A Dance of Rain and Speed at Spa as Piastri Wins Belgian GP to Extend Championship Lead
Oscar Piastri claimed a hard-fought victory in the Belgian Grand Prix, navigating a challenging wet-dry race at Spa-Francorchamps to extend his Drivers’ Championship lead over McLaren teammate Lando Norris to 16 points.
The race, delayed for nearly 80 minutes due to heavy rain, finally got underway on Lap 5. Piastri, starting from second position, seized the opportunity to overtake polesitter Norris early on, executing a brilliant maneuver through Eau Rouge and completing the pass on the Kemmel Straight. From that point, he maintained a lead of approximately one second.
Piastri made a strategic pit stop on Lap 12 for medium tires, while Norris had to wait another lap before pitting for hards. By the time Norris rejoined the race, he found himself nine seconds behind Piastri, who expertly managed his tires despite the increasing pressure from his teammate.
As the race progressed, Norris closed the gap to Piastri, reducing it to 3.1 seconds on the penultimate lap. However, a small error at La Source allowed Piastri to extend the margin to 3.4 seconds by the time the checkered flag fell.
Charles Leclerc finished a distant third, trailing the leaders by 20 seconds, while Max Verstappen, the winner of Saturday’s sprint, managed to hold off pressure from Piastri’s teammate and maintain his position in the top four.
“Lap 1 was probably my best chance of winning the race, and I got a good exit out of Turn 1,” Piastri reflected post-race. “We managed the rest of the race really well, although I struggled a bit towards the end with the medium tires. I was disappointed with myself after yesterday, but starting second at Spa turned out to be beneficial.”
Meanwhile, George Russell secured fifth place for Mercedes after a steady race, with Alex Albon finishing sixth. Lewis Hamilton, who started from the pit lane, made an impressive climb through the field to finish seventh, gaining 11 positions along the way.
