Oscar Piastri in the press conference

Belgian GP shock: Verstappen no match for flying Piastri, even with updates

13:34, 25 Jul

Updated: 14:15, 25 Jul

byNorberto Mujica

Oscar Piastri hits the ground running in the Sprint weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, leading the field by nearly half a second with Max Verstappen in P2 and Lando Norris in P3.

How it happened

As the first and only practice session started, Carlos Sainz reported a reliability issue with his FW47. Deprived of drive and power the Spaniard was called into the pits in what seems to be an endless streak of bad luck for the former Ferrari man.

Max Verstappen put his name on top, as both Ferraris driven by Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were spotted skimming across Spa-Francorshamps with the Briton nearly losing it at the top of Eau Rouge.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli Esteban Ocon, Fernando Alonso and George Russell slotted in behind the Dutchman, but Oscar Piastri on hard tyres went half a second faster than the Dutchman despite a tyre disadvantage, with the Australian donning hard tyres as opposed to Verstappen’s mediums.

However, after a setup change, Verstappen went faster by over half a second, with Lando Norris not being able to pip his teammate. Yuki Tsunoda fell from P2 to P5 edged out by Leclerc who placed his Ferrari in P4 behind Norris’s McLaren.

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Near the halfway mark though, Leclerc took over at the top from Verstappen by 0.088s, with Ocon placing third, followed by Hamilton and Tsunoda, with the McLarens of Piastri and Norris placing P6 and P7. Oliver Bearman, Lance Stroll and Kimi Antonelli rounded off the top 10.

An on-the-limit incident arose between Gabriel Bortoleto and Hamilton. As the Brazilian readied himself for the daunting Eau Rouge crawl, he encountered the Brit’s slow moving Ferrari. Having had to run wide, the Sauber rookie lashed out on the radio, stating the Ferrari driver would ‘always drive down the middle of the track.’ On his part Leclerc dubbed the incident as ‘dangerous.’

Piastri then jumped Verstappen to take P2, as Norris could only improve to P4 with Ocon keeping his Haas at the front edge of the order in P5 with Hamilton behind him. Tsunoda, Colapinto, Bearman and Sainz completed the top 10.

A tough first session for Antonelli and Russell who only managed a P12 and P13 ahead of Fernando Alonso in P14.

As the field donned the softs for the qualifying simulations Piastri led Verstappen by over half a second.