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As it emerged in the early stages of the season that McLaren had produced the quickest car, their rivals held on to the hope that the Technical Directive introduced in Spain, limiting the flexibility of front wings, would slow them down. Now, that hope is gone.
McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull all made changes to their machinery in Barcelona, and those changes led to McLaren being further ahead than ever. They were fastest in every practice session and every qualifying session, and set the fastest lap of the race on their way to a 1-2 finish.
The race weekend made it clear that they comfortably have the fastest car on the grid, and also that the car is being driven by two drivers who are approaching the top of their game in it. Both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris did very little wrong from Friday to Sunday. As a result, the battle for the Constructors' Championship feels over already, with the reigning champions holding a 197-point lead and looking set to have the best car for the foreseeable future.
The battle for the Drivers' Championship is much tighter, but is going to be won by one of the two McLarens, too, after a complete meltdown from the only man that had any chance of challenging them. I've written a number of times in this column about how Max Verstappen's aggression lets him down, but never has that been the case more than it was on Sunday, when he intentionally drove into the side of George Russell's car.
Whether it was fair for him to have to let Russell pass him after the Brit made contact with the Dutchman when trying to overtake a few laps earlier is completely irrelevant. Crashing into somebody on purpose is downright dangerous.
