Key events
Result: Belgian grand prix
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Piastri
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Norris
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Leclerc
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Verstappen
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Russell
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Albon
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Hamilton
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Lawson
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Bortoleto
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Gasly
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Bearman
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Hulkenberg
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Tsunoda
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Stroll
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Ocon
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Antonelli
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Alonso
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Sainz
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Colapinto
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Hadjar
“Absolutely perfect execution from Piastri there, championship material,” writes Reinoud.
“And there can be no criticism for race control, they absolutely delivered their job which is a full race distance finishing just in time to finish over to the Euros final.”
“Let’s go,” says Piastri calmly on team radio. “Let’s BEEEEP go.”
“It was a brilliant drive,” says Brundle in the commentary box. “Well deserved.”
Leclerc third, Verstappen fourth, Russell fifth, Albon sixth, Hamilton seventh, a great result in the end after a terrible qualifying.
Oscar Piastri wins the Belgian grand prix
The McLaren driver stretches his lead in the drivers’ standings in a dominant one-two for the team. Norris pushed him, but it ultimately wasn’t enough. The British driver comes in 3.4sec down.
Lap 44/44: Piastri has just set his two fastest laps.
“He was saving some grip in case he needed it,” says Brundle on commentary. “He didn’t.”
Lap 43/44: Piastri’s lead is back to 5sec. He’s been cool, calm and collected here and deserves his win …
Lap 43/44: Down the start/finish straight, Norris has Piastri in his sights, but the gap remains around 3sec. Norris locks up in the turn at the end of the straight, and suddenly the gap is over 4sec. Piastri is going to make it!
Lap 42/44: It’s 3.2sec … Norris made a couple of errors earlier, that cost him a couple of seconds, and he may reflect on those as being ultimately decisive.
Lap 42/44: It’s 3.6sec between Norris and leader Piastri.
Lap 41/44: Norris has Piastri in his sights. Will Piastri’s tyre gamble blow up in his face at the very last? The gap is 3.8sec.
Lap 41/44: The gap is 4sec!
And it edges under 4sec now!
Lap 41/44: “My goodness … it is going to be close, isn’t it?” says Brundle.
Lap 40/44: Norris is behind the backmarker Hadjar.
“He’s lost a lap of gain here,” says Brundle of Norris trying to get past the Racing Bulls.
Lap 40/44: Now 4.7sec between Piastri and Norris! Are Piastri’s tyres going from bad to worse? It seems so.
Hadjar, Sainz and Norris are now on hard tyres. The first two are 20th and 18th respectively, mind you.
Lap 39/44: Piastri leads Norris by 5.143sec.
Lap 39/44: Leclerc seems to have a bit of a pop at his team for the information coming at him over the radio, regarding the gap to Verstappen behind him.
Lap 39/44: Norris is within 5.5sec now!
Lap 38/44: Ted Kravitz says there are more rain clouds looming. That could spice things up.
Lap 37/44: Hamilton is more than a second behind Albon. Even the great British driver, who embarked on a thrilling charge early on, has had the wind taken out of his sails.
Lap 36/44: This really threatened to be a fascinating race for a while there, but nothing much of note has happened for a while now, and it looks like Piastri is going to win quite comfortably.
“He probably should be within five seconds now,” Brundle says of Norris’s attempt to catch his teammate Piastri. “But he isn’t.”
Lap 35/44:
Piastri
Norris +7.5sec
Leclerc +18sec
Verstappen +21sec
Russell +31sec
Albon +35sec
Hamilton
Lawson
Bortoleto
Gasly
Tsunoda
Bearman
Stroll
Hulkenberg
Ocon
Antonelli
Alonso
Sainz
Colapinto
Hadjar
Lap 34/44: So the question is, clearly, can Piastri get enough pace out of these intermediate tyres in the next 10 laps, to hold off a charging Norris?
If I was a betting man I’d say yes, he can. But we may yet see drama.
Lap 33/44: Norris narrows the gap a little further to Piastri, it’s 7.3sec now.
Lap 33/44: Hamilton is now right on Albon’s tail … He’s just 0.3sec behind.
Lap 33/44: Piastri leads his teammate Norris by 7.7sec.
Lap 32/44: I remain sympathetic to the race director regarding the decision taken to delay the start. It was too dangerous. However, Brundle did make the point that they probably could have started 15min sooner than they did after the rain. And that’s probably a fair point too.
Lap 31/44: “Looking at Lewis’s position shows how the race has been completely neutralised by starting so late,” emails Reinoud. “Pitting now would put him in a DRS train outside the top 10 – no one will take that risk, so no one is pushing for overtakes on track.
“If we’d started 15-30min earlier we’d have had more actual racing on inters, probably a pit stop for a second set of inters, and a flat-out sprint on slicks for the last 15 laps. Oh well, at least Spa is a beautiful track to look at for the next 25 minutes or so.”
Lap 30/44: Things have stabilised after the rain and all those pitstops earlier in the race. We’ll have a full points race unless something dramatic happens.
Norris narrows the gap to Piastri to 8.3sec, but it feels like Piastri is in a good rhythm and is feeling confident of staying out for another 14 laps to claim the victory.
Lap 29/44:
Top 10:
Piastri
Norris +8.6sec
Leclerc +9.2sec
Verstappen +2.3sec
Russell +6sec
Albon +3sec
Hamilton +1.2sec
Lawson +11sec
Bortoleto +1.6sec
Hulkenberg +5sec
Lap 28/44: Sainz, in 19th place in the Williams, gets a final warning for track limits.
Lap 27/44: Piastri’s lead grows to 9.2sec after, I think, a mistake by Norris. Antonelli takes Alonso and moves into 14th place.
Lap 26/44: Hadjar, in last place, has gone on to hard tyres. He and Norris are the two with them, everyone else has intermediates.
