F1 News: Rob Marshall designed McLaren buries competition in final Practice

Flex-wings or no flexi-wings, the Rob Marshall designed McLaren F1 car is superior to all the others. Oscar Piastri (pictured) in the #81 McLaren and Lando Norris in the #4 McLaren buried the competition in final practice for the 2025 GP of Spain in Barcelona.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Marshall never got the recognition he deserved working under Adrian Newey, so he left for McLaren to prove a point. He has made the back of the grid McLaren team now unbeatable.

Piastri turned a lap of 1m12.387s to top final practice, 0.526s faster than teammate Norris. Piastri didn’t even look like he was pushing too hard there, just so comfortable.

Charles Leclerc was third in the #16 Ferrari, a massive 0.743s behind Piastri.

George Russell was 4th in the #63 Mercedes, 0.752s behind Piastri’s McLaren

World Champion Max Verstappen rounded out the top-5 in his Red Bull sled, 0.988s behind Piastri’s McLaren and out to lunch.

Isack Hadjar continued his impressive pace with P6 ahead of Kimi Antonelli and crowd favorite Alonso, with Lewis Hamilton and Lawson’s Racing Bull rounding out the top-10.

If not for the superior McLarens, Leclerc is just 0.009s ahead of Russell, Verstappen is just 0.007s ahead of Isack Hadjar in 6th.

Take away the McLaren times, and there is basically one second between Leclerc in P3 and Ocon in P18.

The gaps do normally come down for Qualifying – but that means making Q3 later is going to be incredibly tough.

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2025 GP of Spain Practice 3 Practice Results