McLaren‘s Oscar Piastri extended his drivers’ championship lead on Sunday with an impressive victory at the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix, but battery issues for teammate Lando Norris may helped him along the way.
The Australian driver is currently the man in control when it comes to the title, despite this only being his second season in Formula 1. Having seen Norris win the last two races in Austria and Great Britain, seeing him take pole position in Belgium on Saturday will have been a blow.
He needn’t have worried, though, as he managed to get past Norris early on the first racing lap at Spa and held onto the lead with the sort of calmness which is becoming Piastri‘s trademark. It later emerged that Norris was struggling with a battery issue when he lost the lead to Piastri, although the Brit chose not to blame his car.
Piastri seizes the opportunity
The fact that Norris ran wide into Turn 1 after the start behind the safety car meant an immediate opportunity had been presented to Piastri, and as he explained to Sky Sports F1 after the race, he always knew that the first lap would be the most important.
“I knew Lap 1 would be my best chance of winning the race. I got a good exit out of Turn 1, lifted as little as I dared out of Eau Rouge,” Piastri said.
“The rest of the race we managed really well. I struggled at the end. Maybe the mediums were not the best for the last five or six laps. We had it mostly under control. I was pretty disappointed with myself yesterday but turns out starting P2 was not as bad as I thought.”
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Having seen him championship lead be chipped away at over the past two races, Piastri will be glad to now have a 16-point lead over his teammate, considering he could have left the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in second place.
Norris and Brown offer differing thoughts
When Norris was overtaken by his teammate and temporarily fell into the clutches of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen behind, he was quick to tell his team that it felt like his battery had no power.
Whilst Piastri clearly had the best run through Eau Rouge and onto the straight, it was notable that he got past well before Les Combes. When asked if battery issues played a part in that overtake, Norris actually blamed something else instead.
“No. The slipstream, and we saw it already on Saturday. The slipstream, especially when it’s wet and especially when you’re the first car, you have to push through the first bit of water, which means the following effect in the rain like this is even more than normal,” Norris said to Sky Sports F1.
“I didn’t get the best Turn 1, so I need to go and look at things. I had two snaps on the exit, and maybe that could have got me out of trouble. But I think it only would have given Oscar an even bigger slipstream to pass me.
“Like we saw on Saturday, it’s just tough to lead from the beginning. I’m not saying I did the best job, but it just seems like this weekend, it was a headwind down that straight and just pretty much impossible to keep ahead.”
McLaren team boss Zak Brown offered a slightly different version of events, though, saying about the battery: “We had a small battery issue which we’ve got to look at, which I think didn’t help him. At the start there we had a battery issue. It only takes a little bit especially going up the hill.”
