Oscar Piastri wins the Belgian Grand Prix from his McLaren teammate Lando Norris after a Lap 1 overtake at Spa
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| Race winner Oscar Piastri celebrates in parc ferme at the F1 2025 Belgian Grand Prix | McLaren F1 Team |
Oscar Piastri widened his gap at the top of the Formula 1 2025 drivers’ championship by beating McLaren teammate Lando Norris to the line at the Belgian Grand Prix.
In a race that started almost an hour and a half later than planned due to rain reducing the drivers’ visibility, the first corner proved to be the major difference between the McLaren‘s as pole-sitter Norris lost time and allowed his teammate to construct an overtake.
After moving on to the slick tyres, Norris couldn’t quite eat into Piastri‘s margin with enough ferocity and had to settle for second, with Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and George Russell rounding out the top five.
Towards the end of the original formation lap, a red flag was thrown due to the poor visibility and the cars funnelled into the pit lane. Norris reported on the radio that the standing water was not an issue, but he could barely see behind the safety car.
An hour and 20 minutes later, the cars were back on track for two laps behind the safety car. The sky over Spa was largely blue by this stage. After four laps behind the safety car, the race began with a rolling start and it only took until just after Eau Rouge for Piastri to get past his teammate and take the lead.
Norris was clearly struggling for grip, and Leclerc and Verstappen knew it. They were right on the back of Norris‘s McLaren, whilst he was complaining about a lack of electrical energy. Russell also made light work of Alex Albon and moved into P5, meaning he could then chase the leading four drivers.
Norris soon found his groove and started to catch Piastri and pull away from Leclerc and Verstappen, whilst the Ferrari driver ran wide on a couple of occasions and allowed Verstappen to start applying the pressure. With no more rain expected, the dilemma for the teams became clear. Almost every driver had dull inters on, but the track was drying.
One driver who came alive in the tricky conditions was Lewis Hamilton, who overtook three cars in one lap and was quickly knocking on the door of the points positions. Despite that pace, he was first to move onto slicks as he pitted for mediums on Lap 12, and he was followed by a host of cars towards the back of the grid.
The McLaren‘s quickly showed the pace of their car by pulloing out a +10 second gap over Leclerc and Verstappen. Piastri was first to pit from the frontrunners on Lap 13, though, with Leclerc and Verstappen following him. Norris went round for another lap and after he put the hard tyre on in an effort to go till the end, he emerged seven seconds behind Piastri, a gap that swiftly became 8.5 seconds as he warmed them up.
Hamilton timed his pit stop perfectly and was in P7 by Lap 14, having started from the pit lane. He continued to show pace and Leclerc was keeping himself ahead of Verstappen, meaning a healthy points haul for Ferrari looked like a very real possibility.
It soon emerged that both McLaren‘s would be aiming to make it to the end on their current tyres, but that would likely mean that Piastri had to do some extra management later in the race which would be Norris‘ opportunity to get past.
Once the grid had moved onto the lick tyres, the race largely stayed the same. Everybody was aware that reaching the end of the race without stopping again was possible, meaning no drivers were pushing particularly hard. A safety car certainly would have seen the grid dive into the pits.
Small errors add up to cost Norris
With 10 laps to go, Norris on the hard tyre did start to eat into Piastri‘s margin. He gained six tenths on Lap 33, with Piastri having to concentrate on keeping his mediums alive. Hamilton‘s charge up to seventh saw him get stuck behind Albon‘s Williams.
The final five laps saw Norris really pick up the pace and the gap was soon beneath four seconds. At the same time Verstappen was getting closer to the back of Leclerc, where he had spent the entire grand prix.
Ultimately, however, a handful of unnecessary errors proved to be what handed his teammate the victory. The slide at the start of the race which allowed Piastri through was followed by a lock-up and an adventure off line later in the race which cumulatively cost him around two seconds.
When he did get close to Piastri on Lap 43, he locked up again and it cost him 1.4 seconds. Throw in the fact that his pit stop was slow thanks to the front left not behaving, and Piastri seemed destined for the victory.
Considering Norris started the race on pole position and has been in a positive patch of form which closed the gap in the drivers’ championship, this was a huge victory for Piastri and he never put a foot wrong in Belgium. That gap now widens to 16 points and it is another reminder that the fight will surely go down to the end of the season.
Leclerc successfully held Verstappen off to take the final podium place, whilst Hamilton could not climb any higher than P7.
- Euan Burns
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