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F1 Review: Oscar Piastri Outlasts Lando Norris; Max Verstappen Slips Further Behind
(Photo by Andy Hone/LAT Images)

F1 Review: Oscar Piastri Outlasts Lando Norris; Max Verstappen Slips Further Behind

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After a lengthy weather delay, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri pounced on an early mistake by teammate Lando Norris, seized the lead at an alternately wet and dry Spa-Francorchamps circuit, and impressively managed his tires to take the win in the Moët And Chandon Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday (July 27th). The win extended Piastri’s lead in the drivers’ standings to 16 points over Norris.

Pole-sitter Norris was second, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc held off a race-long hounding from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to take third. Verstappen, in his first race without former team principal Christian Horner, was fourth, with Mercedes’ George Russell fifth.

Williams Racing’s Alex Albon was sixth, with Lewis Hamilton taking seventh after starting 18th. Racing Bull’s Liam Lawson finished eighth after qualifying ninth, followed by Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto in ninth, with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly closing out the scoring in 10th.

“I knew that lap one was going to be probably my best chance of winning the race,” Piastri said. “And I got a good exit out of Turn 1 and lifted as little as I dared through Eau Rouge, and then it was enough.

“The rest of the race we managed really well, struggling a little bit at the end. Maybe the medium [tyre] wasn’t the best for the last five or six laps, but we had it mostly under control, which is what I wanted.”

In the driver standings, Piastri leads Norris 266 to 250, with Verstappen third with 185 points.

McLaren widened their huge lead in the constructor standings, where their 516 points dwarfs Ferrari’s 248. Mercedes hangs in third with 220 points.

The Race

With the track drenched and the rain still falling, the race started under a safety car, and after one lap, the race was red-flagged, with visibility virtually non-existent. The cars returned to the pit lane while race officials waited for rain showers to pass.

After a one-hour-and-20-minute delay and four more laps behind the safety car, the race got underway in a rolling start with all cars on intermediate tires. Norris lost grip through La Source briefly, and Piastri pounced, using momentum built through Eau Rouge to pass Norris on the Kemmel Straight. Norris radioed his team with a concerning battery issue that may have contributed to Piastri’s ease in passing him, but the issue cleared up quickly. 

With the track drying and intermediate tires degrading quickly, the task for drivers was to conserve their tires long enough for the track to dry, allowing a change to slick tires. Eight laps in and no one had pitted, and Piastri enjoyed a one-second lead over Norris.

Hamilton, who started 18th, was making moves and was up to 14th by lap 9. Verstappen, in fourth, was stuck behind Leclerc, and the Dutchman was eager to get by and find out if his Red Bull could even get close to the McLaren’s. 

Hamilton was the first to bite for slick tires, pitting on lap 12 for a set of mediums. Several others followed suit, with the frontrunners waiting for data to gauge how slicks would perform in the conditions. 

Piastri pitted on lap 13 for a set of mediums, with Leclerc and Verstappen doing the same. Norris assumed the lead, but Piastri, on slick tires, was significantly cutting into Norris’ lead. Norris pitted for hard tires, coming out seven seconds behind Piastri, thanks in part to trouble changing the front left tire. 

Hamilton, the first to pit, gained seven spots and was up to seventh and on pace to salvage what had so far been a miserable weekend. 

Now, the race hinged on how Piastri and Norris managed their respective tires. Both were tentatively planning on going the distance on their current tires, but it felt like a stretch for Piastri to squeeze that much life out of his mediums.

Although his lead was eight seconds, Piastri was in a tough position: either stay on your current set of mediums and likely to be vulnerable to Norris later, or pit for new tires with no certainty that doing so would allow him to challenge for the lead. If he opted to pit, he would have to come out in front of Leclerc and Verstappen; coming out behind them would force him to waste his tire advantage trying to pass them instead of pursuing Norris for the race win.

With 14 laps remaining, Piastri’s lead was 8.5 seconds over Norris, and had to be encouraged that none of the drivers currently in the points positions on mediums, as of yet, had decided to pit for fresh tires.

With seven laps remaining, Piastri’s lead was over six seconds and it appeared he was well on his way to winning the tire war, and thus the race, against his teammate. Norris was still chipping about 6/10th’s of a second per lap on Piastri, but at that rate with just six laps left, it would be a case of too little, too late for Norris. 

Norris never got the deficit below three seconds, and Piastri took the checkered flag with a comfortable 3.4-second cushion over his McLaren cohort, with Leclerc a distant third for the final podium spot. 

The Good

With their sixth 1-2 finish of the season, McLaren has, and continues to, make a mockery of the constructors standings. McLaren is almost 300 points clear of Ferrari, so it’s not even competitive. So, McLaren is both responsible for providing all the drama for the drivers championship battle, and for removing all the drama from the constructors race.

Let’s pour out a swig of Red Bull energy drink in honor of Christian Horner’s time at Red Bull as team principal. And let’s not forget Horner’s accomplishments during his Red Bull tenure: eight drivers’ championships and six constructors’ titles. Horner will always have those memories, which will hopefully overshadow the pain of his abrupt exit from the team.

