Piastri cites bravery as key to Belgium victory

Oscar Piastri says he knew he had to be brave in wet conditions to overtake Lando Norris in the wet and win the Belgian Grand Prix.

Norris started from pole and led the field away on a wet track as part of a rolling start, with Piastri staying close behind him from second place. With Norris struggling with wheelspin out of La Source, Piastri stayed close through Eau Rouge and Raidillon to slipstream past on the Kemmel Straight and led the rest of the way to extend his championship lead to 16 points.

• RACE REPORT: Piastri outruns Norris for Belgian GP win
• OPINION: The art of choosing when to race in the rain

“I knew it was going to help me pretty significantly if I did [take the lead at the start],” Piastri said. “I had a good run out of Turn 1 and then tried to be as brave as I could through Eau Rouge and was able to stay pretty close. After that, the slipstream did the rest for me. I knew that was going to be pretty important for trying to win the race today.

“I had a good restart in general. I was close into the last chicane, had an OK run out of the last chicane and then a good exit out of Turn 1. The move through Eau Rouge, I knew it was going to be by far my best opportunity to try and win the race. I'd been thinking about it for a while, put it that way.

“Obviously, in those conditions, it's a little bit more difficult than if it's dry. I knew that I had to try and do that. When I watched the onboard, it didn't look quite as scary as it felt in the car. I knew that I had to be very committed to pull that off.”

Piastri was never put under severe pressure after that point but Norris opted for a different strategy that did worry the race leader, when his teammate could keep a strong pace up on the hard tire compound.

“It was a tough race. Difficult conditions at the start and then just trying to manage the inters firstly," he said, "because it was drying relatively quickly, but you can kill the inters in a lap or two if you really want around here. So that was a bit tricky.

“I felt good on the mediums for about five laps, and then when I could see that the hard on Lando's car was not worse than the medium, I was a bit nervous considering we had nearly 25 laps to go at that point. So, I had to be a bit careful, but it held on in the end much better than I feared. I had to manage a bit, but nothing special.

“We'd spoken about it before the race. It was quite a late decision to pit on the lap we did, but there's risks either way. If I was in Lando's position, I probably would have done the same thing. At that point, it seemed like the safest thing to do was go on the medium, because the hard is two steps harder here. You don't know how it's going to react in those conditions.

“If there's a safety car, which often there is in those conditions, then you probably want a medium, not a hard. There are risks both ways, but ultimately I'm happy with what we did.”

Norris admitted Piastri had earned the victory with his move at the start, and would not dwell on a few small mistakes that cost him around three seconds of race time, despite finishing 3.4s adrift of his teammate.

“Oscar just did a good job,” Norris said. “Nothing more to say. Committed a bit more through Eau Rouge and had a slipstream and got the run. Nothing to complain at. He did a better job in the beginning and that was it. Nothing more I could do after that point. I would love to be up top but Oscar deserved it today.

“It’s ‘shoulda, woulda, coulda’, so I’m not going to… Oscar deserved it. I’m sure he made a couple mistakes. So if he drove a perfect race… I couldn’t have won today. I’ll review my things, but I’m so happy for the team. Another one-two – I think our first one-two here for many, many years. Nice to bring that back to the team. A well-deserved result for them and for Oscar too.”