Too messy from Norris? Our verdict on Belgian GP McLaren battle
Formula 1

Too messy from Norris? Our verdict on Belgian GP McLaren battle

5 min read

Lando Norris had the opportunity to really erode his team-mate Oscar Piastri's Formula 1 championship lead in the Belgian Grand Prix - but instead ended the race 16 points back.

Did Norris let a big opportunity slip - and did he cost himself a chance to get back at Piastri with errors in the final stint of the grand prix?

Our writers give their views on the state of play in the current all-McLaren title battle.

The best of Piastri, not the best of Norris

Scott Mitchell-Malm

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, F1

That was a flawless Piastri win that brought together all his very best attributes in 2025: bold and assertive with the key move, convincing pace in the damp first stint, and good tyre management to the end.

Piastri didn’t mess around on the first lap, and rightly so - based on the dull race that followed it would have been his only chance. He didn’t need to think twice.

Unfortunately, if it brought the best of Piastri, it maybe highlighted a couple of familiar Norris limitations. He was imprecise at the start and left himself vulnerable, then hampered his attempted charge with errors that cost key laptime.

Did these prevent Norris winning? Maybe not. But they saved Piastri a tighter finish. And the point is that Norris needs to make sure he does everything he can to win, which wasn’t the case today.

Norris never had a chance after pitstops

Ben Anderson

Lando Norris, McLaren, F1

It looked to me like the gap between the medium (C3) and the hard (C1) was overstated in the end. Good effort from Pirelli to try to introduce a strategic variable, but it didn't work.

Carlos Sainz and Isack Hadjar made zero progress on the same hard compound Norris punted for victory on, and the mistakes Norris made in pursuit of Piastri suggested it wasn't working all that well, the fronts especially.

Piastri also clearly held tyre life in reserve in case Norris got within range. I suspect even if Norris had driven a perfect stint, Piastri would have had extra pace to unleash in defence - especially in a car we know looks after old tyres extremely well.

It was quite common in the ultra-dominant Mercedes years of 2014-16 for that team to allow Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg a tyre offset at the pitstops, to avoid the second-placed driver being locked into a strategic straightjacket.

I'm sure this would have been a huge talking point had Norris overcome Piastri to win this race, but in the end the medium Pirellis were simply too robust in Piastri's hands. He won this race with that first-lap pass and the tyre offset between the two McLarens was ultimately a moot point.

The kind of day that can decide a title

Jonathan Noble

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, McLaren, F1

Norris has long known that he is going to have to perform to his best if he is going to beat Piastri, but Spa has perhaps proved that only perfection is going to be good enough.

Norris will likely feel that everything had been in his hands to grab that Belgian GP win – but it was an accumulation of a lot of small errors (one from his team) that ultimately cost him.

That poor exit from La Source on lap one; the slow pitstop; the moment at Pouhon and that two locks-up at La Source late on may have been quite minor in themselves, but added together they prevented him from at least having a sniff of the win late on.

As the championship fight starts getting more serious now, Norris cannot let opportunities like this slip through his fingers – because these are the kinds of days titles are won and lost.

McLaren is playing this very well

Gary Anderson

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, McLaren, F1

As a team you are always having to make decisions when you have two team-mates racing each other.

If you have them both doing the same thing then the end result will be the same. Offering your drivers different strategies and allowing them to make the ultimate decision and then let it unfold is the best way, as long as your drivers respect each other.

When Norris lost the lead on the first lap that put Piastri in pole position for the first pit stop, they were too close to double stack so Norris having to do that extra lap on inters cost him. A slower stop and a couple of mistakes which meant he never got into the DRS zone, so no outside assistance, meant it all had to be done on the track.

As drivers, they should both be proud of their day's work, even weekend's work, and as a team once again McLaren showed it is well and truly on top of anything that can be thrown at it - and that even includes the Spa weather.

Good result for Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc third holding off Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton coming through from 17th at the end of the first lap to seventh - but Leclerc was still 20-odd seconds behind Piastri, which is half a second a lap, which is still a huge gap.

Norris defeated but hardly embarrassed

Jack Benyon

Lando Norris, McLaren, F1

I can see a few people giving Norris a load of stick for this result, but Piastri showed exactly how easy it is to lose this race on the first lap by doing exactly that against Verstappen 24 hours earlier!

Yes, Norris made some mistakes, but contrary to some races we've seen this year, this felt much more a sum of the circumstances than Norris having a stinker. The margins at Spa are just so fine and sometimes starting second is better than starting first.

We've seen that happen at Spa before.

I do think McLaren could have eased him back and double-stacked the pair in the pit stops to keep the margin less silly, over nine seconds initially up from two.

But I also don't think the hard tyre was very good and that was as much to blame for Norris's small offs in that final stint as he had to push a poorer tyre over the limit while Piastri could conserve a better one in clean air.

Of all the races to choose to criticise Norris for, this is very low down on my list.

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