The 2025 Spanish Grand Prix erupted into a dramatic, controversial race in its closing stages.
There were a couple of shock points-scorers, some who couldn't have done much better - and some who should have...
Here are our winners and losers from the race in Spain.
Winner: McLaren
The team that spent the first half of the year shrugging and smiling when anyone else mentioned a massive pecking order reset coming with the flexi-wing crackdown can feel pretty vindicated.
This feels more like an intra-team title fight than ever after Barcelona. That in itself will be a headache for McLaren. But it has less to worry about being its own doorstep now. - Matt Beer
Loser: Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton had averaged just under eight points per round this season up until now, and scored exactly eight today. But that obviously doesn't pass for any sort of positive, and Hamilton had "zero" positives to offer, admitting to the media that he just wanted to be done with post-race duties as soon as possible.
If the whole Verstappen thing hadn't happened, Hamilton's verdict on his race would've probably stolen the headlines - as you can see in a remarkable exchange with Sky's Rachel Brookes after a couple of short answers.
RB: I hate to see you in this mood, it's hard to see you in this mood-
LH [smiling]: What do you want me to say? I just had a really bad day. I've got nothing to say. It was a diffuclt day. There's just nothing else to add to it, it was terrible. There's no point explaining it. It's not your fault, just... what else to say?
RB: I do understand, I just hope they find answers for you.
LH: I'm sure they won't... it was probably just me.
If this feels excessively gloomy for a sixth-place finish in what has largely been a fourth/fifth/sixth-place car this season, it really isn't. This was a dire Hamilton race, worse than almost any of previous fellow ground effect-era low points.
There was the ignominy of being justifiably told to pull aside for a team-mate on the same compound of same age, the way that team-mate very quickly proved the call right by pulling away by double-digit seconds, and then the restart struggles created by an older-than-most set of softs.
Hamilton didn't even use that as an excuse. And that's fair enough - because are more fundamental questions here than the specifics of safety car restart. - Valentin Khorouzhniy
Winner: Nico Hulkenberg
Saturday marked Hulkenberg's fifth qualifying defeat of the season to impressive rookie Gabriel Bortoleto, and it's days like these when you allow yourself to question the multi-year commitment made to him by Sauber/Audi.
But Sunday banished any such consideration - and would've done so even before Sauber and Hulkenberg so aptly capitalised on the late-race safety car.
Firstly, he - rightly! - got away with a track cut at the start to gain a bit of ground, before driving an incisive opening stint, which included a sumptuous battle with Fernando Alonso. Then, his second stint stretching a set of mediums to well over 30 laps was very impressive - and crucially kept him out of any blue flag business that was costing his midfield rivals precious seconds. Finally, a fresh set of softs for the last restart powered him past Isack Hadjar and Hamilton.
It clearly helped that the upgraded Sauber, which caught the eye of many a rival, was a genuinely impressive car here - but it's also clear Hulkenberg did it justice and then some. - VK
Loser: Max Verstappen
Why do that? You've pushed McLaren to the brink of defeat in an inferior car again. You're still just about in a title hunt in a car your genuinely really good team-mate could only qualify last in. You're so clearly the best driver on this grid still. You have four titles already, you will win more with this team or another, you have nothing to prove.
Apart from some lingering questions over your temperament.
And you must be aware that eight isn't too far from 12, and ostensibly deliberate crashes get penalty points. You can shrug off the loss of non-podium-finish points if you don't think you're in the title hunt. But can you really be that casual about a race ban? - MB
Winner: Charles Leclerc
Leclerc's status in this article depended on that post-race summons after he and Verstappen made contact down the start-finish straight. Having been cleared, retaining his podium, Leclerc is a winner.
Leclerc was worried he'd have to apologise to Ferrari for going against its wishes and sacrificing qualifying pace by holding back tyres on Saturday to give him better race chances.
A hard-earned podium was a brilliant vindication of how Leclerc played the weekend. - MB
Loser: Williams
Has Williams's bubble burst?
