Belgian Grand Prix briefing: Piastri wins, Hamilton impresses after chaotic start

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Oscar Piastri extended his championship lead with victory at a rain-delayed Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, holding off charging McLaren teammate Lando Norris.

After seizing the lead with a stunning Lap 5 overtake on pole-setter Norris, Piastri — who now has a 16-point lead in the drivers’ standings — survived a relentless late-race pursuit from Norris to cross the line 3.8 seconds ahead of the Briton. The 1-2 McLaren finish solidified their 248-point grip on the constructors’ championship.

Heavy rain delayed the start for about an hour, and in the wet conditions, Lewis Hamilton excelled, working his way through the pack from the back to finish seventh. His Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc rounded up the podium, seeing off Max Verstappen, who had to settle for fourth.

As track conditions improved, the field faced the classic Spa dilemma: When to switch to slick tires? Hamilton, needing to make up for a poor qualifying performance, pitted first and launched a charge back into the points and a scramble as everyone else followed suit. Sauber scored their second points finish in a row with Gabriel Bortoleto in ninth.

The Athletic’s experts, Luke Smith and Madeline Coleman, analyze the main talking points after a fascinating day at Spa.

Hamilton’s charge looked scintillating — then stuttered

If you’d had offered Hamilton a gain of 11 places in the race after what he called an “unacceptable” qualifying result on Saturday, one would imagine he’d gladly have taken it.

And yet there was a moment on Sunday when the Ferrari driver was lighting up the timesheets as the fastest man on the circuit, so there’s reason to think finishing seventh might result in mixed feelings.

Ferrari’s decision to start Hamilton from the pit lane after taking a new power unit also meant it could adjust the setup on his car, going for a higher downforce setup that would work better in the wet by offering more grip. In the early phase of the race, he put this to brilliant use, passing Carlos Sainz, Franco Colapinto and Nico Hülkenberg all in the space of a single lap to charge up the order.

Lewis Hamilton on track prior to the start of Sunday’s race. (Ryan Pierse / Getty Images)

Hamilton was the first driver to make the switch from intermediate to slick tires, fitting a set of mediums at the perfect time, again gaining him a bunch of places as others waited an extra lap or two before making the same move. He’d gone from the pit lane to seventh in just 14 laps.

But that would ultimately prove to be Hamilton’s ceiling. On a dry track, more downforce was less of a good thing, leaving him stuck watching the rear of Alex Albon’s Williams for the remainder of the race. He sounded fired up on the radio as he tried to hunt Albon down, taking in the information from race engineer Riccardo Adami about battery modes and different lines to make up the time. He couldn’t get close enough, reporting his car felt “draggy as hell.”

Ferrari’s updated suspension, designed to resolve the ride height issue that has plagued it since its double disqualification in China, seems to have provided a step forward. A top-five finish was surely on the cards for Hamilton without his track limits faux pas in qualifying.

But it was fun, even for the opening quarter of the race, to see Hamilton back on the charge; a glimmer of better things soon to come through his tricky first year wearing Ferrari red.

Luke Smith

McLaren’s strategy divergence

Oscar Piastri crosses the finish line to win the Belgian Grand Prix. (Simon Wohlfahrt / AFP)

By Lap 5, on a track that was steadily drying, Piastri wasted no time passing Norris, taking the lead before they arrived at the chicane sequence Les Combes. It was a daring move, the Australian staying tucked behind the Briton in Norris’ rooster tail before diving out on the straight.

While Norris did ask about his battery, a McLaren 1-2 finish never seemed in doubt.

But what was interesting was the differing strategies used by the two drivers. Piastri pitted first and was fitted with medium tires, while Norris opted for the hard tire, aiming to last until the end.

Hard tires have a longer lifespan compared to medium and soft compounds, leaving Piastri on Lap 22 having to decide whether he felt he could make it to the end of the race without stopping. On Lap 23 of 44, the gap between Norris and Piastri was just over eight seconds. Williams driver Sainz had reported high degradation on the medium tires, and Piastri felt it could be tough to make it to the end. He was right, even though he said afterward the medium tire “wasn’t the best for the last five or six laps.”

Degradation aside, Norris made a few mistakes that took a bit of time out of his laps, like running wide at one corner on Lap 26. But the race came alive in the closing stages, Norris cutting the gap to 4.6 seconds with five laps to go and to 3.7 seconds with three laps remaining.

But the Briton lost time at Turn 1 on Lap 43, locking up into La Source, leaving Piastri to nurse his degrading mediums to a well-earned win — thanks to a bold move and a clean race, despite the lower tire compound.

Madeline Coleman

Leclerc holds off Verstappen

One might have expected a battle to brew between Leclerc and Verstappen, given how close the margins were between the two during qualifying. The Ferrari driver qualified just 0.003 seconds quicker than the reigning world champion.

“I don’t know yet,” Leclerc said Saturday when asked if he could keep Verstappen behind come race day, adding that he hoped the rear suspension upgrade had given Ferrari the “upper hand” over the Red Bull.

As expected, Verstappen was all over the back of Leclerc’s car during the opening stages of the race, looking for a moment to dive past. But the opportunity never came, a gap steadily growing as the race wore on. It hovered in the two-second realm for a good chunk of the race before ending at around 1.5 seconds as the Red Bull driver made another push in the closing stages.

Charles Leclerc celebrates on the podium. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

By Lap 34, Leclerc was nearly 11 seconds behind the McLaren duo, but a podium finish is a strong sign for Ferrari, which has struggled in recent weeks.

So what does this mean for the remainder of the season? When asked on Saturday whether it gives him confidence for the second half of the season, Leclerc said “yes and no,” pointing at the gap to McLaren.

The 20-second gap between Piastri and Leclerc by the end of the race was significant but Ferrari at least has better hope of keeping a stronger hold on second in the constructor standings. The gap between the Italians and Mercedes in third is at 28 points.

Madeline Coleman

The hour-plus rain delay was frustrating, but right

There were concerning flashbacks to 2021 when heavy rain started to fall as the cars assembled on the grid in the lead-up to lights out. Four years ago, the Belgian Grand Prix lasted just two laps, both completed behind the safety car, as showers washed out proceedings on what was a disappointing day for F1.

We had to wait more than an hour before the FIA deemed the conditions good enough to go racing, after drivers reported poor visibility during their initial formation lap behind the safety car. The call to throw a red flag was criticized by some, including Max Verstappen, and there was some logic to that concern, given that the rain only then grew heavier. There was a risk that F1 had missed the best window to get in some laps.

In the end, the decision to wait proved to be entirely correct. The race finally went green at 4:20 p.m. local time, having been slated to start at 3 p.m., and after four laps behind the safety car, we were finally able to go green.

F1’s red flag resumption rules do seem to lack flexibility, given the rain had long stopped and the sun had been out a while before we got going, with a 15-minute restart window required before the cars could leave the pits. That’s maybe something that could be looked at in the future. This generation of cars has notoriously been poor for visibility when trailing others in the rain due to their ground-effect designs, which kick up more spray.

But credit should go to race officials for making the right call in the end, putting safety first and, impressively, completing the full race distance at Spa.

Luke Smith

Provisional race results (Top 10)

1. Oscar Piastri, McLaren
2. Lando Norris, McLaren
3. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
4. Max Verstappen, Red Bull
5. George Russell, Mercedes
6. Alex Albon, Williams
7. Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
8. Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
9. Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber
10. Pierre Gasly, Alpine

 (Top photo: Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP via Getty Images)

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