{"id":24686,"date":"2025-07-26T23:37:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T23:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/24686\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T23:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T23:37:09","slug":"f1-news-piastri-says-starting-second-could-help-him-win-belgian-gp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/24686\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news: Piastri says starting second could help him win Belgian GP"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Piastri
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOscar Piastri is hopeful that victory in Belgium can still be achieved. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n

The McLaren driver started Saturday\u2019s sprint from the front of the grid<\/a>, but his hopes of converting pole into victory were dashed when Max Verstappen used the slipstream down the Kemmel Straight to take the lead on the opening lap.<\/p>\n

Despite running within a second of Verstappen for the entire 15-lap sprint, Piastri was unable to retake the position<\/a>, with McLaren\u2019s higher-downforce setup \u2014 designed to improve cornering speed \u2014 leaving him exposed on the straights, even with DRS assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpa\u2019s probably one of the worst places to have pole position! It is what it is,\u201d Piastri admitted after the sprint. \u201cI tried my best to snake my way through the straights and not give too much of a tow. But I didn\u2019t have enough straight-line speed and then obviously didn\u2019t have enough straight-line speed for the next 15 laps either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piastri qualified second for Sunday\u2019s race<\/a>, just behind teammate Lando Norris, and quipped that the result may work in his favour.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the sprint I was aiming for P2,\u201d he joked. \u201cI don\u2019t know what the weather will hold tomorrow, I think it\u2019s going to be quite different,\u201d before responding with a hopeful \u201cI hope so\u201d when asked if he could pull off the same move Verstappen made on him during the sprint.<\/p>\n

Piastri\u2019s comments are supported by the stats: only 35% of Belgian GP winners have started from pole position, with Spa-Francorchamps notorious for its long straights and challenging corners, where track position is crucial but doesn\u2019t always guarantee victory.<\/p>\n

\t\tWATCH: Supercars stars in Supercheap Auto \u2018Police Chase\u2019 Click here<\/a> <\/p>\n

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella echoed Piastri\u2019s sentiment, noting how vulnerable the leader can be on Spa\u2019s long flat-out sections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually quite difficult in Spa, not necessarily you want to be the first car leading in corner one and then having to stay full throttle for 17 seconds,\u201d Stella explained. \u201cYou become a bit exposed to the car behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that Piastri struggled to fight back not only due to Red Bull\u2019s straight-line advantage, but also because the McLaren couldn\u2019t stay close enough through the technical second sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a bit of a peculiarity of the maturity that this cars have achieved from an aerodynamic point of view. Now the slipstream effect starts to be important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to Sunday, Stella said race strategy and tyre degradation would add new layers to the contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt times during the sprint I actually thought what is the best position. We want to qualify P1 & P2 certainly. It won\u2019t be easy, but we will try,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in the race also we have to remember that there are more options from a strategic point of view. Tyre degradation will be more important, so definitely we are here to try and win this race.\u201d<\/p>\n

With changing weather and tight competition, Piastri\u2019s belief that second might be the better starting spot adds a fascinating twist ahead of Sunday\u2019s showdown at Spa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri is hopeful that victory in Belgium can still be achieved. Image: XPB Images The McLaren driver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,913,2333,12357,85],"class_list":["post-24686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-mclaren","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-slot1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}