Additionally, he undoubtedly has a pretty sweet severance package awaiting him. That is,  according to RB’s human resources manager and director of personnel, a mysterious figure known only as “Mr. Stervappen.” 

The Bad

Lando Norris made a few errors in his lengthy pursuit of Piastri after Piastri took the lead on the opening lap. Those were excusable, as Norris was pushing hard the entire way, attempting to slowly whittle Piastri’s significant lead down to nothing.    

Norris’ most costly errors, however, were inexcusable. His first occurred in the lead-up to the rolling start, during which he controlled the start, but put very little distance between him and Piastri before Norris launched. 

Then, Norris went a little wide at La Source, which allowed Piastri to get right on Norris’ tail, with the high-speed Eau Rouge chicane and Kemmel Straight upcoming. With Piastri drafting, Norris was helpless to defend, and Piastri calmly took the lead, one which he relinquished only briefly when he pitted.

To be fair to Norris, even without his mistakes, still would have been vulnerable to Piastri. But his mistakes made Piastri’s work much easier.  

Max Verstappen finished a decent fourth in his first race under new team principal Laurent Mekies, but had the entirety of the race to get by Leclerc’s Ferrari, and couldn’t do it. Somewhere, Christian Horner is smugly saying, “Not my problem.”

Will Verstappen be better with Mekies in the role of team principal after Horner’s ouster on July 9th? Who knows? But one thing is for sure — the degree of separation from the Red Bull team principal to a Spice Girl is now much more than it used to be.

The Bad, Then Good

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton failed to advance to Q2 in Saturday’s (July 26th) qualifying. This came after Hamilton spun in sprint race qualifying and failed to advance to SQ2.

In Q1, Hamilton laid down a time that would have locked him into Q2, but his time was deleted because he exceeded track limits. Of all the things Hamilton has exceeded, expectations in not one of them. 

However, Hamilton’s horrible qualifying effort came with a silver lining — it allowed him to employ a go-for-broke strategy in Sunday’s race. Hamilton became the first driver to pit for slick tires after the entire 20-car field started on intermediates. The gamble gained Hamilton seven spots from 14th after all was said and done, pit-wise, and Hamilton held that position until the end.

While a seventh for Ferrari is nothing to brag about, it’s made a little more impressive considering Hamilton started 18th after his qualifying failures. As the saying goes, “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” And Hamilton has a wealth of experience in that field, because he’s been trying all year to make lemonade. Some might argue that Hamilton’s lemonade-making skills have left him. At least in Belgium, Hamilton’s lemonade was drinkable, but lacked sweetness. And it tasted nothing remotely similar to champagne.

Grid Walk Moments

Nico Rosberg joined Martin Brundle for a rainy “Grid Walk,” and the pair most impressively navigated the grid with footwork and umbrella-handling prowess that would have made Gene Kelly proud.   

The pair then ran into Max Verstappen’s father, Jos, and tried their darndest to get the elder Verstappen to trash-talk Christian Horner. Verstappen didn’t take the bait, and possibly for the first time in his life, literally had “nothing to say.” That is, his mouth said “Nothing to say;” the expression on his face said “Get away from me.” 

The two then encountered Valtteri Bottas and asked him the pressing question on everyone’s mind….No, not “Did you see the season premiere of ‘South Park?’” Instead, they grilled the former Mercedes driver about the rumors that he’s joining Cadillac in 2026. Bottas coyly replied “I can’t hear you” and “There are a lot of rumors in this sport.” But seriously, can you trust what anyone with a mullet says?   

The Driver

Sure, Lewis Hamilton had a great run to finish seventh, but this race belonged to Oscar Piastri, who impressed first by outdragging Lando Norris for the lead early, then calmly babied a set of medium tires for 31 laps to hold Norris at bay. 1960’s film buffs might say Piastri was “Medium Cool.” 

More importantly, the seven-point swing in points meant Piastri left Belgium with a 16-point lead in the drivers’ standings as opposed to a two-point lead, which would have been the case had Norris won and Piastri finished second.

The Results (Moët And Chandon Belgian Grand Prix, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps)

POS.NO.DRIVERTEAMLAPSTIME / RETIREDPTS.
181Oscar PiastriMcLaren441:25:22.60125
24Lando NorrisMcLaren44+3.415s18
316Charles LeclercFerrari44+20.185s15
41Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing44+21.731s12
563George RussellMercedes44+34.863s10
623Alexander AlbonWilliams44+39.926s8
744Lewis HamiltonFerrari44+40.679s6
830Liam LawsonRacing Bulls44+52.033s4
95Gabriel BortoletoKick Sauber44+56.434s2
1010Pierre GaslyAlpine44+72.714s1
1187Oliver BearmanHaas44+73.145s0
1227Nico HulkenbergKick Sauber44+73.628s0
1322Yuki TsunodaRed Bull Racing44+75.395s0
1418Lance StrollAston Martin44+79.831s0
1531Esteban OconHaas44+86.063s0
1612Kimi AntonelliMercedes44+86.721s0
1714Fernando AlonsoAston Martin44+87.924s0
1855Carlos SainzWilliams44+92.024s0
1943Franco ColapintoAlpine44+95.250s0
206Isack HadjarRacing Bulls43+1 lap0
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