Oscar Piastri has reignited his campaign for the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship with a commanding victory at the rain-soaked Belgian Grand Prix, slicing into McLaren teammate Lando Norris’s lead and narrowing the drivers’ standings gap to just 16 points. In a season marked by razor-thin margins, Piastri’s win at Spa-Francorchamps underscored how quickly the momentum can swing in the ongoing internal battle at McLaren.
Prior to Spa, Norris had surged ahead with consecutive victories in Austria and Great Britain, establishing himself as the apparent title frontrunner. However, both of those races could have easily gone the other way under different circumstances, and Piastri’s performance on Sunday proved just how delicate the balance is between the two drivers.
The decisive moment came on the very first lap of racing after a rolling start, with wet conditions making the notorious Eau Rouge and Raidillon corners even more treacherous. With both drivers battling for grip and position, Piastri used the slipstream masterfully to overtake Norris on the Kemmel Straight. Despite Norris having track position at La Source, Piastri’s aggressive line and tighter exit allowed him to close the gap. The Australian showed remarkable bravery through Eau Rouge, keeping his foot down where Norris lifted, and seized the lead by the time they reached Les Combes.
“I thought the rolling start might hurt my chances, but I got a great exit from Turn 1,” Piastri said post-race. “I was close enough and just decided to lift a little less than Lando. It was lively up the hill, but I made it stick.”
Although Norris suggested after the race that a battery anomaly might have affected his acceleration, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella clarified that both cars experienced the same issue, ruling out any mechanical disadvantage.
From that point on, McLaren strategy came into play. When it was time to switch from intermediates to slicks, Piastri — now the lead car — received priority. Norris chose to stay out an additional lap and opted for hard-compound tires, hoping their durability would allow a late-race charge. But a delay in fitting his front-left tire and the slower warm-up of the hard compound hampered his effort.
Stella explained that double-stacking the cars in the pits was considered, but the team left the final decision to Norris. “Lando opted to deviate and take the hards. At one point I thought it might be a good call, but Oscar managed a superb stint on the mediums. Lando was marginally quicker, but not enough to catch up.”
Norris’s bid for a comeback was hampered further by a few on-track errors. He ran wide at Turn 1 twice and suffered a costly oversteer moment at Pouhon on Lap 23, bleeding away crucial seconds. While the final gap between the McLarens was only 3.5 seconds, Stella noted that Piastri had plenty in reserve and was managing his pace carefully.
“It’s very hard to stay within the limit on a damp track,” Stella said. “Oscar showed fantastic tire management and posted one of his fastest laps near the end. He was controlling the race, watching his mirrors, and managing the gap to Lando.”
Piastri’s victory is even more remarkable given that it followed a disappointing qualifying session on Saturday, where a mistake at Stavelot cost him pole. Ironically, that mistake placed him second on the grid — a position that turned out to be strategically advantageous at Spa, especially under wet and rolling start conditions.
“I was pretty hard on myself yesterday,” Piastri admitted, “but starting second here turned out to be a blessing.”
As the McLaren drivers continue to exchange blows in one of the most captivating intra-team rivalries in modern F1, the season looks set to be decided by the tiniest of margins — and by execution under pressure. Both Piastri and Norris are driving at an elite level, and McLaren has made it clear they won’t interfere with the title battle unless absolutely necessary.
“The difference is going to come down to the precision, the quality of execution,” Stella said. “We saw that in Silverstone with a penalty that cost Oscar the win, and now here in Spa with the dynamics of a rolling restart and who led the pack. These are the small moments that will decide the championship.”
As F1 heads into the final stretch of the season, the championship is now very much a two-horse race — and McLaren, with two of the grid’s most in-form drivers, is in the enviable position of potentially delivering its first title since 2008.
For fans, it’s a thrilling duel defined not by controversy or team orders, but by raw pace, nerves of steel, and split-second decisions in some of the most difficult conditions Formula 1 has to offer. And after Spa, it’s clear: Oscar Piastri is not going quietly.
