Lando Norris makes surprise 'commitment' admission after Oscar Piastri wins Belgian F1 GP
Lando Norris admitted he was not committed enough as he lost the Belgian Grand Prix on the first racing lap of a rain-soaked affair. Heavy rain at Spa-Francorchamps saw the race delayed by 90 minutes as race control deemed the conditions too treacherous.
And Oscar Piastri reacted the sharpest when a rolling start got things going, pulling off the race-winning move on the same straight where he had lost the shorter Sprint to Max Verstappen a day earlier. The Aussie learned his lesson and is now 17 points clear of his McLaren team-mate and Formula 1 title rival.
"Oscar just did a good job, there is nothing more to say," shrugged Norris. "He committed more through Eau Rouge, got the slipstream and the run [up the Kemmel Straight]. That was it, there was nothing else I could do at that point. Oscar deserved it today."
Piastri thought his best chance to snatch the lead had gone when the cautious FIA race director decided a rolling start would be safest. But the Aussie was proud to have out-dared his rival and still made the crucial move.
He said: "I got a good exit out of turn one, lifted as little as I dared and we had it mostly under control. I was a bit disappointed with the rolling start as I thought that would take away the opportunity, but when I was that close through Eau Rouge, I knew I was going to lift a little less than Lando. I am proud of my first lap."
Norris gambled on hard tyres when the track dried while Piastri and the rest of the pack went for the less durable mediums which gave the Brit an advantage late on. But three mistakes late on proved consequential and the Brit finished just over three seconds behind.
Norris had no regrets and said: "I had to push, I couldn't just sit still. And when you're on the edge like that, yeah I made some mistakes but that's racing and that's life. I'm not unhappy, I don't think there was much more I could have done today. I felt like I still did a good job, I was quick and I was on top of things."
Charles Leclerc completed the podium while Verstappen had to settle for fourth in Red Bull's first ever Grand Prix without Christian Horner. But he was angry with the FIA for "ruining" what could have been a much more chaotic wet race.
The Dutchman fumed: "We should have started miles earlier, an hour earlier. They took a very cautious approach which we spoke about after Silverstone but, for me, this was the other extreme.
"It just ruined a nice, classic wet race as well. We either still try to push for a proper wet race, or we say, 'You know what, let's just stop racing in the wet and wait for it to be dry. But that's not what you want, right? We can still have some really cool wet racing, like we showed at Silverstone."
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