too in pure dominance leaving the whole pack behind and in some ways even his own teammate. He was a man on a mission... came into the weekend dominated qualifying, controlled the race and won without even breaking a sweat, the perfect way to answer back on Lando making inroads to his championship lead. In doing so, he has recorded the largest pole margin of the season which was over 2 tenths, just pure skill.

Well for Lando, he just had to play second fiddle. He qualified 2nd and well to make things worse Max overtook him at the start but he overtook Max again a few laps later as the McLaren pace was other worldly... but bottling the start and losing the place to Max cost him time to Oscar which overall secured the win for Oscar as only Lando had the pace in the car to challenge him. Even on the safety car restart Lando was not able to catch up to Oscar, just further fortifying Oscar's dominance. 

Overall, for McLaren it was the best case scenario with a front row lockout and then a 1-2 finish in the race.

The surprising thing was that after the race Oscar was not the focal point of talks it was MAX VERSTAPPEN who had ended up in P10. Max had a wonderful race up until the safety car... he was running  a secured P3 near the McLaren's, ahead of the Ferrari and Mercedes even though he was on the three stop compared to everyone else's two stop... but then came the Safety Car and after that it all went horribly wrong for him. Due to a lack of new tyres, he was pitted on to the white wall hard tire with a handful of laps left. Due to the lack of tire warmth being retained behind the safety car Red Bull and Max had known it was going to be a terribly difficult job to keep the likes of Charles and George behind but had not hoped for it to go that wrong. On the safety car restart he dropped it at the exit of the last corner and with an incredible correction of the steering saved his car from that slide which could have been race ending, but this caused Charles Leclerc to close up and pass him down the main straight and also allowed George Russell to go side by side with him in turn 1 where they had contact due to which Max had to take the escape road and was advised to give the place back to George which frustrated him. While giving back the place to George, he slowed down before turn 5 and as George passed him, he accelerated and rammed into the side of George's car purposely due to the built up agitation and frustration of all the decisions after the Safety car, but in the end that was not a move of a World Champion who in the end crossed the line in P5 but earned a penalty due to the incident dropping him to P5. He has also been given 2 penalty points, raking up his total to 11 points just one shy of a race ban. In the end, after the race the FIA ruled that Max did not have to give the place back due to Russell losing control of his car but Max also agreed in the press interview it was his fault in the end. 

On the other hand, his teammate dead last in a car which seemed to have pace this weekend and did not even make an impression in the race finishing just in P13. Just showing the struggles of the Second Red Bull seat, which is dropping Red Bull in the standings day by day. Currently they sit at P4 and well if Max continues to be the only point scorer of the team, they might even lose more ground in terms of points to the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes. 

Next on, the team which have suddenly lost form is Mercedes who seemed to be just all over the place through the triple header even though they have had a strong season before it. Even though George finished in P4 at the end of the race, they did not have the pace of their competitors, the likes of Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull. Sadly, for Kimi Antonelli he had his 2nd retirement in 3 races bringing out the Safety Car. Mercedes reliability has seemingly taken a hit with Kimi retiring in the race in Monza, George in qualifying in Monaco and Kimi again now in Spain due to loss of power. This bad run of form especially after Monaco has let Ferrari gain an upper hand on them. Overall, decent points but a sad weekend for them and lot to learn from it.

Ferrari, have suddenly gone up 2 places in Constructor Standings sitting now at 2nd position.... the most unexpected event for all fans and teams alike as Ferrari have lacked pure raw qualifying pace all this season, and yes they have an upper hand in race pace this season but have not had some jaw dropping performances all year along except Charles Leclerc in Monaco, so them being here is completely unexpected. 

This race again Charles Leclerc did not disappoint completing the race in P3 rounding off the podium positions partly due to the safety car and Max. On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton would love to forget this race as he was no way near his teammate and to add on to his pains after the Safety Car, he got overtaken by the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg. 

Well overall, very good points for Ferrari, scoring more points that all teams teams bar McLaren and in the end that is what they need to retain the newly acquired P2 in the constructors. 

NICO HUUULLLLKENBERGGGGG just had one of the races of his life if not the race of his life going from P15 to P5 in the arguably the slowest car of the grid, on his way overtaking half of the grid, including the Ferrari of Sir Lewis Hamilton just a jaw dropping master class from start to end showing why has he been in this sport for so long. This was his highest finishing position since 2019, just utter brilliance. 

Well now onto Williams who had a bit of a shocker this week with them seeing a sudden drop of form

qualifying P11 and P18, just lacking the mind boggling speed they have had all throughout the season. Even in the race, they could not do much with Albon having collided with the other cars twice resulting in two broken front wings. After the second collision, they just made Alex serve the penalty and retire as they had given up all hopes, just showing how horrible was it for them. Similarly his teammate, Carlos Sainz who has never ever finished outside the points in his home race throughout his career as an F1 driver had to sadly let go of that streak finishing in P14, way outside the points. Just a terrible day for the Williams team who have had brilliant pace all season and been in the points most of the races... truly a race to forget for them.

The VCaRB drivers also seem to getting upto pace with their cars with Isack Hadjar consistently being in the points whenever the opportunity avails and Liam performing much better than his time at Red Bull showing that overall he is a good driver but just could not handle the pressure of the big team and was a bit unfair on Red Bull's part to replace him after two races considering Tsunoda's performance. In the end, Isack scored a chunk of points finishing P7 and Liam was not far away from the points in P11.

Pierre Gasly, in the Alpine did well and finished in the points in P8 despite the mayhem that was caused due to the safety car. Another solid result for him, proving to the team and himself why he is the team leader. On the other hand, Franco Colapinto is not able to show the raw pace that he had with Williams last season. He qualified P19 due to the PU failure in qualifying which hindered him a lot and in the race could not make much inroads position wise and ended up in P15. A decent race result for Alpine but considering the performances the other teams are having, they are quite far off and hence P10 and dead last in the constructors championship. Something the acting team principal Flavio Briatore would not want.

Also, Haas were outliers with both of their drivers finishing dead last of all runners. Their car just did not have the pace and were far behind other teams unlike the other races where they have been competitive. For Sauber Gabriel Bortoleto has just not had the pace of his teammate and is quite slow compared to him, which is putting him under more pressure as each and every day passes.

Overall, a brilliant race which was monotonous at the start but sparked up in the end to create a dramatic finish with collisions, hard racing and most of all drama. Overall, it was a good Spanish Grand Prix with decent overtaking and brilliant driving. 

Next on we head to Canada to race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, a fast and twisty track, much more like a go-kart track where driver skill and confidence is most important with the car underneath them also giving them an edge. We will look to see whether McLaren continue to dominate the field or is Max hungry for a comeback and ready to win or will Ferrari who seem to have gained pace all of a sudden win, especially with Hamilton who earned his first victory at this track or can Mercedes get a quick turnaround after a bad run of performances. It might be anti-climatic with McLaren dominating again but every race result is uncertain till the last lap who will win is never certain. Hence, only time will tell...