Okay, so let's talk Spa. With the formation lap taking place, many of the drivers
had issues with visibility due to the rainfall, which was especially a problem
for the drivers at the back of the grid, leading to a red flag causing a delayed
race start. What was meant to be a race starting at 15:00 CET instead started at
16:20 CET.
The race started with drivers remaining behind the safety car until a
rolling or standing start would be announced, which by Lap 4 was announced by
Race Control that this would be a rolling start. By Lap 5, the race was fully
underway, with Norris gaining an advantage at first, but with many cars wobbling
and his becoming one of them, he was soon overtaken by Piastri on the Kemmel
Straight.
It was reported around Lap 6 that slipstream was still an issue, and
both McLarens started to struggle with their batteries. Russell, in the wet
conditions, managed to overtake Albon, pushing himself up to P5. During Lap 9, with
the track starting to dry up a bit, it was time for the drivers to start
considering how much longer their intermediate tyres would last and when the
track would be dry enough for them to pit for slicks.
By Lap 12, Hamilton, Gasly,
Alonso and Hulkenberg had their first pit stop, putting on medium tyres. Piastri
decided to pit from the lead, while Norris returned to the lead. Plenty of the
drivers from the top 10 also chose to pit for mediums. McLaren decided not to
double stack their cars, whereas Mercedes did, which led to some chaos and a
mechanic falling over.
During Lap 14, Norris pitted from the lead, having hard
tyres fitted, putting him on a potential one-stop and Piastri on a potential
two-stop strategy. With Norris coming out from the pits, the gap between him and
Piastri was much higher, approximately 8.5 seconds, but by Lap 17, this gap had
increased to 9.1 seconds between the two McLarens. As Spa was a race weekend,
drivers were made aware that they could only last 15 laps on medium tyres if
flat-out pushing, leaving Piastri having to decide if it's better to push or to
pace himself. By Lap 24, the gap between Piastri and Norris starts to close a
bit, 8.3s, so if Piastri is looking to pit, he needs to create a big enough gap.
Even though the McLarens are in the lead, they have surely made the race a tad
interesting by splitting strategies.
Towards Lap 24, Norris sets a new fastest
lap, closing down the gap between him and Piastri even more, now at 8.1s;
however, by Lap 28, this gap increased again to 9.2s. Instead of choosing to pit
like most drivers on mediums did between Laps 30-32, Piastri has chosen to stay
out, but would his tyres last the additional 10 laps to the end? At Lap 35,
Norris is told by his race engineer that his tyres are "getting tricky" but that
he was "naturally quicker".
However also during that lap, he also had a small lock-up
in the first corner, losing eight tenths of a second to Piastri. By Lap 37, the
gap between the two McLarens falls just under seven seconds, but with 7 laps
left, would Norris be able to get ahead of Piastri and finish the race where he
started? With 4 laps to go, the gap drops again, this time to 4.4s and keeps
getting smaller as the cars race to the end. Another lock-up from Norris at Lap
43 into La Source, the gap goes from 3.1s to 4.3s, and as they go onto the final
lap with Piastri setting two personal best laps, we see him go on to the end and
take the chequered flag.
What was an 8-point lead from Piastri turned into
a 16-point advantage!
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