Despite "minor situation" between Oscar Piastri & Lando Norris, McLaren issue "homework"

Two McLaren drivers fighting for the drivers' world championship is not an odd sight, and Lando Norris tried to get a "cheeky" edge up his sleeve during the qualifying for the Spanish GP. This was then addressed by team principal Andrea Stella, who urged the team to do better at doing its homework so an intra-team battle does not spark up in the squad.

At the qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri and Norris traded blows at each other by snubbing away provisional pole lap times. Moreover, in the shootout for pole in Q3, the Aussie had concluded his run and found his teammate sneaking in some slipstream in the final section of the track.

This dance was not orchestrated by the team, which led the championship leader to deem the move cheeky, and he immediately slowed down on the track. However, this slipstream helped Norris in claiming the provisional pole laptime by less than two-hundredths of a second.

Though it did not matter in the long run as Piastri soon took back the pole position in the final run, that too with the biggest pole margin of the season, such a move by Norris may have sparked up some unnecessary debacles. Reflecting on it after McLaren scored a 1-2 at the Spanish Grand Prix, Stella revealed how the qualifying shenanigans were the only flaw from their weekend, and McLaren needed to do their homework, as he said (RacingNews365):

"In this case, I think Oscar’s comment was to highlight a situation that we didn’t discuss before. In itself, it’s not anything too controversial, but we did not discuss that before and we don’t want to surprise our drivers with situations that we didn’t discuss before. So a little bit to take on for the team rather than for the drivers."

"We have to do homework and be ready even more for the coming races, which surely will be interesting."

When the chequered flag fell on track at the end of lap 66, the 24-year-old emerged as the race winner.

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Oscar Piastri retained his team leader figure at McLaren despite Lando Norris' tactics during qualifying

McLaren's Oscar Piastri at the F1 Grand Prix of Spain - Source: Getty

Oscar Piastri won his fifth race of the 2025 season in the European nation. It was a much-needed win for the Aussie, as Lando Norris had shrunk his deficit in the championship standings to a mere three points after winning in Monaco.

Despite his McLaren teammate's antics during qualifying, Piastri claimed the pole position and the race win at last. Sharing his thoughts on the whole weekend, the seven-time race winner said (via McLaren):

"We executed everything we needed to when it counted and that’s all you can ask for. The team gave me a great car once again, and I’m very proud of the work we’ve done. There was a lot of support in the grandstands, so thanks to the crowd for being out there. We couldn’t have ended the triple header any better as a team."

While Piastri has five race victories, Norris and Max Verstappen have scored two race victories each so far, with 15 more races left on the F1 calendar.