Max Verstappen F1 title comment says it all amid consequences of Spanish GP headloss

Was this the day that the title battle became truly a two-horse race? had done an excellent job of keeping and honest, but his title defence is in real trouble after he lost his head and slammed into .

That sparked a 10-second penalty which saw Verstappen leave Barcelona with one single point. having now collected 11 penalty points on his racing licence – if he adds another in the next two races, the racer will become just the second F1 driver ever to trigger that sanction.

, meanwhile, were flawless and produced , and their first in Spain for 25 years. Piastri started on pole and stayed there, while team-mate and title rival Norris was content with the next best result.

The Brit said: "Oscar drove a very good race today – I didn't quite have the pace to match him. We gave it our best shot. It was a good, fun race and for us as a team to finish one-two is even better."

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Piastri now has five victories from nine this year and said: "It's a lot of fun winning races at the moment. Hard to complain, it has been a great year and this weekend has been exactly the kind of weekend I was looking for. We executed everything we needed to when it counted and that's all we could ask for."

Piastri leads Norris by 10 points in the championship with Verstappen now 49 off top spot. It's hardly an unassailable lead with 15 rounds still to go, including four Sprint races, but Verstappen knows his hopes of five titles in a row are fading. He said: "We are way too slow anyway to fight for the title, that was clear again today."

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joined the McLarens on the podium having sacrificed the chance to compete for a better qualifying position to save an extra set of soft tyres for the race. The gamble worked as he roared through from seventh on the grid, helped by the late safety car period caused by when his engine blew up.

Leclerc said: "I didn't know whether it would pay off – at the end it did. I think P4 in a normal race would have been our position. With a safety car we got lucky and a podium, so I'm really happy with that."

had also targeted the top three but his wait for a first Grand Prix podium with goes on. He endured a miserable afternoon, struggling for pace throughout while team-mate Leclerc thrived. The seven-time F1 champion produced a post-race interview which former Mercedes team-mate said was "hard to watch".

Hamilton stared mostly into the middle-distance as he muttered: "It was just not a great day. Strategy was good, the team did a great job." He went on to doubt Ferrari's chances of fixing his problems and glumly stated: "It's probably just me."