The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps made its Grand Prix debut 100 years ago. It took more than six and a half hours to race all 54 laps around the 15km circuit. Antonio Ascari, the father of two-time F1 champion Alberto, won the race as one of only two drivers who completed the race distance. The circuit has come a long way since then, but has been a staple on the F1 calendar for 40 years.
After an hour and twenty-minute delay for rain, the circuit dried and visibility improved enough to start the race. Lando Norris led the field to the rolling start after a few laps behind the safety car. His lead was short-lived, as Oscar Piastri cruised past on the Kemmel Straight, appearing to have confidence in the damp conditions.
Another driver who also appeared to enjoy the conditions was Lewis Hamilton, who started the race down in P18 after having his lap time deleted during qualifying. He was the driver to watch in the opening laps, slicing his way through the field. With cars racing around the circuit, the racing surface dried quickly. Hamilton was the first driver to exchange his intermediate tyres for a set of slicks on lap 12. This would help the Brit jump to P7 at the end of the pit cycle.
The rest of the field followed suit, diving into the pit lane for medium tyres. All except Norris. With his teammate getting first dibs on the pit stop, Norris’ side of the pit wall decided to take a gamble on the hard tyres, hoping to get to the end of the race. A slightly slow stop caused by issues fitting the front-left tyre put Norris roughly eight seconds behind his teammate when he rejoined the race.
Piastri’s lead hovered around eight seconds for the majority of the race. McLaren decided to take the gamble on their lead car as well, opting to try and run the medium tyres to the end of the race. Piastri was able to maintain the pace for most of the race, but his tyres began to drop off with roughly ten laps remaining.
As the laps ticked down, Norris began to eat away at his teammate’s lead. He got as close as three seconds to the lead, but struggled to get the car turned in the first corner on the penultimate lap. This mistake stopped any possibility of a last lap battle for the lead and he would have to settle for second place in the race.
Oscar Piastri crossed the line in the lead, increasing his championship lead over his teammate. Charles Leclerc stood alongside the two McLaren drivers on the podium, managing to keep Max Verstappen behind for the entire race.
Next on the schedule is the Hungarian Grand Prix, set to take place on August 3. That will be the final race before Formula One’s summer break.
| Pos. | Driver | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 | ||
| 2 | 18 | ||
| 3 | 15 | ||
| 4 | 12 | ||
| 5 | 10 | ||
| 6 | 8 | ||
| 7 | 6 | ||
| 8 | 4 | ||
| 9 | 2 | ||
| 10 | 1 | ||
| 11 | |||
| 12 | |||
| 13 | |||
| 14 | |||
| 15 | |||
| 16 |  | ||
| 17 | |||
| 18 | |||
| 19 | |||
| 20 |
| 1 | O. Piastri | 266 |  | |
| 2 | L. Norris | 250 | -16 | |
| 3 | M. Verstappen | 185 | -81 | |
| 4 | G. Russell | 157 | -109 | |
| 5 | C. Leclerc | 139 | -127 | |
| 1 | McLaren | 516 | | |
| 2 | Ferrari | 248 | -268 | |
| 3 | Mercedes | 220 | -296 | |
| 4 | Red Bull | 192 | -324 | |
| 5 | Williams | 70 | -446 | |
