Piastri Conquers Spa Chaos as McLaren Pulls Off the Great Belgian Switcheroo

SPA, BELGIUM – JULY 27: Oscar Piastri of Australia driving the (81) McLaren MCL39 Mercedes overtakes Lando Norris of Great Britain driving the (4) McLaren MCL39 Mercedes on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Belgium at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on July 27, 2025 in Spa, Belgium. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Spa-Francorchamps is a track that tends to laugh in the face of strategy. It throws weather tantrums like a toddler in a toy aisle and has enough blind corners to make a NASCAR road ringer cry. So naturally, when the forecast called for heavy rain ahead of Sunday’s F1 Belgian Grand Prix, most expected an afternoon of spinning cars and frantic pit calls.

What they got instead was a delayed start, a two-car title fight in wet and dry conditions, and Oscar Piastri snatching his sixth win of the season while making it look like a step-by-step YouTube video on winning in the wet.

The first half of this race felt like waiting for a flight that keeps getting delayed by “weather in the area.” The heavens opened just before lights-out, and with visibility dropping faster than Ferrari’s championship hopes, the start was red-flagged before the cars could even pick a gear. What followed was nearly 80 minutes of umbrellas, memes, and pit lane pacing until the cars finally rolled off behind the Safety Car on Lap 5.

Lando Norris had pole and the early edge—briefly. As soon as the race went green, he lit up the rears at La Source like it was the Fourth of July, and Piastri, who was so close behind he could probably read Lando’s Spotify playlist, pounced.

The Australian fired through Eau Rouge, didn’t lift through Raidillon (because of course he didn’t), and made the kind of pass on the Kemmel Straight that drivers dream about and team principals fear. By Les Combes, the lead had changed hands, and Piastri was in control of the chaos.

Behind the McLaren duel, Charles Leclerc was busy fending off Max Verstappen like it was his job (because it is), while George Russell mugged Alex Albon early on for fifth and stayed there like a squatter who found the thermostat.

Then came the great tire roulette. Lewis Hamilton—starting from pit lane because Mercedes had tinkered a bit too much—was the first to blink, swapping to slicks on Lap 12. Everyone with a working radar gun followed, including Piastri, Leclerc, and Verstappen. Everyone, that is, except Norris.

McLaren, in a moment of tactical cruelty disguised as planning, couldn’t double-stack their drivers. Norris, stuck too close behind Piastri, was forced to do one more lap on intermediates, and by the time he pitted for hard tires a lap later, the nine-second gap to his teammate might as well have been the English Channel.

From there, it was a chess match on Pirellis. Norris chipped away at the deficit—at one point cutting it to just over five seconds—and Verstappen tried everything short of throwing a banana peel to get past Leclerc. Neither challenger had enough tire, track, or time.

Norris came closest, running a half-second faster per lap in the final stint before a lockup at La Source put the nail in the coffin. Game over. Margin: 3.4 seconds. You could almost hear the “meh” in Piastri’s cool-down lap.

Leclerc held firm in third, 20 seconds behind the leaders but still two seconds clear of Verstappen, who had the pace but not the position. George Russell coasted to a lonely fifth, while Albon pulled off one of the best “overdeliver” drives of the year to hold off Hamilton for sixth.

Hamilton finished seventh after climbing 11 places and being the first guinea pig on dry tires. It worked—just not quite enough. Behind him, Liam Lawson bagged eighth for Racing Bulls, while Gabriel Bortoleto (yes, he exists, and he scored points) and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten.

Yuki Tsunoda, who was running as high as sixth early on, fell out of the points like a dropped phone down a storm drain. Isack Hadjar did the same. Everyone else finished the race, but you’d be forgiven for not noticing.

For Piastri, the win was more than just a trophy. It was redemption after a Sprint Saturday where he felt he left something on the table. “I knew that Lap 1 was going to be probably my best chance of winning the race,” he said. “I got a good exit out of Turn 1 and lifted as little as I dared through Eau Rouge, and then it was enough.”

That may be the understatement of the year. Because on a day when Spa tried its best to become an Olympic swimming pool, Piastri kept it dry, kept it clean, and most importantly, kept Lando behind him. He now leads the championship by 16 points heading into Hungary—a track where you don’t pass unless someone’s rear wing falls off.

At this rate, that may be what it takes to stop him.

F1 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX 2025 – RACE RESULT

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Greg Engle

Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community.

Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.

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