Belgian GP: Oscar Piastri beats Lando Norris to Spa win in wet-dry race to increase F1 title lead

Oscar Piastri increased his world championship lead over Lando Norris after overtaking his team-mate and then withstanding a late challenge from his title rival to win a wet-dry Belgian Grand Prix.

After heavy rain at Spa-Francorchamps had delayed the race start by 80 minutes, and then the first four laps of belated running took place behind the Safety Car, Piastri wasted little time in seizing the lead by sling-shotting past polesitter Norris down the Kemmel Straight into Les Combes – the same move Max Verstappen pulled on him to win Saturday’s Sprint.

Piastri’s initial slender early lead on a wet but drying track grew to nine seconds when Norris had to wait an extra lap to switch to slick tyres, and then had a slower pit stop too.

But whereas his team-mate chose the faster but less durable medium tyres at his stop, Norris and his engineer opted for the harder compound – a move which would potentially give him opportunities to come back into the victory hunt later on.

That tyre difference ultimately allowed Norris to mount a renewed challenge in the race’s second half as the leaders nursed the same tyres to the end but his charge was ultimately compromised by three small errors – the last of which came into La Source on the penultimate lap – and he crossed the line 3.4s behind Piastri in second place.

Denying his team-mate a hat-trick of successive wins, Piastri’s sixth victory of the season stretches his world championship lead to 16 points ahead of next week’s Hungarian Grand Prix – the final race before F1’s summer break.

Reigning champion Max Verstappen is now a season-high 81 points adrift after he was beaten to third by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

After an impressive qualifying performance had seen him unexpectedly pip Verstappen to third on the grid, Leclerc withstood early pressure from his Red Bull rival in the worst of the conditions and then was never really threatened consistently thereafter as the track dried.

Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton salvaged seventh place from his largely-forgettable Sprint weekend, which had seen him knocked out in the first part of both qualifying sessions.

Hamilton, whose car Ferrari had taken out of parc ferme ahead of the race to fit a fresh engine, charged from 18th to 13th in the early very-wet laps and then gained a further six places by being the first on to slicks on lap 12.

But Hamilton’s momentum was checked once behind Williams’ Alex Albon, who impressively stayed ahead of the Ferrari all the way to the chequered flag to take home a fine sixth place.

George Russell finished five seconds ahead of both in fifth but it was ultimately a disappointing weekend for Mercedes, who dominated at Spa last year, as they finished half a minute behind the McLarens. Rookie team-mate Kimi Antonelli’s tough weekend ended with 16th place.

But Liam Lawson capped a strong weekend in eighth for Racing Bulls, ahead of Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto in ninth and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in 10th.

Piastri makes Norris pay at start after long rain delay

As had been forecast all week – and is anyway an almost-guaranteed factor of any race weekend at Spa-Francorchamps and the microclimate that surrounds the Ardennes Forest – rain arrived by the bucket load in the hours ahead of the race.

The morning’s F3 race had already been abandoned, and the later rain-hit F2 outing interrupted by Safety Cars, before a fresh heavy band of rain hit the circuit in the 30 minutes before the Grand Prix’s scheduled 2pm UK start time.

Although cars headed out for the formation lap on time, the pack was instructed to follow the Safety Car and, with the cars quickly kicking up plumes of spray down the long Kemmel Straight even at non-racing speeds, Race Control confirmed that the starting procedure was to be suspended.

Not that Verstappen in particular agreed, with the Dutchman suggesting it was “a bit silly” to not complete further laps.

The Safety Car duly led the drivers back into the pit lane at the end of that initial lap, where they stayed for the next one hour and 20 minutes through further big downpours before the rain eventually eased to more raceable levels.

The Safety Car was initially redeployed again for the race’s actual first four laps to lead the field round so conditions could be assessed again, before Race Control deemed the track was ready and so polesitter Norris inherited the lead of the pack to gear up for the rolling start proper.

But Norris’ starting advantage gained from qualifying immediately seemed vulnerable when Piastri got a better run than him out of the first hairpin, La Source. The Australian then tracked him closely all the way up through Eau Rouge and then down the Kemmel Straight, where he overtook on the outside.

McLaren team boss Zak Brown later confirmed to Sky Sports F1 that Norris “had a small battery issue” which “didn’t help him” in those early exchanges, although Norris nonetheless admitted: “Oscar just did a good job (at the start). Nothing more to say. Committed a bit more through Eau Rouge, and had the slipstream and got the run.

“So nothing to complain of.”

How much did mistakes cost Norris?

With it clear that the track was now quickly drying as the drivers ran on intermediates, Piastri pitted for slicks on lap 13 and, with McLaren unable to ‘double-stack’ their cars given Norris would have lost ground to closely-following cars behind so early in the race, the Briton had to go around one more time.

A slower stop then cost him further time to Piastri, leaving him nine seconds behind as the race settled down on slicks. His one potential ace card though appeared to be his tyre decision and, as the race entered its second half, he steadily started to close down his deficit.

But a small error running wide at the super-fast Pouhon corner was later followed by separate lock-ups into La Source, effectively ending his chances.

But a philosophical Norris said afterwards: “It’s shoulda, woulda, coulda. Oscar deserved it. I’m sure he made a couple of mistakes, so if he drove a perfect race, I couldn’t have won today. I’ll review my things.”

And Piastri, who had gone three races without a win for the first time this season before Sunday, said of his late diminishing lead: “I struggled at the end. Maybe the mediums were not the best for the last five or six laps. We had it mostly under control.

“I was pretty disappointed with myself yesterday [in the Sprint] but turns out starting P2 was not as bad as I thought.”

F1 immediately heads to the Hungarian Grand Prix for the final race before the sport’s summer break, watch live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime