| 2025 Spanish Grand Prix | |||||
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Race 9 of 24 in the2025 Formula One World Championship
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Layout of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain | |||||
| Race details[1] | |||||
| Date | 1 June 2025 | ||||
| Official name | Formula 1 AramcoGran Premio de España 2025 | ||||
| Location | Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya,Montmeló,Spain | ||||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
| Course length | 4.657 km (2.894 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 66 laps, 307.236 km (190.908 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Sunny | ||||
| Attendance | 300,286[2] | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
| Time | 1:11.546 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
| Time | 1:15.743 on lap 61(lap record) | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
| Second | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
| Third | Ferrari | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The2025 Spanish Grand Prix (officially known as theFormula 1 Aramco Gran Premio de España 2025) was aFormula One motor race that was held on 1 June 2025, at theCircuit de Barcelona-Catalunya inMontmeló, Spain. It was the ninth round of the2025 Formula One World Championship.Oscar Piastri ofMcLaren secured pole position and won the event ahead of his teammateLando Norris andCharles Leclerc ofFerrari.
The event was held at theCircuit de Barcelona-Catalunya inMontmeló for the 35th time in the circuit's history, across the weekend of 30 May – 1 June.[3] The Grand Prix was the ninth round of the2025 Formula One World Championship and the 55th running of theSpanish Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship.[4]
This was also the last Spanish Grand Prix to be held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló before being moved to anew street circuit inMadrid from the following2026 race onward.[5]
Going into the weekend,Oscar Piastri led theDrivers' Championship with 161 points, three points ahead of his teammateLando Norris in second, and 25 ahead ofMax Verstappen in third.McLaren, with 319 points, led theConstructors' Championship fromMercedes andRed Bull Racing, who were second and third with 147 and 143 points, respectively.[6]
The drivers and teams were the same as published in the season entry list with two exceptions;[7]Yuki Tsunoda atRed Bull Racing was in the seat originally held byLiam Lawson before the latter was demoted back toRacing Bulls from theJapanese Grand Prix onward,[8] andFranco Colapinto replacedJack Doohan atAlpine from theEmilia Romagna Grand Prix onward until at least theAustrian Grand Prix on a rotating seat basis.[9] Following qualifying,Lance Stroll withdrew from the event due to experiencing pain in his hand and wrists.[10]
During the first free practice session, two teams fielded drivers who had not raced in more than two Grands Prix, as required by the Formula One regulations:[11]
Tyre supplierPirelli brought the C1, C2, and C3 tyre compounds (the three hardest in their range) designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively, for teams to use at the event.[14]
Threefree practice sessions were held for the event. The first free practice session was held on 30 May 2025, at 13:30 local time (UTC+2), and was topped byLando Norris ofMcLaren followed byMax Verstappen ofRed Bull Racing andLewis Hamilton ofFerrari. The second free practice session was held on the same day, at 17:00 local time, and was topped byOscar Piastri of McLaren followed byGeorge Russell ofMercedes and Verstappen. The third free practice session was held on 31 May 2025, at 12:30 local time, and was topped by Piastri ahead of his teammate Norris andCharles Leclerc of Ferrari.[1]
Qualifying was held on 31 May 2025, at 16:00 local time (UTC+2), and determined the starting grid order for the race.[1]
Notes
The race was held on 1 June 2025, at 15:00 local time (UTC+2), and was run for 66 laps.[1]
Oscar Piastri ofMcLaren defended hispole position easily down the run to the first corner, whilst his teammateLando Norris got a poorer start from second and was challenged byMax Verstappen ofRed Bull Racing to the left andGeorge Russell ofMercedes to the right. Verstappen ultimately took the position by braking late and driving around the outside of Norris through the turn 1 righthander, whilst Russell was overtaken in the same fashion byLewis Hamilton ofFerrari, who moved up to fourth position. Russell was then passed by Hamilton's teammateCharles Leclerc at turn 5, who himself had got in front of Russell's teammateKimi Antonelli during the run to turn 1. Further back in the pack,Liam Lawson ofRacing Bull broke late into turn 1 and clipped the rear-right tyre ofAston Martin's driverFernando Alonso. This causedNico Hülkenberg ofSauber to take evasive action, which led him to making contract withAlexander Albon ofWilliams. Albon suffered front wing damage as a result, and he would pit to have it replaced.[17]
