McLaren Go One-Two In Rain Delayed Belgian Grand Prix

It was a one-two finish for McLaren in the Belgian Grand Prix, with Oscar Piastri first past the chequered flag, which incidentally was waved by eight-time Grand Prix winner Jacky Ickx, and Lando Norris second. The Australian now also has eight wins to his name and thus joins a group consisting of the aforementioned Belgian, fellow countryman Daniel Ricciardo, his team-mate Norris, Charles Leclerc and New-Zealander Denny Hulme. This was McLaren’s fifteenth win in Belgium, the last one dating back to 2012, courtesy of Jenson Button. It was the Woking squad’s 55th one-two finish, the sixth in this race, the last one secured by David Coulthard ahead of Mika Hakkinen in 1999.

Charles Leclerc made it to the third step of the podium for the third consecutive time at this race. This was also the venue for the Ferrari driver’s maiden win back in 2019.

Because of the poor visibility due to the rain, after a formation lap, the start procedure was red flagged. The race restarted after over an hour’s delay, behind the Safety Car. All drivers, including the four starting from pit lane were on Intermediates.

After four laps behind the Safety Car, the race began properly on a track that was drying. The first driver to pit to switch to slicks was Lewis Hamilton on lap 11 and within two laps all the drivers did the same. Lando Norris was the only one to opt for Hards, with all the others going with Mediums.

Six drivers, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Fernando Alonso, Franco Colapinto, Isack Hadjar, Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz later made a second stop. The Racing Bulls and Williams drivers went with Hards, while the others opted for Mediums.

Oscar Piastri – P1

“It’s a great feeling to win one of my favourite races. I knew Lap One was probably my best chance of winning, so I committed and managed to make it work, which I am proud of. We then managed the rest of the race really well. I struggled a bit towards the end of the Medium, but I felt we had it under control. Thank you to the team for giving us a great car this weekend. I’m excited for Hungary.”

Lando Norris – P2

“A good result for the team and another one-two, our first here this century so it’s nice to bring that back to the team. There are plenty of positives I can take from my race, and I’ll review everything with my engineers before we head to Hungary. Overall, a well-deserved result for everyone involved and a solid performance for the whole team all weekend.”

Charles Leclerc – P3

“I’m pleased with the steps forward we are making and I think we should all be proud because I know how much work went into our upgrades from the whole team back home in Maranello. It definitely helped us to get the podium and to keep Max behind today, which was not easy because he was very close until the very end of the race. Once we were on slicks, I knew I just had to keep my head down and push for P3 to be ours, and it is, so I’m very happy we brought it home. Our upgrades brought what we expected and we need to keep learning how to maximise their potential. We will keep pushing and I hope we can put some more pressure on our competitors soon.”

Mario Isola – Pirelli Director of Motorsport

“We knew the rain would play its part today and indeed it did. Once again, poor visibility was the main problem the drivers had to deal with and that led to a delayed start, until the conditions improved. The track was drying quickly when the race got underway and the laps behind the Safety Car also helped in this. When the race was properly underway the Intermediates worked as expected, but obviously they degraded quickly, so that after just a handful of laps it was time to switch to slicks. There was a surprise at this point as we expected the Medium to be the unanimous choice but McLaren split their choices. It has to be said that the C1 worked very well and while being slower than the C3 it was more consistent in terms of degradation, despite the relatively low temperatures.

“The drivers at the front of the field all tried to get to the end with just the single stop. Therefore, for them, managing degradation on the Medium was very important, with the aim of limiting it as much as possible, which they managed to do. Those who then tried to push in the closing stages to make up positions felt an immediate drop in performance which halted their ambitions in this respect. Those who made a second stop towards the end were quicker but not enough to improve their position, because once again today, it was clear that overtaking at this track is not as easy as one might think. We brought an unusual trio of compounds here, with a step between the Hard and the Medium, aiming to provide more strategic options. Clearly, the rain prevented us from fully putting that choice to the test, but we gathered some useful insights to help guide our compound selections for the rest of the season.”

FORMULA 2

It was a very eventful Feature Race both on and off the track. It rained for the race, with the field starting behind the Safety Car, before being stopped two laps early following an incident involving Sebastian Montoya at Eau Rouge.

Irishman Alexander Dunne (Rodin Motorsport) was first past the chequered flag, followed home by Englishman Arvid Lindblad (Campos Racing) and the Czech Roman Stanek (Invicta Racing). However, after the race, Lindblad was disqualified, while Dunne dropped out of the points, as he was handed a 10 second penalty. The win therefore went to Stanek, with the other podium places now going to Ritomo Miyata (ART Grand Prix) and Luke Browning (Hitech TGR).

This has led to a change in the Drivers’ standings. Jumping into the lead after Spa is Leonardo Fornaroli (Invicta Racing) on 125 points, three ahead of Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport) and nine more than Jak Crawford (DAMS Lucas Oil).

FORMULA 3

The Feature Race could not be run because of the rain. There were two attempts to start it, but the conditions made it impossible to race, so the race was cancelled and no points allocated. Therefore Rafael Camara (Trident) still leads the championship on 126 points, ahead of Nikola Tsolov (Campos Racing) on 98 and Tim Tramnitz (MP Motorsport) on 93.