Race Notes - Piastri takes McLaren 1-2 in wet-dry Belgium GP

By Mark Karp

Oscar Piastri, after taking the lead on the first racing lap in the Belgium Grand Prix took the win over his McLaren-Mercedes team mate, pole sitter Lando Norris, for a 1-2 finish. He won by 3.415 seconds.

Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari was third, 20.185s seconds behind the winner, holding off Max Verstappen (21.731s) for the entire race, who finished fourth in his Red Bull-Honda.

The win is the sixth of the season for Piastri, and tenth of the season for McLaren.

Piastri extends his lead in the Drivers Championship over Norris to 16 points, and 81 points over Verstappen in third.

It is McLaren’s first win in Belgium since Jenson Button won the race in 2012, and is McLaren’s 13th win in Spa.

George Russell (34.863s) in the Mercedes GP ran a lonely race to finish fifth, followed by Alex Albon (39.926s) in the Williams-Mercedes in sixth.

Lewis Hamilton (40.679s), who after starting in 18th in the pit lane in his Ferrari, jumped forward during the race, and after gaining by being the first driver to transition from intermediate wet to medium dry tyres was able to finish in seventh. Liam Lawson (52.033s) in the Racing Bulls-Honda finished eighth, followed by Gabriel Bortoleto (56.434s) in the Sauber-Ferrari in ninth, and Pierre Gasly (1m12.714s) in the Alpine-Renault took the final points paying position in tenth place.

Before the start rain started to fall, and is expected to continue for at least the first half of the race.

Norris starts on pole ahead of his team mate Piastri on the front row, Leclerc and Verstappen on the second row, Albon and Russell on row three, Tsunoda and Hadjar on row four, and Lawson and Bortoleto rounding out the top ten.

Carlos Sainz, Hamilton with a new power unit, Kimi Antonelli and Fernando Alonso are starting from the pit lane.

As the start time approaches the rain intensifies, and all drivers are start on intermediate wet rain tyres and a rolling start behind the safety car is expected.

At the appointed time the cars take to the track behind the safety car and immediately there is much spray coming off the race cars.

The starting procedure is suspended and the red flag comes out.

Visibility is not good enough, and the cars follow the safety cars into the pits and the cars line up and come to a stop, the teams descend of the cars and under the red flag rules the teams can make changes.

The rain is not falling and we are waiting for the 10m warning.

After about 15m waiting in the pit lane, there is another band of rain approaching.

At 20m after the original start time, the rain starts to fall hard.

Just approaching 1h after the original start the FIA is reporting "We anticipate the rain to stop at 16:00. We will then target a start as soon as the standing water has been cleared from the track.”

The sun is shining with patches of blue sky coming out.

Since the red flag was thrown with no race laps run, the 3-hour period to run the race only applies when there’s a race interruption. In this case, the race has not started so the race hasn’t started yet.

The stewards announce that the race will be started at 16:20 local time.

The drivers start to get back in their cars.

The cars are all started, drivers on intermediate tyres and leave the pits behind the safety car. There is expected to be 2 laps behind the safety car before the safety car is in.

The track is damp, but has dried considerably, and there is still some spray from the race cars on the straights, and there are dry patches in places.

Hamilton reports that "it is drying pretty quick”.

Norris reports that the left side of the grid is pretty wet.

At the end of lap 4 the safety car pulls into the pits and the race begins with Norris leading into the La Source hairpin.

Up the hill Piastri passes Norris for the lead, followed by Leclerc, Verstappen, Albon, Russell, Tsunoda, Hadjar, Lawson, and Bortoleto in tenth.

On lap 6 Russell passes Albon for fifth. Hamilton passes Lawrence Stroll for 17th.

On lap 7 Norris continues to follow Piastri by 1s.

Hamilton passes Sainz for 16th, and then quickly passes Franco Colapinto for 15th.

On lap 8 Hamilton passes Nico Hulkenberg for 14th.

There is a dry line starting to form.

Piastri leads Norris by 1.4s, over Leclerc (7.1s), Verstappen (7.7s) and Russell (10.3s).

On lap 9 Hamilton passes Gasly for 13th.

Verstappen is closing on Leclerc in third.

