Five winners, five losers: Belgian Grand Prix

Written by Peter Johnson, Edited by Meghana Sree

Oscar Piastri claimed his sixth victory of the season in Belgium | Credit: Formula One

We were made to wait for the racing action in Spa, but who held their nerve when the drama began and who fluffed their lines?

Winner - Oscar Piastri

Piastri now leads Lando Norris in the Drivers’ Championship by 16 points | Credit: Formula One

The measure of success for Oscar Piastri at each Grand Prix weekend is a fairly simple equation - did he score more points than teammate and title rival Lando Norris?

The answer in Belgium was an emphatic yes. Despite being overtaken by Max Verstappen on the opening lap of the Sprint race, the Australian had his British counterpart covered throughout and extended his championship lead by an extra point. 

Come Sunday, Piastri was denied the opportunity to pass Norris in a standing start, but swiftly made amends by scything past him on the Kemmel Straight on the first racing lap.

From there, the championship leader controlled the pace until the switch to dry tyres, and despite being fitted with the less durable medium compound he was able to hold on to the end and put another seven points between himself and Norris.

The Briton, for his part, could have applied greater pressure in the closing stages but for an off at Pouhon and a lock-up at La Source that cost him over two seconds in total. 

Piastri, on the other hand, was faultless.

Winner - Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc had his mirrors full of Max Verstappen but kept the Dutchman at bay | Credit: Formula One

It was a very controlled race by Charles Leclerc to keep Max Verstappen behind for the whole afternoon, despite the Red Bull living in his wing mirrors. For all the World Champion stalked Leclerc, he was only afforded one opportunity at an overtake following a mistake by the Ferrari man at La Source and was subsequently kept at arm’s length for the rest of the race.

The Monégasque driver’s third place at Spa yielded his fourth podium in six races, a vital run of form for the Scuderia that is slowly but surely extending their advantage over Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship.

Winner - Gabriel Bortoleto

He may not have hit the lofty heights of Nico Hülkenberg at Silverstone, but Gabriel Bortoleto once again showed signs of real competitiveness in his Sauber to achieve his second career points finish in Belgium.

The young Brazilian has now scored points in the last two Grands Prix in which he has seen the chequered flag, and by reaching SQ3 on Friday and Q3 on Saturday, he continues to demonstrate a decent turn of pace over one lap.

Not only that, but on Sunday his vastly more experienced teammate was even asked to move over and let him through.

Bortoleto largely slid under the radar for the first ten races of the season as he got his feet under the table at his new team, but there are signs that he is starting to flourish.

Winner - Pierre Gasly

Alpine continue to fight one-handed in the Constructors’ Championship, with Franco Colapinto still looking rather toothless in the second car. However, with Pierre Gasly at the wheel, the Enstone outfit more often than not is in a position to fight for points.

At Spa, the Frenchman, with a gaggle of theoretically superior cars breathing down his neck, crossed the line in tenth place to pick up another point. In doing so, he has also now scored in back-to-back races for the first time this season.

While it does little for his team’s championship prospects, he again demonstrated that he is one of most capable and under-resourced drivers on the grid.

Winner - Liam Lawson

Liam Lawson achieved his third points finish of the season at Spa | Credit: Red Bull Content Pool

Like Bortoleto, Liam Lawson finally seems to be establishing himself this season and is hitting something of a purple patch.

Unlike Bortoleto, though, his tribulations in the opening stages of the season were far more widely publicised and his strength of character to bounce back in recent races is something of a marvel.

With three points finishes in the last six races, Lawson is steadily climbing the standings and is becoming an increasingly valuable asset to Racing Bulls in the race for sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.

Loser - Lando Norris

Lando Norris could not hold onto his lead at the start of the race | Credit: Formula One

It was a reasonably solid weekend on paper for Lando Norris: third place in the Sprint race and a comfortable second place on Sunday meant another hefty chunk of points added to his total.

However, the manner in which he failed to close down on Piastri for the win on Sunday told a story of the pair’s respective seasons. While Norris is arguably the faster of the two, as demonstrated by his pole position on Saturday, his racecraft still appears to lack in comparison to his teammate.

Piastri breezed past Norris on the first racing lap, even if Norris did have issues with his battery following the Safety Car restart. No matter, though, because while Piastri had to complete 29 laps on the medium tyre, Norris could lean on his hard tyres a little more to close his nine-second deficit.

While the Australian relentlessly delivered tidy lap after tidy lap, nursing his tyres to the chequered flag, Norris made two fairly innocuous mistakes which added up to cost him a chance at a last-lap overtake. A wide at Pouhon followed by a lock-up at La Source cost him a couple of seconds, or more than half of the three-and-a-half seconds that Piastri ultimately beat him by.

It has been the story of 2025, and the Belgian Grand Prix was further evidence - Norris may be the faster of the pair, but Piastri’s racecraft continues to be superior.

Loser - Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton was disappointed with his weekend despite climbing 11 places on race day | Credit: Formula One

Lewis Hamilton was the star of the wet conditions on Sunday in Spa, climbing to seventh from the back of the field due to some excellent overtaking and a bold strategy call. The first man onto dry compound tyres, the seven-time World Champion showed a real turn of pace until he stalled behind the Williams of Alex Albon, where he would remain until the chequered flag.

Making up 11 places in the opening 20 laps, Hamilton was the deserved Driver of the Day for his efforts. However, it remains the case that Hamilton does not turn up to Grand Prix weekends to finish in seventh. Eliminations in both SQ1 and Q1 were hugely surprising and put him on the back foot for both races. Indeed, the man himself described his time in Belgium as a “weekend to forget.”

Just one race after his streak of consecutive podium finishes at Silverstone ended last time out, this weekend Hamilton recorded his lowest-ever finish at Spa (excluding DNFs). While it is unlikely he will be remotely bothered by this, it does point to a wider picture of him still not being able to get to grips with his Ferrari machinery, however many documents he writes for his engineers.

It became clear from his media comments this week that Hamilton has absolutely immersed himself in the development of Ferrari’s 2026 challenger, so perhaps we will not truly see the best of him in red until then.

Loser - Carlos Sainz

Carlos Sainz has had a frustrating start to life at Williams and his experience in Belgium did nothing to alleviate that.

Sixth place in the Sprint hinted at good things to come, but on race day, the Spaniard was one of the big losers during the flurry of pit stops as the track dried out.

One of 11 drivers to stop on Lap 12, Sainz was held in his pit box to avoid an unsafe release and plummeted from 14th to 19th as a result. From there, he was unable to make any significant inroads, crossing the line in 18th.

It was far from a disaster of a weekend, but given his performance in the Sprint, Sainz will leave Belgium feeling slightly underwhelmed.

Loser - Yuki Tsunoda

In similar fashion to Sainz, it was a case of what could have been for Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese driver achieved his best Qualifying to date for Red Bull, but was unable to translate his seventh-placed start into a chunk of points.

Tsunoda was one of the last drivers to change onto dry tyres and lost a handful of positions which he was unable to reclaim. He eventually finished in 13th, the last driver in the train headed by Gasly. 

Perhaps the arrival of Laurent Mekies at Red Bull will mark a new dawn for Red Bull’s second driver, but for now it was a missed opportunity for Tsunoda to snatch a chunk of points.

Loser - Aston Martin

Aston Martin suffered their first pointless weekend since the Monaco Grand Prix five races ago, but did not lose any significant ground to their rivals in the Constructors’ Championship.

It may just be a one-off disappointing weekend for the Silverstone outfit, who have turned a corner in recent months, but with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso battling over 19th place in the early stages and only recovering to 14th and 17th respectively, it was not the team’s finest showing.