{"id":26610,"date":"2025-07-28T04:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T04:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/26610\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T04:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T04:12:11","slug":"oscar-piastri-flips-script-on-first-racing-lap-to-win-famous-belgian-grand-prix-after-rain-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/26610\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri flips script on first racing lap to win famous Belgian Grand Prix after rain delay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Oscar Piastri has been hailed by title rival Lando Norris after taking a major step towards a first world championship title by defying wet conditions to win a rain-delayed Belgian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Heading home McLaren teammate Norris, who had started on pole, means Australian driver Piastri\u2019s lead has jumped from nine to 16 points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Oscar Piastri flips script on first lap to win famous F1 race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-178igh4-StyledParagraph e1s06mna1\">Know the news with the 7NEWS app: <a class=\"css-cvgehw-StyledContextualLink e1s06mna0\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/app?utm_source=7NEWS&amp;utm_medium=contextual-link-app&amp;utm_campaign=7news-app\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Download today <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/static\/media\/right-red-arrow.92bca5db.svg\" alt=\"Download today\" height=\"14\" width=\"20\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">It also halted his English rival\u2019s gathering momentum \u2014 Norris had won the previous two races to slash Piastri\u2019s overall lead to single figures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Norris, who was passed by Piastri on the first racing lap at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday, said: \u201cShoulda, woulda, coulda. Oscar deserved it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cOscar just did a good job. Nothing more to say. Committed a bit more through Eau Rouge, and had the slipstream and got the run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cSo nothing to complain of. He did a better job in the beginning, and that was it. Nothing more I could do after that point. I would love to be up top, but Oscar deserved it today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The decisive moment of the afternoon came moments after the race finally got underway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Piastri charged through the spray to slipstream Norris through the daunting Eau Rouge and scythed past on the uphill straight, with his overtaken teammate complaining of a possible battery issue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Piastri then proceeded largely untroubled as he powered on to finish 3.415 seconds clear of his arch-rival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Norris reduced Piastri\u2019s lead toward the end of Sunday\u2019s grand prix but the Australian held on with worn tires with his teammate unable to get close enough to challenge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI knew Lap 1 (after the safety car) would probably be my best chance of winning the race. I got a good exit out of Turn 1, lifted as little as I dared and yeah, we had it mostly under control,\u201d Piastri said after his eighth Formula One career win and sixth of this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Piastri had been disappointed to qualify second for the race behind Norris, but it \u201cturns out starting second at Spa is not so bad after all\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The world title initiative has suddenly swung back to Piastri, who heads to Hungary for next Sunday\u2019s grand prix having won his first race in Budapest last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Norris added: \u201cI\u2019ll review my things but still happy for the team, another 1-2 and our first 1-2 here for many, many years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The race had been red-flagged after an initial formation lap due to standing water and heavy spray affecting visibility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">That resulted in a delay of an hour and 20 minutes as officials waited for conditions at the notoriously weather-prone circuit to improve.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Charles Leclerc was a distant third for Ferrari as dominant champions McLaren celebrated their sixth one-two finish in 13 races and the third in a row.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Titleholder Max Verstappen, in his first full race under a new Red Bull chief following the departure of Christian Horner, finished fourth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">George Russell, of Mercedes, who crossed the line first in Spa last year but was disqualified due to his car being underweight, was fifth this time and Williams\u2019 Alex Albon came home sixth.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/motorsport\/australian-motorsport-in-mourning-after-death-of-darren-barlow-in-sydney-crash-c-19492542\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\u2018Lovely friendly guy\u2019: Driver killed in Sydney motorsport crash identified<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">1 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/swimming\/aussie-teens-help-mastermind-mind-boggling-upset-to-win-4x100m-freestyle-gold-as-kyle-chalmers-leads-men-to-victory-c-19494999\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>Aussie teens mastermind \u2018mind-boggling\u2019 upset to win gold: \u2018Amazing\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">2 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri has been hailed by title rival Lando Norris after taking a major step towards a first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,1625,824,3863,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-26610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-lifestyle","14":"tag-motorsport","15":"tag-sponsored-content","16":"tag-sport","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26610","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=26610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}