Fine margins: How Norris lost out to Piastri in Belgium

Oscar Piastri’s victory in the Belgian Grand Prix highlighted the respectable margins that will likely determine his team-mate Lando Norris’ outcome in the world championship race.

After two straight victories for Norris, the Australian bounced back after the McLaren drivers almost constantly exchanged points.

The pair arrived at Spa-Francorchamps on the back of two consecutive wins for Norris, one from the front in Austria, one somewhat fortuitous after a penalty for Piastri at Silverstone.

They each won the sprint pole position in Belgium, one for Piastri and one for Norris. And there were a few crucial turning points.

Piastri’s drive was from the top drawer – he took the lead from Norris at the rolling start after a few exploratory laps behind the safety car in the wet by being, by Norris ‘ admission, a little braver through Eau Rouge on the first lap.

And he made the right choice to keep his medium-compound tires in good condition while the closing Norris put him on more long-lasting hards.

By denying Red Bull’s Max Verstappen the sprint race victory, Piastri had demonstrated how difficult it was for the pole driver to take the lead by the end of the first lap at Spa.

The Dutchman passed Piastri and Les Combes in a skid, and the McLaren was kept at bay for 15 laps before Norris and the Dutchman came in third.

In the grand prix, it was Norris in front, with Piastri in second and Piastri had been thinking about the opportunity this presented him since losing out on pole the day before.

Andrea Stella, the team’s manager, stated: “Overall, Oscar’s fault was in qualifying, where his laps weren’t perfect.

He said, “Yes, I’m in pole position, but maybe this is not the right place to be in pole position after the sprint qualifying.”

“And as a joke, after the qualifying yesterday, he said, ‘ That was not my best lap in Q3, but perhaps this is the best place not to have the best lap in Q3. ‘”

Verstappen and Piastri both had lead on lap one of the grand prix the day before, and it was astounded.

He said, “I had a good run out of Turn One, and I then made an effort to be brave as possible through Eau Rouge, and we managed to stay pretty close.” After that, the slipstream did the rest for me.

It didn’t appear to be as terrifying as it did in the car when I watched the back. I was aware of my need to be very determined to pull that off.

But Norris could have done a better job. He arguably went too early at the start of the process to help himself from falling behind the finish line. Then, at La Source, he made a mistake that made Piastri eager to approach Eau Rouge.

” I didn’t have the best Turn One, “Norris said”. So it’s difficult to determine how much that played. Oscar passed me fairly easily at the same time. So even if I had a better Turn One, his run and the slipstream probably still would have got me. “

The stops were the next turning point. Piastri chose mediums with a stop on lap 11 and had the first choice as leader.

McLaren could have pitted Norris at the same time – the so-called double-stack – but went for another lap, and decided for hard tyres, to go to the end. Piastri planned the same event, but she wasn’t sure if the mediums would join her.

When Piastri pitted, Norris was just under two seconds behind him, and he was nine seconds ahead when he rejoined the track.

Two seconds of that offset can be accounted for by a slower pit stop, the other five by the extra lap on worn intermediates. He would have been on the mediums, and the race had effectively lost, if he had used a double-stack.

Oscar being caught up in that gap is quite a feat, Norris said. I gave it a good shot, but just not close enough. “

There are risks, according to Piastri, who said, “Even though it was a late decision to pit on the lap we did, there are always risks.” I’d likely have done the same thing if Lando’s situation had been the case. At that point, it seemed like the safest thing to do was go on the medium, because the hard is two steps harder here. “

We did consider double stacking, Stella said. Lando had the ability to deviate at the same time. He opted to deviate, which would have given him the possibility to go on hard tyres, which is what he decided to do.

Now Norris had to obstruct Piastri’s descent. By the end of the race, he had gotten to within 3.4 seconds, but his three errors contributed to his overall overall defeat.

He ran wide at the fast Pouhon double left-hander on lap 26, costing himself 1.3 seconds, then had lock-ups at La Source on laps 33 and 43, costing a total of just under three seconds.

Therefore, he might have had a chance to catch Piastri on the final or perhaps two laps of a perfect race. However, given how challenging overtaking was in both races at Spa, he must be viewed as having a very slim chance of actually getting by.

Stella said: “Yes, Lando had a couple of lock-ups in corner one and also a little oversteer in corner nine that cost him time. Overall, I believe this prevented us from engaging in a potentially interesting battle at the conclusion.

“But, in all fairness, Oscar did experience a little time loss in corner one.”

We have two drivers who, according to Stella, are “very, very, very high quality,” Stella continued, “I think Lando and Oscar are operating at that level, at the level of deservedly being in contention for the drivers’ world championship.”

Given that Stella created Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher for Ferrari earlier this century, this is a respectable compliment.

Stella said: “The difference will be made by the accuracy, the precision, the quality of the execution.

The race’s other important discussion at Spa was whether it ought to have started sooner, either at the scheduled start time or just a few minutes before it actually did.

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen argued that the situation should have been handled because authorities had been overly cautious.

Verstappen said the decision” didn’t make sense”. He added that there was a lot of water between Turn One and Five, but it would have been much clearer after two or three laps behind the safety car, as per his claim that at the scheduled start time. And on top of that, the track was still in motion. It’s a bit of a shame. “

I kept yelling, “It’s ready to go, it’s ready to go,” Hamilton continued. And they continued to move forward and backward.

However, both acknowledged that the decisions were made after the drivers had urged officials following the last race at Silverstone – in which one car rammed another unsighted at a restart in the rain – not to go too early.

And Charles Leclerc of Ferrari and Piastri both made mention of Spa’s extreme dangers and the two recent fatalities there in junior categories.

Leclerc once said, “I’d rather be safe than too early. It’s a constant discussion, and we’ll probably feed the people that made this decision back that maybe it was a little bit on the late side, but I wouldn’t have changed anything. “

We’ve told the FIA that we would much rather be on the safe side than risk anything, Piastri continued. That is what we did today, in my opinion.