New Delhi: Oscar Piastri snatched an amazing win from his teammate Lando Norris to extend his lead at the Driver’s Championship, which his teammate is threatening to take away. The two Ferraris made an impressive run as well, with Charles Leclerc taking his fourth podium finish of the season.
With rain playing havoc for the 100th Belgian Grand Prix, it was a rolling start behind the safety car with four cars starting in pits, including Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alsono, Carlos Sainz and Kimi Raikkonnen. The safety car remained on the track for four laps. Delayed by almost an hour due to a Red flag that made every race driver go back to the pit lane. At the start, as soon as the safety car had left the grid, Piastri got slip slipstream and went past his teammate.
Norris immediately noted that there was something wrong with his battery and was told he had used it behind the safety car. However, managed to stay and keep Charles Leclerc away from splitting the Papaya team. Leclerc was himself fighting for the podium finish throughout the race from a charging Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
IT’S A THIRD STRAIGHT PAPAYA 1-2! 🧡#McLaren | #BelgianGP 🇧🇪 pic.twitter.com/PWimzIuFti
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) July 27, 2025
The fight continues between the two Papaya drivers
After going in front of the pack, Piastri kept going away from the lead, managing to even get slick tyres in lap 12 and getting priority from the team. With the intermediate, he managed to keep the lead, though he had mentioned that it would be hard to keep it up until the end of the race. Despite having a gap of eight seconds for a long part of the race, he decided against making another stop.
Norris, during the final part of the race, did show some mettle for taking the lead again; however, Paistri kept the gap at 3.4 seconds for the win. Drivers were mostly in their positions after the pit stop, and despite such wet conditions, no drivers retired. In fact, the excitement came from Lewis Hamilton mostly who was placed 16th in the qualifying.
The seven-time world champion engineered some amazing overtakes that ultimately gave him a seventh-place finish. In fact, the Briton had stopped for his sleeks at the 11th lap, when he was in the 13th place, and ultimately it gave him a host of overtakes.
Russell, Albon impress
In a race that was so much marred by the looming clouds, George Russell and Alex Albon kept pressure on Verstappen. The defending champion was often caught up defending his fourth place and the gap was becoming too much in a track that was scattered with marbles. The debris cost Norris quite a few seconds who kept locking up during the corners.
Liam Lawson, Gabriel Bortoleto and Pierre Gasly took home some important points with them. While Gasly took the final of the points, his teammate Franco Colapinto didn’t improve his case for his seat, finishing 19th. Both Lance Stroll who is a master in the rain and his teammate Fernando Alonso couldn’t improve their place from qualification and Carlos Sainz too wasn’t at his best.
Driver of the Day
Lewis Hamilton hasn’t had the smoothest time at Ferrari, and things have really looked bad for him. Coming to the race in the face of his teammate starting in third place, there were more questions raised about him. However, he didn’t disappoint with his early qualifying exit as he managed to score some crucial points for the Ferrari team as they try to close the gap in the Constructors’ championship.