Oscar Piastri on Sunday withdrew the bold time for McLaren and the opponent with the title Lando Norris to win the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday delayed rain and expand his Formula 1 championship to 16 points.
Ferrarius Charles Leclerc finished a distant third when McLaren secured his sixth one -days season – and the third in a row – consolidated their dominance in the 2025 campaign.
The Spa-Francorchamps race was reddish brown and delayed by 1 hour and 20 minutes due to heavy rain, stagnant water and poor visibility. As soon as the races resumed with the rolling start after four rounds behind the safety car, Piastri did not waste time taking control.
The 24-year-old Australian has shown a fearless commitment that uses an Slipstream through the iconic EAU Rouge before sweeping around Norrisa on Kemmel directly to the Les Combes-TAt, which defined the race.
“I knew Lap One would be my best chance of winning,” Piastri said. “I got a good departure from One and I got up as little as I dared through the Eau Rouge. Overall, we managed the race well, although the media has been a bit more difficult in the last few rounds. We still kept it under control.”
The sixth victory of the Piasstri season puts him in an elite Australian society and overcomes former world champion Jack Brabham and Alan Jones for most of the victory in one season.
Norris, who reported a short problem with the battery soon, acknowledged that Piastri simply overcome it.
“The Oscar has just done a good job. He was more involved through Eau Rouge, got a Slipstream and took a step. Nothing to complain about – he deserved it today,” Norris said.
The battle of the championship between two
With 266 points on Norris 250, Piastri now leads the championship by 16 points. Max Verstappen Red Bull, the ruling champion, is third with 185 points – 81 for the leader – more and more clearly shows that the title fight of this season is only McLaren.
McLaren also convincingly led the position of designers with 516 points, which is more than double Ferrari 248. Meanwhile, Mercedes dropped back to 220.
The strategy in Belgium proved to be essential. Piastri put on 12 laps to move from intermediates to medium tires as the track dried. Norris followed one round later and decided for hard tires, but re -joined the race nine seconds.
While Norris hoped his teammate would need a second stop, Piastri made the last one in a well -managed one -time strategy. Despite the late pressure from Norris, who was chasing the third consecutive victory, Piastri kept to win by 3,415 seconds, never seemed angry, even though the gap had briefly narrowed.
The rest of the grid
The winner of Saturday’s sprint Verstappen finished fourth in the first Red Bull race since the team’s departure Christian Horner. Mercedes ‘George Russell took the fifth while Williams’ Alex Albon impressively postponed Lewis Hamilton to claim sixth place.
Hamilton, last year’s Belgian GP winner, started from Pit Lane after receiving a new engine overnight. He earned at the beginning of the rolling and was the first to switch to Slicks and gained six positions.
Liam Lawson finished eighth for bulls, followed by Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) and Pierre Gasly (Alpine), who rounded the top ten with a valuable point.
Formula 1 will now head for Hungary next weekend, the last race before the August summer break. With dynamics clearly on his side, Piastri will try to tighten his grip at the championship heading for the second half of the season.
– ends
Published:
Kingshuk Kusari
Published on:
28th July 2025
