How do the drivers' championship standings look like after the Spanish Grand Prix?
Oscar Piastri leads the drivers' standings, but his team-mate Lando Norris is only ten points separated from the Australian. F1Technical's lead journalist Balazs Szabo analyses how the drivers' championship looks like after the Spanish Grand Prix.
McLaren have been the dominant force since the start of season. Although the governing body introduced a technical directive at the Spanish Grand Prix that had been expected to lead to changes to the pecking order, the papaya team ruled last time out at Barcelona.
McLaren locked out the front row for the Spanish Grand Prix, with Oscar Piastri having headed his team-mate Lando Norris in qualifying. The papaya team had been expected to displayed an even more dominant performance in a race given the high ambient and track temperatures.
Although the first stint indicated that the 66-lap Barcelona round would be a a straightforward race for McLaren, Red Bull put Max Verstappen on a three-stop strategy. With the Dutchman having displayed eye-catching pace through his second stint, McLaren were forced to ask their drivers to pick up the pace in order to cover Verstappen.
While Piastri built up a healthy gap, Norris had to work a little harder in the early stages as he fell behind Verstappen at the start. However, once he made his way past the reigning champion, he looked to control the gap even when Verstappen closed up in the late pit stops.
When the late Safety Car came out, Piastri and Norris had to defend at the restart, but they were able to escape from their rivals, with Piastri winning the Spanish Grand Prix from his team-mate Norris.
Piastri has so far collected a total of 186 points, but his team-mate Norris is only ten points adrift of the Australian. Ahead of the Barcelona round, reigning champion Max Verstappen was within a race victory from Piastri, but his tenth-place finish at the Spanish Grand Prix saw the Dutchman lose connection to the leader, and he now finds himself 49 points adrift of the Melbourne-born driver.
George Russell had a strong start to his championship campaign, and while he is still fourth in the standings, his recent results meant that Charles Leclerc closed in on him.
Apart from his dominant victory at the Shanghai F1 Sprint, Lewis Hamilton endured a difficult start to his Ferrari career. The Briton has collected a total of 71 points so far, and is currently sixth in the standings.
While Lance Stroll was able to capitalize on a few opportunities in the early part of the season to collect an impressive haul of 14 points, his two-time F1 world champion team-mate Fernando Alonso struggled to finish in the point-scoring zone in the first eight races of the season.
The Spaniard displayed strong performances, particularly in recent races, but his strategy was massively hampered by a virtual safety car period at Imola before suffering a power unit failure at Monte Carlo - Alonso was on course to score a good haul of points in both races.
However, the Asturia-born driver finally broke the curse on home soil, having grabbed two championship points at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Sauber's rookie driver Gabriel Bortoleto is yet to score points. Jack Doohan was replaced by Franco Colapinto at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, but neither the Australian nor the Argentinean driver have collected any points so far.
The best rookie is currently Andrea Kimi Antonelli. In fact, it is no surprise given the competitiveness of his Mercedes W16. 'Il Bolognese' has collected a total of 48 points so far. The second best rookie is Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar, who scored a total of 21 points thanks to some brilliant drives from the Frenchman.
Ollie Bearman has a total of six championship points to his name, while - as mentioned above - Bortoleto, Doohan and Colapinto are yet to score points.
