Oscar Piastri beats Lando Norris after lengthy rain delay

July 29, 2025 7:23 am

Oscar Piastri led home Lando Norris for his sixth win of the 2025 Formula 1 season as McLaren scored another 1-2 at a wet-to-dry Belgian Grand Prix.

On diverging strategies, Piastri made a one-stop from intermediates to medium tyres work to keep a chasing Norris at bay on a drying track, with Charles Leclerc beating Max Verstappen to third.

The start procedure for F1’s Belgian Grand Prix was suspended due to poor visibility reported by many drivers on the formation lap.

Fresh showers further hampered the organisers’ efforts to improve track conditions, but after a break in the weather a lengthy effort was made to remove standing water.

Race control eventually commenced over an hour after the original start time, at 16:20 local, with four laps behind the safety car followed by a rolling start.

As the field was released on lap 5 of 44, Norris suffered a slide out of La Source, with allowed Piastri to stick to his team-mate’s gearbox with a brave run through Eau Rouge and Raidillon, before easily drafting past on the Kemmel Straight to take the lead into Les Combes.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Further back, George Russell got past fifth-starting Alex Albon in the same corner on the following lap. Norris stuck with Piastri as the pair broke clear from third-placed Leclerc, who soon started holding up Verstappen with a lower downforce setup on his Ferrari.

The biggest early mover was Lewis Hamilton, who started from the pitlane with a brand-new Ferrari engine and scythed through the midfield from 16th to 13th in the space of four laps. The seven-time world champion also led the first gamblers for slicks, coming in for mediums on lap 12 as did Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton immediately set a fastest second and third sector, prompting leader Piastri to come in on lap 12 followed by Leclerc and Verstappen, while Norris continued for one more lap to put him at a disadvantage to Piastri, compounded by a slower pitstop that saw him emerge eight seconds behind.

To keep Norris’ win chances intact, his team decided to put him on an alternate strategy on hard tyres instead, aiming to go to the end on the much more durable C1 tyres compared to Piastri’s medium C3s.

As the crossover to slick tyres shook out, there were no changes in position for the top six, but Hamilton’s early move worked out beautifully as he vaulted up to eighth, which became seventh after passing Liam Lawson.

Norris stabilised the gap to Piastri on eight seconds, with the Australian now being challenged to make his set of mediums last until the end of the race as well. Meanwhile, Verstappen’s challenge for Leclerc’s podium spot started to fade around the halfway mark as he struggled to stay within two seconds of the Ferrari, with Russell, Albon and Hamilton further behind.

An uneventful second half of the race turned into a battle of diverging strategies, with Norris starting to turn up the wick on his intrinsically much slower but more durable hards, while Piastri was now fully committed to trying to nurse his mediums to the end. The net result of those two different approaches were relatively similar lap times between the pair. Norris was slowly making inroads on his team-mate, but it soon became apparent he would only be in the hunt if the Australian was forced to pit a second time.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Andy Hone / LAT Images via Getty Images

But while Piastri battled degradation, he managed to keep a five-second buffer until the end, aided by Norris going over the limit on several occasions in a desperate bid to bridge the gap. Piastri crossed the line 3.4 seconds ahead in another McLaren 1-2 victory.

Underlining McLaren’s domination in mixed conditions, Leclerc finished third over 20 seconds behind Piastri, with Verstappen a close fourth after being unable to threaten the Monegasque. Russell was another 13 seconds behind Verstappen in fifth in what was a decent result but a worrying performance for Mercedes in the face of Ferrari’s improvements.

Hamilton couldn’t quite round off a commendable comeback race by overtaking Albon’s Williams for sixth, with the Anglo-Thai driver expertly defending his position while Hamilton was stuck in DRS range. Lawson took eighth for Racing Bulls after a lonely afternoon, while Gabriel Bortoleto was being allowed past Sauber team-mate Hulkenberg as he proved quicker on the day and took ninth.

Hulkenberg opted for a second pitstop instead, giving up 10th position but the German was unable to make that call pay off. Gasly was promoted into the final points position in 10th, with Hulkenberg stuck in 12th behind Haas’ Oliver Bearman.

While Hamilton moved up, it was a long afternoon for fellow pitlane starters Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Alonso and Carlos Sainz, who finished at the rear of the field. All 20 drivers made it to the finish line, with Isack Hadjar the only driver to be lapped after facing an undiagnosed problem with his Racing Bulls machine.

In the championship Piastri’s sixth win of 2025 extends his lead on Norris to 16 points, with Verstappen now 81 points adrift in third. Well behind the dominant McLarens, Ferrari strengthened its hold on second place in the constructors’ place against Mercedes and Red Bull.