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Oscar Piastri’s podium dreams lasted for eight whole laps.
After a disappointing qualifying session – marred by a hydraulic leak earlier in the weekend – Piastri started the Belgium Grand Prix in sixth position and seemed unlikely to recreate his 2025 victory at the same circuit.
But the opening lap provided the perfect opportunity. Lewis Hamilton collided with George Russell – sending his former Mercedes teammate into the gravel and ending his race, triggering a safety car. Piastri suddenly found himself in P4 and in contention for a podium.
By Lap 8, Piastri was locked in a fierce battle with Charles Leclerc for third, when the Ferrari driver defensively squeezed Piastri and made contact with the front of his McLaren, sending debris flying.
The impact caused damage to Piastri’s wing and floor.
“He didn’t leave enough space, that could have been a massive crash,” Piastri complained over the radio.
The incident was investigated, but the stewards decided to take no action and Leclerc was not penalised.
In a statement after the race, McLaren confirmed the damage caused Piastri to lose between two and three tenths per lap, while he was forced to push harder to maintain pace, which accelerated tyre degradation over the latter stages of each stint.
The Australian dropped several places but persevered– aided by fresh tyres – to climb back up the grid and managed to execute some excellent overtakes. But the McLaren driver ultimately didn’t have the pace to catch Hamilton and finished the race in fifth place.
In a post-race interview Piastri said it was “certainly not a straightforward race”.
“I felt like our pace was really good, at the beginning of the stints it looked strong, obviously after the damage with Leclerc that definitely made things more difficult and I struggled a lot for the rest of that stint...”
“Our race definitely was a little bit more difficult than it needed to be from that point on”
Once again it was Kimi Antonelli’s day – the teenager converted pole position to win the Belgian Grand Prix, strengthening his grip on the championship.
After some thrilling battles with Verstappen at the start of the race and in the penultimate lap with Leclerc, Antonelli held on to win his sixth grand prix.
In a post race interview, Antonelli admitted he was “a bit lucky in what happened in terms of the championship” but said he was grateful for win.
“That’s why you have to take every opportunity because it can really swing easily, the situation,” he said. “So we just gotta keep performing, keep bringing the result, and seeing what happens at the end of the year.”
Rounding out the podium was Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen. McLaren’s Lando Norris had an impressive race, fighting his way up from P13 to take the lead of the race after delaying his pitstop. But the 2025 world champion suffered a dreadfully lethargic pitstop of 7.8 seconds, which saw him loose crucial time and drop places.
Fans at the famous Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps also got a nostalgic taste of McLaren inter-team racing, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri going wheel-to-wheel. However, it appears the team weren’t keen to implement their famous papaya rules.
A McLaren engineer interrupted Norris’ radio, saying “We don’t want any yo-yo racing with Oscar, I’ll explain why later.”
Ultimately, Sunday’s biggest casualty was George Russell, whose race ended prematurely after the collision with Hamilton.
The devastated Mercedes driver told media he got “swallowed up on the straight”, but laid no blame on Hamilton.
“I lost three positions down the straight and the incident was a racing incident. Maybe I could have gone wider, maybe he [Hamilton] could have braked a bit more. I have no words at the moment,” he said in a post-race interview.
Russell’s retirements means the margin to his teammate and rival Antonelli has ballooned to 50 points.
Antonelli leads the championship race by 45 points, with Hamilton in second and Russell in third.
The next race is the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 26
