It’s safe to say that the Belgian Grand Prix won’t be remembered fondly by many fans. The FIA’s decision to delay the race start potentially took away from the overall spectacle, but on track, Oscar Piastri put his Silverstone errors behind him to take his sixth win of the season.

Piastri takes prime position
Race wins went begging for Oscar Piastri in Austria and England, but the Australian put it right throughout the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.

Sprint qualifying saw Piastri take the track lap record of a 1:40.510 off Lewis Hamilton in 2020. However, Piastri didn’t take the sprint win with Max Verstappen passing down into turn five on lap one with a much lower downforce setup.

In qualifying for the main race, Piastri couldn’t replicate his single-lap pace, outqualified by teammate and title rival Lando Norris. Rain on Sunday threatened to make life difficult for the championship leader, as in dry conditions, the slipstream down to turn five sees second on the grid the most advantageous position.

Under a rolling start, Piastri was unfazed, following closely through Eau Rouge and using the slipstream to take the lead at turn five. This proved to be critical as the number 81 got preference over the pit top strategy and pitted first for medium tyres. This proved to be a slight misstep as Norris, despite coming out nearly 10 seconds behind Piastri he was on the hard compound tyre, which could make it to the chequered flag with ease.

(Photo by Hasan Bratic/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Therefore, the Melburnian had to manage his tyres carefully and whilst the gap behind closed numerous lockups saw Norris’ chase fall short. Piastri took his sixth win of the season and eighth for his career, tying with Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian’s lead in the championship has increased back up to 16 points, and he’ll be hoping for another strong result in Hungary to put him in a commanding position at the summer break.

Wet weather reluctance
Spa has always struggled with weather conditions. Many will remember the shocking event in 2021 in which drivers only sat behind the safety car before handing out half-points. It didn’t come to that in 2025, thankfully, but we still saw a delay of an hour before we had a rolling start.

Many drivers, but in particular Max Verstappen, questioned the decision not to run under the safety car to dry the track quicker, as under red flag decisions the grid sat around in the pit lane. The issue was visibility, and whilst the wet weather tyres and even intermediate compounds could handle the conditions, the spray kicked up by the cars makes the wet weather tyres in particular redundant. The new regulations in 2026 need to address the ability of Formula 1 cars to run in the rain. Wet weather races can promote fantastic racing, but with these cars and tyres, we were robbed of that in Spa.

All on Antonelli
The pressure gauge is starting to rise on Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli. The Mercedes, in general, has faded since its early-season form and has been passed in the constructors’ championship by Ferrari. The Italian’s weekend was messy with a spin in sprint qualifying, seeing him start 20th and last.

(Photo by Jared C. Tilton – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Overtaking in the sprint was nigh on impossible, and Antonelli came home 17th. He qualified 17th for the grand prix and only gained to 16th, failing to take advantage of a potential early swap to slicks. Antonelli’s form has been concerning, but any talk of replacement should be disregarded. It’s only been four races since his podium and the DNF in Great Britain wasn’t his fault. Give the rookie some time, and we’ll see his performances across a full season before drawing conclusions.

Gasly goes under the radar

My fourth and final talking point goes to a man who deserves more credit than what I’m seeing, and that’s Pierre Gasly. The performance of the Alpine has been terrible this season and his teammates have been truly short of expectations. That hasn’t deterred Gasly, who, despite issues in the sprint race preventing representative running, bounced back, taking a respectable 13th in qualifying. Gasly thrived in the main race, scoring a point and finishing 10th, having strong pace in dry conditions and managing his medium tyres well when runners in the midfield, such as Nico Hulkenberg, Oliver Bearman and Yuki Tsunoda all had pace to score points. Alpine are still a clear last in the constructors by 15 points, but if Gasly can achieve these results, it will be a morale booster for Enstone.