In his bid to become F1 world champion, Oscar Piastri learned his lesson from the reigning one.
The Aussie claimed victory in the Belgian Grand Prix after copying the trick which saw Max Verstappen pinch victory in the sprint race earlier in the weekend.
Starting second behind his McLaren teammate and title rival Lando Norris, on the opening racing lap Piastri used the slipstream on the long run up Eau Rouge and through to Les Combes to take the race lead – just as Verstappen did.
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With Norris battling an early battery issue Piastri had pace at the pivotal moment and used it to extend his championship lead.
“Nicely done. Nicely f***ing done,” Piastri said on team radio.
Heavy rain saw the grand prix delayed by almost 90 minutes before racing got underway with a rolling start after three of the 44 laps of the iconic Spa-Francorchamps Circuit were wiped off the board.
Holding the race lead enabled Piastri to pit for dry tyres on lap 13, with Norris continuing on rather than double-stacking and losing time waiting behind his teammate in the pits.
The Briton went for the hard tyre, planning on going to the end and avoiding another pit stop, after losing over six seconds running intermediates on the drying track.
Norris was told Piastri would try and go to the end on his mediums, but would likely need to manage the tyres to make it.
The Aussie said on team radio he feared the degradation would be too much but held his eight-second lead through the middle third of the race, extending it slightly when Norris took a brief off-track excursion, then again a few laps later when he locked up into turn one.
With 11 laps left and holding a seven-second lead, Piastri was told going to the end on his mediums made the most sense.
The lead continued to shrink, getting down to four seconds with five laps left, but a third error cost Norris another second – and meant instead of being in Piastri’s slipstream for the final few laps, he was too far back to push for the win.
“I knew lap one was going to be my best chance of winning the race … I lifted as little as I could through Eau Rouge, and that was enough,” Piastri said.
“The medium was the safest tyre to be on at that point, who knew if someone was gonna crash and there was gonna be a safety car.”
Norris said: “(Piastri) did a better job in the beginning and that was it, nothing more I could do.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed the podium with Red Bull’s Verstappen fourth, and now a full 81 points behind Piastri, worth more than three race wins.
George Russell (5th), Alex Albon (6th), Lewis Hamilton (7th), Liam Lawson (8th), Gabriel Bortoleto (9th) and Pierre Gasly (10th) completed the points places.
Having finished second in the sprint, one spot ahead of Norris, across the weekend Piastri extended his lead in the driver’s standings from eight points to 16 – more than recovering the points taken from him in his penalty at the British Grand Prix.
The win was the eighth of Piastri’s career, drawing him level with Daniel Ricciardo, and just one behind mentor and manager Mark Webber’s mark.
There are 11 races left this season with next weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix the last before the summer break. It was where Piastri broke through last year for his first ever F1 race win.
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