Well, you knew it would be a two-horse race

For a while we've suspected this season would be a McLaren shoo-in. As a much-travelled Mark Hughes reports, the wins keep coming for the papaya perfectionists

- Mark Hughes

With McLaren's advantage very apparent into the nitty-gritty mid-part of the season, there was hope among rivals that the new technical directive regarding front wing flex (which took effect from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards) might reset the bar. It did no such thing in Barcelona, but with the quite distinct challenges of Montreal and the Red Bull Ring coming up it was going to be interesting to monitor the competitive patterns.

In Spain, McLaren locked out the front row, Oscar Piastri from Lando Norris, with the former's pole time around 0.3sec faster than Max Verstappen's Red Bull and George Russell's Mercedes on row 2.

That was the foundation for a dominant Piastri victory, his fifth of the season and extending his lead in the world championship. As Piastri calmly converted pole into an uncontested lead, Verstappen was able to take advantage of some excess Norris wheelspin off the start to vault up to second. But around Barcelona's long corners the Red Bull did not have the same control of rear tyre temperatures as the McLaren and so Verstappen was in no position to do anything about Piastri. What he was inadvertently doing was shielding Piastri from the other McLaren. By the time Norris took advantage of the Red Bull's fading traction to make a pass on lap 13, Piastri was 4sec clear and in control.

As soon as Verstappen was overtaken, Red Bull switched him to a three-stop, pitting him on the very next lap. The greater tyre deg of the Red Bull made this the only feasible way to compete with the two-stopping McLarens, and the team was further encouraged in this by how far back the chasing Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton had fallen.