Oscar Piastri was right to fear being on pole at the sprint win in Spa. The Australian driver lost to Max Verstappen on the first lap and was unable to attack the Dutchman to regain the lead.
Piastri's fears materialised as Verstappen made the move around the outside into Les Combes, he said on the grid interviews after the race. "I tried my best to snake my way through the straights and not give too much of a tow [at the start]."
However, his plan failed, and Red Bull's gamble to set up Verstappen's car low on downforce worked out. "But[I] didn't have enough straight-line speed and then obviously didn't have enough speed for the next 15 laps either."
"Still a good result, still good points. It is only a Sprint, the main points are tomorrow, so pretty happy with it but a bit frustrated I couldn't get past," Piastri explained.
In terms of setup, will the papaya team go the same way as Red Bull? "It's a great question. The weather is looking pretty bad for tomorrow, which means you probably don't want to take off too much wing," said Piastri ahead of what is expected to be a wet race.
"But I don't want to repeat the Sprint we just had. So we will have a look and see what we can do," Piastri concluded.