Oscar Piastri passed McLaren team-mate Lando Norris on the first racing lap of a wet-dry Belgian Grand Prix to take his sixth victory of the year and extend his championship lead.
The Australian swept past Norris as the race started after an hour-and-a-half delay for heavy rain and two laps behind the safety car and controlled the race from there.
Norris’ side of the McLaren team chose a divergent tyre strategy when the drivers pitted to switch to slick, dry-weather tyres as the track dried.
The hope was that Norris would be able to go to the end on the hard tyres chosen while Piastri, who stopped one lap earlier, would have to make a pit stop for a second set of his mediums.
But Piastri, despite expressing initial misgivings about whether his rubber would last, made it to the end without stopping again.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc hung on ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the tricky opening laps on a wet track despite using a lower-downforce set-up, and was able to consolidate the final podium place in the dry part of the race.
Verstappen took fourth in a largely static race and is now 81 points behind Piastri in the championship, his hopes all but over.
Mercedes’ George Russell took fifth after passing Williams’ Alex Albon in the wet early stages, while Lewis Hamilton drove an excellent race to take seventh from his pit lane start with Lawson, Bortoleto and Gasly completing the top 10.