On lap 11 Verstappen looks for a way to get past Leclerc, but still is unable to - Leclerc reports that his rear tyres are wearing out.

On lap 12 Hamilton pits for medium dry tyres, Hulkenberg, Gasly and Alonso do the same. Hamilton runes 17th,

On lap 13 Piastri, Leclerc, Verstappen and most of the other runners pit for drys.

On lap 14 Norris pits for hard tyres. Piastri leads Norris, Leclerc, Verstappen, Russell, Albon, Hamilton, Lawson, Hulkenberg and Bortoleto in tenth.

With Piastri on mediums he should be able to pull away from Norris, who is hoping to run til the end without stopping again.

On lap 14 Hamilton sets fast lap at 1m49.564s.

At lap 16 Piastri leads Norris by 5,9 seconds, followed by Leclerc (14.5s), Verstappen (15.9s), Russell (16.7s), Albon (18.6s), Hamilton (19.3s), Lawson (27.5s), Hulkenberg (28.9s), and Bortoleto (30.1s) in tenth place.

On lap 17 Norris sets fast lap at 1m46.917s.

On lap 18 Stroll passes Hadjar for 17th.

On lap 19 Piastri leads Norris by 8.4 seconds.

On lap 20 Hulkenberg lets Bortoleto past into ninth place.

On lap 26 Norris has a moment and runs wide, but continues.

Antonelli passes Colapinto for 15th place.

Hadjar pits for mediums and runs last.

At lap 22, half distance, Piastri leads Norris by 8.1 seconds, followed by Leclerc (15.4s), Verstappen (17.8s), Russell (20.7s), Albon (22.8s), Hamilton (25.5s), Lawson (34.9s), Bortoleto (36.5s), Hulkenberg (39.4s) in tenth, Gasly (45.0s), Tsunoda (45.5s), Bearman (46.5s), Alonso (47.8s), Antonelli (49.0s), Stroll (53.5s), Colapinto (55.7s), Sainz (56.6s), Esteban Ocon (1m03.4s), and Hadjar (1m19.9s) in 20th place.

On lap 25 Norris sets fastest lap at 1m46.193s, and trails Piastri by 8.0 seconds.

On lap 28 Antonelli passes Alonso for 14th.

On lap. 29 Norris sets fast lap at 1m45.965s.

At lap 30 Piastri leads Norris by 8.6 seconds, followed by Leclerc (18.1s), Verstappen (20.4s), Russell (27.0s), Albon (30.2s), Hamilton (31.3s), Lawson (42.6s), Bortoleto (44.6s), and Hulkenberg (50.4s) in tenth.

On lap 31 Alonso pits. Antonelli pits as well.

On lap 32 Norris sets fast lap at 1m45.889s, and trails Piastri by 8.2 seconds.

Albon reports that his tyres and worn out, Hamilton is half a second behind.

Piastri tells the team that he thinks he can finish on his medium tyres.

Ocon, Hulkenberg and Antonelli are running closely. Hulkenberg passes Ocon for 14th.

McLaren tells Norris that he shouldn’t overuse his brakes.

On lap 36 Antonelli passes Ocon for 15th, but Ocon takes the place back.

Hamilton continues to struggle with straight-line speed and is 0.9s behind Albon in sixth.

Leclerc tells the team “Leave me alone please”, when they inform him that Verstappen is closing.

At lap 40 Piastri continues to lead Norris by 4.8 seconds, followed by Leclerc (19.7s), Verstappen (20.9s), Russell (33.0s), Albon (37.0s), Hamilton (38.2s), Lawson (48.3s), Bortoleto (53.1s), and Gasly (1m07.3s) in tenth.

There are some dark clouds in the sky with four laps to go.

Norris is slowly closing on Piastri, 3.8 seconds behind, but will he have enough time?

McLaren are telling their drivers that there could be a few drops of rain before the end.

On lap 43 Norris is 3.3 seconds behind Piastri. Verstappen is 1.3 seconds behind Leclerc.

On the final lap Piastri has increased his lead to 4.9 seconds.

Piastri takes the win over Norris and Leclerc, with Belgian racing legend Jacky Ickx waving the flag at the finish.