At the start of lap 2, Hülkenberg passed Alonso into turn 1 to take 10th position, up from starting 15th. On lap 9, Hamilton was told to swap positions with his teammate Leclerc behind, allowing Leclerc to move into fourth place. On lap 13, Norris passed Verstappen into turn 1 to retake second position, with Verstappen pitting at the end of the lap to take a new set of soft tyres. Verstappen initially dropped to eighth place, but was able to make good use of the new rubber and quickly dispatch of those who were yet to pit. Indeed, Verstappen's new tyres were so effective that Verstappen was able toundercut the McLaren pair of Norris and Piastri after their pitstops on lap 21 and 22 respectively, propelling Verstappen into the race lead.[17]
Meanwhile, Albon and Lawson were fiercely competing over twelfth position. Lawson's first attempt to overtake was on the inside of turn 1, which led to Albon cutting across the run-off area yet maintaining the position, much to Lawson's annoyance. Lawson then attempted to pass around the outside of the same corner one lap later, but on this occasion made contact with Albon's front wing, damaging it. With his race already compromised by the first front wing change, and now facing a second wing change with not even half the race completed, Albon was retired from the race on lap 28 after serving a penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, as to avoid the penalty being applied as a grid drop for the next race inCanada.[18][19]
Verstappen made his second stop at the end of lap 29, switching to medium tyres and rejoining in fourth position behind Piastri, Norris and Leclerc. This made it clear Verstappen intended to make three pit stops in the race, whilst the leading McLaren pair could make it to the finish on just two. After easily passing Leclerc into turn 1 on lap 35, Verstappen made his final planned stop on lap 48 to switch onto another set of soft tyres. The leading McLarens quickly responded to the risk of another undercut by themselves stopping, also switching to the softs. On lap 55, Antonelli, who had been running in seventh place, suffered an engine failure – his second in three races – and pulled off into the turn 10 gravel trap. This caused thesafety car to be deployed, resulting in the top nine drivers making pitstops and taking fresh tyres for the restart. All these drivers switched to the soft tyre except Verstappen, who with no soft sets remaining was forced to take the hard compound – something which he expressed displeasure with over the team radio. As the drivers prepared to return to green flag running, the top ten was as followed: Piastri, Norris, Verstappen, Leclerc, Russell, Hamilton,Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls, Hülkenberg,Pierre Gasly ofAlpine and Lawson.[17]
The safety car came in at the end of lap 60. Verstappen, finding it difficult to warm his hard tyres, struggled to control the rear of his Red Bull as the field returned to speed through the turn 14 righthander. This compromised his exit onto the main straight, and allowed Leclerc to pull alongside. Despite the pair making contact, Leclerc was able to pass Verstappen into turn 1 to take third place. Russell braked late in an attempt to follow him through, diving up the inside of Verstappen and forcing the Red Bull driver to cut across the run-off. Verstappen took to the team radio to critique his competitors, accusing Leclerc of "ramming [him] on the straight" and refusing to comply with his engineer's request to let Russell through in order to protect against a potential penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. On lap 64 Verstappen appeared to let Russell past on the exit of turn 4, but then deliberately dived back up the inside as the pair entered turn 5, leading to him making contact with Russell. Verstappen would ultimately let Russell through at turn 12 on the same lap, but would still receive a ten-second penalty for the collision.[17]
Meanwhile, the McLaren pair completed their final lap without any drama, with Piastri crossing the line first to take his fifthGrand Prix win of the season and the seventh of his career. He was followed by teammate Norris, Leclerc, Russell and then Hülkenberg, who had passed Hamilton for the fifth place on the penultimate lap. Hülkenberg therefore secured his highest finish since the2019 Italian Grand Prix and histeam's highest sinceValtteri Bottas also finished fifth during the2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, when they competed asAlfa Romeo. Despite an earlier trip into the gravel, Fernando Alonso finished ninth to secure his first championship points of the season.[17]
Notes
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