{"id":25819,"date":"2025-07-27T21:01:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T21:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/25819\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T21:01:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T21:01:03","slug":"oscar-piastri-eases-away-from-norris-to-win-rain-hit-belgian-grand-prix-formula-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/25819\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri eases away from Norris to win rain-hit Belgian Grand Prix | Formula One"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calm assurance and closure were once more the hallmarks of \u00advictory for Oscar Piastri<\/a> at the Belgian Grand Prix. The 24-year-old Australian displayed purpose, conviction and touch behind the wheel to grind out a win in challenging conditions and under no little pressure in seeing off his McLaren teammate Lando \u00adNorris. The title fight will be decided between the two drivers and, as at Spa, single significant moments may prove decisive.<\/p>\n

In what was far from a thriller, \u00adPiastri won with a dominant drive to beat Norris into second and Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc<\/a> into third. Max Verstappen was fourth for Red\u00a0Bull in the team\u2019s first race \u00adwithout the recently dismissed team principal Christian Horner in charge, while Lewis Hamilton made the most of the changeable, wet-dry \u00adconditions to move from 18th on the grid to finish seventh.<\/p>\n

After a delayed start of almost an hour and 20 minutes because of heavy rain in the Ardennes mountains, when racing finally began in earnest Piastri pounced to take the lead from Norris with an \u00adopportunistic and decisive move.<\/p>\n

He launched it with almost breathtaking commitment. As the pair plunged down the hill into Eau Rouge on the first racing lap in anger, Piastri scythed into the slot just under Norris\u2019s gearbox in an all or nothing, fearless display. They hurtled up through Raidillon and thence with the slipstream on the Kemmel straight it was advantage Piastri as he sped past and into the lead at Les Combes.<\/p>\n

Norris was powerless to resist and not at fault \u2013 as his team principal, Andrea Stella, noted \u2013 the driver leading the pack out on the first lap is always vulnerable; indeed a lesson Piastri had learned from the sprint race on Saturday when Verstappen pulled an identical move on him. He was aware of its import.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that lap one was probably my best chance of winning the race,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u00a0lifted as little as I dared through Eau Rouge and then it was enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having got to the front he was relentless in grinding out a victory and even a counter-tyre strategy from Norris could not bring him quite back into contention. Yet it required a steely resolve and, with the decision to make his medium tyres last to the finish, no little finesse, as \u00adNorris chased him down on the more durable hard rubber. For all that the McLaren is easy on its rubber, Piastri eased it on with a gentle mastery.<\/p>\n

It was, then, another combative statement of intent from the Austra\u00adlian, demonstrating that even when he is on the back foot he retains a fierce determination. Once he had retaken the lead from second on the grid he was in assured control from the front, with the same \u00admeasured, calm confidence that is almost \u00addisarming as it becomes ominously clear to his rivals that he has all the traits of a world champion in waiting.<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri celebrates after winning the Belgian Grand Prix. Photograph: Yves Herman\/Reuters<\/p>\n

It was his sixth win from 13 races this season and for all that Norris took the previous two on the trot, really no other driver has matched the \u00adAustralian\u2019s consistency. What had begun in Melbourne with a win for Norris has since become very much bossed by Piastri, who has laid down another marker that it will be remarkably hard to beat him this season, but it will be a hard-fought show.<\/p>\n

He now leads Norris by 16 points with 11 meetings remaining in a contest that increasingly looks like it will go down to the wire. Certainly Stella believed that there was little to choose between his drivers and noted that it would likely come down to the minutiae of execution that would tell for the title.<\/p>\n

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Norris might consider that on his chase he dropped a little time, two lock-ups at La Source and going wide once at Pouhon but they were not enough to be truly decisive. He had closed to within 3.4sec by the end but for the final laps Piastri still had enough in the locker to hold his lead.<\/p>\n

Norris, too, conceded that he had been well beaten and that he did not believe his minor errors had made the dif\u00adference. \u201cOscar just did a good job [at the start], nothing more to say, committed a bit more through Eau Rouge,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was it, Oscar deserved it today. It\u2019s shoulda\u2011woulda\u2011coulda. Oscar deserved it and I\u2019m sure he made a couple of mistakes, too. I couldn\u2019t have won today.\u201d<\/p>\n

With rain having swept across the circuit on and off all day, another \u00addeluge began just before the start and the race was delayed after a single formation lap, because of the poor visi\u00adbility caused by the spray. The cars returned to the pit lane for more an hour and 20 minutes until the FIA deemed it could begin behind the safety car and with a rolling start.<\/p>\n

The long delay was questioned by some with the track drying \u2013 notably Red Bull and Verstappen, who had their car set up for a wet race \u2013 but the consensus was the \u00adgoverning body had made the right call to err on the side of caution on a circuit that is a high-speed challenge in perfect\u00a0conditions.<\/p>\n

An earlier opening in more difficult conditions would maybe have made for a more interesting race, but it is hard not to imagine that Piastri would not have exhibited similarly iron control even then as \u2013 rain or shine \u2013 the Australian very much had the measure of Spa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calm assurance and closure were once more the hallmarks of \u00advictory for Oscar Piastri at the Belgian Grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-25819","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-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25819","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=25819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}