A painful end to a run of four weekends in which both of its drivers scored points. Carlos Sainz felt the pace had faded away on Saturday and Sunday.
Alex Albon had it even worse as one of two retirees from the Spanish GP when he shaved off his front wing in a scrap with Liam Lawson.
It might not be the end of Williams's strong run; Sainz said it might fare better in Canada. With the likes of Sauber showing shoots of recovery, that remains to be seen. - Samarth Kanal
Winner: Oscar Piastri
Few remember the driver who leaves the madness behind in a notorious F1 controversy.
This was a very well-timed defeat of Lando Norris after Monaco, though. Piastri's marginal title favourite status has been bolstered again. - MB
Loser: Yuki Tsunoda
OK, it's a congested field and that wasn't actually a huge time gap to Verstappen in qualifying and you can just about make the argument that Yuki Tsunoda is still doing better than Sergio Perez on his bad days (and definitely Lawson) in the second Red Bull.
But still... last on the grid. In a Red Bull. On merit. Is there any way back from that? - MB
Winner: George Russell
A good return for Russell on Sunday, especially considering he was passed by both Ferraris at the start.
And then there was that late-race mayhem involving Verstappen.
He got away with brushing Verstappen off the track and he got away with damage from the more bruising encounter with the reigning champion later on.
Given the poor start, that’s perhaps as good as it could have got for the Mercedes driver - who remains a clear fourth in the standings. - SK
Loser: Kimi Antonelli
Retirement from his home race at Imola, 18th in Monaco, and another retirement here in Spain. This has been a dreadful three-race run for Mercedes’ rookie with two engine-related DNFs.
In Spain it was a loss of oil pressure that caused Kimi Antonelli to veer into the gravel and stop at the edge of Turn 10.
The young rookie was heading for something around seventh place when that engine issue hit - and he didn’t have a chance to capitalise on the late safety car. - SK
Winner: Fernando Alonso
A slow start and a self-inflicted trip through the gravel meant it was surely going to be a ninth straight race without points for Fernando Alonso.
He had to pick his battles: pouncing on a spat between Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman, prying a place off Lawson later on - and making those moves in non-DRS spots.
Of course, another place came courtesy of Verstappen’s penalty at the end of the race.
The veteran did what he does best on Sunday - in the sole Aston Martin. - SK
Winners: Pierre Gasly and Isack Hadjar
Meeting up on Saturday evening to watch their football team PSG take on Inter Milan in the Champions League final - which their team duly won 5-0 - Pierre Gasly and Isack Hadjar both did the job to carry that positivity through coming out of the weekend.
There was marginally more on offer for Hadjar before that late-race safety car, but the 20-year-old continues to score points at a fairly remarkable clip and is thought to have fundamentally changed how Red Bull views him already.
Whereas Gasly and Alpine... well, as he put it: "I think we all needed that."
He had a drink system failure at the very start - not what you want in the Barcelona heat - and looked to have lost out quite badly in the blue flag lottery, but came out on the right end of a marginal points day with the aid of Antonelli's DNF and that safety car intervention. - VK
Loser: Ollie Bearman
Ollie Bearman is 4-7 against experienced Hass team-mate Esteban Ocon in qualifying this season, has been outscored 20 to 6 and finished behind him again today.
This is pretty wild because it's felt for so much of the season that Bearman has been generally as quick as Ocon, and in some moments obviously quicker, including this weekend - but misadventure just keeps finding him.
Here it came in the form of a 10-second penalty for cutting Turn 1 while defending from Lawson that Bearman "felt a bit hard done by".
That penalty relegated Bearman from 13th to 17th, which reflected the fact that there wasn't that much on offer for Haas anyway - with Bearman feeling he was being obliterated on straights by rivals.
But it will still somehow go down as a race he finished behind his team-mate, in a campaign that absolutely has the pace but not the results. - VK
