Brilliant Piastri dominates Norris at Belgian GP to snatch crucial win

17:46, 27 Jul
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Oscar Piastri has won the Formula One 2025 Belgian Grand Prix ahead of Lando Norris after overtaking the British driver at the start of the race. Charles Leclerc rounded off the podium places, with Max Verstappen and George Russell completing the top 5.

How the 2025 F1 Belgian Grand Prix unfolded

After a more than an hour-long delay due to the deteriorated weather conditions, the FIA issued an updated start time to the 2025 Formula One Belgian Grand Prix: 16:20, Belgium local time.
Instead of a standing start, race direction, on safety grounds, was prompted to start the race behind the safety car, with Lando Norris getting his wish, as he complained about the left-hand side being wetter than the right-hand side of the circuit.
The race started as the field soared past the finish line on lap 5 after four tours around the Spa-Francorchamps track behind the safety car.
Oscar Piastri made a confident overtake on the outside of Norris on the Kemmel straight after sticking to his teammate's gearbox throughout La Source, Radillion and Eau Rouge.

Hamilton's charge, Verstappen goes on the hunt of Leclerc

On lap 7 Hamilton began his charge. Having started from the pitlane, the Briton took Sainz for P16 at the bus stop, on into Les Combs on lap 8 he completed a move around the outside of Franco Colapinto to take P15.
Then he put his Ferrari ahead of Hulkenberg for P14 at the same spot where he overtook Sainz. On the next lap Hamilton made a daring overtake maneuvre on Pierre Gasly for P12 at Stavelot, edging ever-closer to the point scoring positions.
The top remained in the order in which they started lap 5: Piastri, Norris, Leclerc, Verstappen and Russell. However, on lap 10 Verstappen then got his groove on and attempted a bold overtake move on the outside of Lewclerc at Pouhon, which was not to be.
One lap later Leclerc told Ferrari on the radio that his tyres were gone, as Verstappen ate away at the gap. Nevertheless, the margins to the leaders had grown up to nearly 10 seconds.

Hamilton, Hulkenberg, Gasly and Alonso pull the trigger

On lap 11, Hamilton and Ferrari chose to gamble and move on to slick tyres. Hulkenberg, Gasly and Fernando Alonso followed suit. The majority of the field boxed one lap later. However, Verstappen had to wait in his box to allow Alexander Albon through, costing him valuable time.
Norris, Yuki Tsunoda, Isack Hadjar and Esteban Ocon chose to stay out. Piastri regained the lead, with Norris exiting the pits having lost 6 seconds to his teammate. However, the Briton chose to don on the hard tyres in a bid to reach the end without having to make an extra pitstop.
By lap 14, Hamilton had already reached the point scoring positions, with a masterful P7.

Top 10 remains the same, Norris puts pressure on Piastri

On lap 18 Verstappen complained of an engine clipping issue down the straight that was hindering his attempts to make advances on Leclerc. The gap to the Monegasque grew, and slipped him back into George Russell's clutches.
Gabriel Bortoleto then went on the radio to his team to force a position swap with teammate Hulkenberg amid the German's inability to get past Liam Lawson. His request was heeded and completed down the Kemmel straight on lap 20.
The order of the race remained largely unchanged by lap 29 but for a few overtakes completed in the back of the field. In the top ten the gaps and the positions remained the same.
It was on this tour that Norris on a set of hards posted the fastest lap of the race to put the pressure on Piastri to eat through his medium compound tyres as the race got closer to its end. However, Piastri would be the one taking the checkered flag in P1.