All the key moments in Spain as Piastri stars, restart chaos ensues and footballers descend on the paddock

The F1 paddock headed to Barcelona for the conclusion of a triple header sequence of races this weekend – and it proved to be an action-packed event all round.

It was advantage Oscar Piastri on track, the McLaren man following up his pole position on Saturday with a fifth win of the season on race day. But there was plenty more going on throughout Formula 1’s visit to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and we’ve rounded up all of the highlights in our Spanish Grand Prix lowdown …

The previous two rounds of the triple header in Imola and Monaco brought victories for Max Verstappen and Lando Norris respectively – bringing the three-race winning streak of championship leader Piastri to an end.

While the Australian had hardly had poor showings in those races – ending both events on the podium in third place – his advantage at the head of the Drivers’ Championship looked to potentially be under threat should his rivals continue to finish ahead of him.

Piastri was looking to get back into the groove in Barcelona after labelling Monaco as his “most challenging” weekend of the year so far – and he was quick to deliver on that, going fastest in two out of three practice sessions before clinching pole position in Qualifying with the largest margin of the campaign to date (more on which later).

That momentum looked to have carried through into race day when the 24-year-old enjoyed a strong start and eked out a solid lead up ahead. While he briefly lost the position to Verstappen after the first pit stops, the Dutchman’s decision to make an early second stop as part of a planned three-stop strategy put Piastri back in P1.

From there he managed what proved to be an eventful remainder of the race following a Safety Car phase to maintain his lead and, with teammate Norris, seal another 1-2 finish for McLaren.

The result has put Piastri 10 points clear of Norris in the Drivers’ standings, while the papaya squad now hold a whopping 197-point advantage over second-placed Ferrari in the Teams’ Championship.

As touched on above, the race was turned on its head when a Safety Car was deployed during the latter stages owing to Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli pulling off track with a mechanical issue.

This sparked a flurry of action in the pit lane, with most of the pack taking the opportunity to pit including the leading trio of Piastri, Norris and Verstappen. The latter, however, voiced his frustration after being fitted with the hard tyres – in comparison to most of those around him on the softs.

The Safety Car prepared to peel into the pits on Lap 60, meaning that a six-lap dash would ensue to the finish. Piastri executed the restart well, meaning that both he and Norris broke away from their competitors.

Plenty of drama was playing out behind, however. Charles Leclerc overtook Verstappen on the main straight and the pair made contact along the way, an incident that was investigated after the race before it was decided that no further action would be taken.

George Russell then tried to make a move on Verstappen, resulting in another brief moment of contact that forced Verstappen to take to the escape road. Red Bull asked Verstappen to allow Russell back through, a request that the Dutchman was unhappy about – and when Russell attempted to overtake, the pair collided again.

Verstappen was subsequently handed a 10-second time penalty for the incident – dropping him from fifth to 10th – and it sparked quite a reaction from Russell, who later commented: “My perspective is that I just got crashed into!”

While Verstappen lost out thanks to his penalty, a number of drivers behind benefitted after being promoted up the order – and a couple of these in particular were able to grab some hard-fought points.

Nico Hulkenberg enjoyed an eye-catching start to the Grand Prix, the Kick Sauber driver gaining five places on the first lap to move from his grid position of P15 up to P10, and from there he put in a solid drive to keep himself within reach of some valuable points.

The post-Safety Car chaos helped the German to progress even further and cross the line in sixth, which became fifth after Verstappen was demoted. As Hulkenberg stated later on: “Today, just everything clicked.”

It was perhaps a less straightforward race for Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard dropping back from P9 at the start before having an off into the gravel early on and running outside of the points for some portions of the event. But the home favourite managed to work his way forwards again and ended the race in 10th – which became ninth following Verstappen’s penalty.

This meant that Alonso finally scored his first points of the season. Reflecting on this later, the two-time World Champion said: “I’m pleased, pleased for the fans as well – they were very excited at the end.”

After the Qualifying hour saw Stroll claim P14 for Sunday's race while his teammate progressed to Q3 on home soil, Aston Martin announced that the Canadian’s weekend would be prematurely cut short due to his prolonged wrist injury.

Back in 2023, Stroll missed out on pre-season testing as he was injured in a cycling accident, leading to him having metal screws surgically added to his fractured right wrist. He returned for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix but revealed that doctors had predicted he wouldn’t have been able to drive until Round 2 or 3.

The team confirmed after Qualifying in Barcelona that the pain in his hand and wrist had been troubling him again for the last six weeks, which his medical team believed to be linked to his previous accident and he will undergo another procedure and recovery period before competing again.

As none of their reserve drivers had taken part in a session in Spain, Aston Martin were forced to completely withdraw his car and fight for points with the lone Alonso who, as detailed above, went on to finish in the top 10 for the first time this season.

Although McLaren have largely come out on top so far, the competition for pole position has been remarkably close across many of this season’s rounds. Piastri has achieved the feat four times but his flying lap at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was perhaps his most impressive.

There were a lot of unknowns heading into the weekend following a new front wing Technical Directive but as Qualifying approached, it was clear that McLaren were the team to beat as Piastri and Norris had dominated the timesheets throughout free practice.

After the first fast laps in Q3, Norris was narrowly ahead of his teammate but the margins were remarkably small and there was still a chance for the Australian to improve his already rapid lap time.

His final attempt blew Norris’ time out of the water as Piastri found an extra 0.209s, creating the biggest gap between P1 and P2 of the year – the previous record was also held by him after he beat George Russell to pole by 0.168s at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The celebrities were out in force for the Spanish Grand Prix and it was mostly footballers who fancied watching a different kind of sport.

The entire England men’s football team were at the track on Sunday, with captain Harry Kane patriotically supporting the Brits – Norris in particular.

Jude Bellingham was seen gesturing to Bukayo Saka about the heat but they were lucky, able to watch the race from some air-conditioned hospitality. The drivers were not so fortunate, with tempers fraying as the heat intensified out on track.

Barcelona star Robert Lewandowski waved the chequered flag on Sunday, while retired great Roberto Carlos was seen mingling on the grid along with England head coach Thomas Tuchel.

There was a different kind of football star in town too, big F1 fan Terry Crews hanging out on the grid before joining in with some of the post-race interviews. He seemed to enjoy his Sunday – but not as much as Piastri, who was beaming from ear to ear in the wake of yet another race win.