Piastri sets dominant pole for Belgian GP sprint race

Belgian Grand Prix

Venue: Spa Dates: 25-27 July Race start: 14: 00 BST on Sunday

Oscar Piastri of McLaren won the Belgian Grand Prix in a breathtaking performance.

The Australian, who holds the world championship, was 0. 477 seconds ahead of Lando Norris, who was team-mate and title rival, and 0. 618 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton will start 18th after a mistake on his first lap and a spin at the final corner of his second, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fourth, but 0. 768secs off the pace.

Carlos Sainz’ Williams teammate Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon’s Haas split into fifth place, surprising.

The top 10 were made up of Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

After having his first lap at Raidillon ruled out for exceeding track limits, Piastri only managed to make it to the final shootout for pole in 10th place.

He had been acting the quickest all day, but he exceeded his potential.

It was a good lap, according to Piastri. The lap deletion in Q2 gave the car a little spooky, but overall, the car was fantastic. It’s a real pleasure when the car’s handling is as good as it is today.

Piastri’s pace was based on his pace in sector two, which features the majority of the corners, where he was 0. 298 seconds ahead of Norris, who was in second place there.

Running more downforce on the straights, which results in less speed, is typically a sign of pace in Spa’s middle sector.

However, since Eau Rouge is completely taken out, Piastri only lost 0.095 seconds to Verstappen in the first sector, where the only “corner” is La Source. And in the final sector, Verstappen, his closest pursuer, was actually 0.125secs faster.

This performance profile at Spa is unusual for a car, and it appears to be the result of McLaren’s new, more efficient rear wing, which the team claims produces less drag for the same amount of downforce.

At 11:00 BST on Saturday, Piastri holds the championship lead over Norris by eight points going into the sprint race.

However, he will be wary of Verstappen’s threat on the first lap as he heads up the hill to Les Combes after the long descent through the Eau Rouge swerves.

Verstappen, however, underlined the significance of that, saying that moving more quickly or slowly on the straight won’t matter much. Simply put, we must conduct our own race and experiment with what we can accomplish.

He continued, “We already have a good result because we’re P2 between them, and I think we’ve maximized that. I enjoyed being outside. The lap itself performed well. It was satisfactory.

George Russell was another participant in the second session who suffered a defeat in the back. In the final moments of the session, other drivers improved significantly and the Mercedes driver was moved down to 13th place.

Kimi Antonelli, Russell’s teammate, will start 19th in the first session of Stavelot after a spin.

After Ferrari introduced a new rear suspension system to Spa, aiming to lower the vehicle where it has more performance, the performance was disappointing. Additionally, the change is intended to enhance driving comfort.

On his first run, Hamilton made a small error at Stavelot before turning around at the final turn-around due to the lock on his rear wheels.

He claimed that this was his first career twist, and that he had felt it. He has complained about the Ferrari’s handling under braking, particularly the way it uses engine braking, which he is not used to, all season, and this appeared to be a reference to this.

He shook his head when asked whether the new suspension improved driving dynamics.

I’m incredibly frustrated, he continued. There has been a lot of work done, but it is not particularly good. Hopefully things will improve tomorrow.

His attitude contrasted with Bearman’s, who said, “I had a very good feeling from free practice.” I was aware that the car was moving at a rapid rate. But I’m so happy for everyone. Everyone will be thrilled to have two cars in Q3. Esteban did a fantastic job, and it’s just really, really nice.

Russell expressed concern that Antonelli’s spin had damaged the car’s ability to travel through the gravel.

We’ve had pace all day, but when Kimi went off, Russell said, “I ran over all that gravel.” It felt terrible the entire time for the next lap, and it felt terrible in Q2 too.