Lazy Thoughts on the Belgian Grand Prix
"Rain, rain, go away... delay the race another day..."
Well, that was boring.
Spa‑Francorchamps lived up to its reputation, but not in the dramatic sense. Sunday’s race began with a rain delay that lasted about 1 hour and 20 minutes— enough time to catch up on some reading, run some errands, or watch this 80-minute video of nothing but Minecraft parkour if you so choose.
If anything, the reactions to the race delay on Twitter were more entertaining than the action itself. The two Red Bull team accounts played a digital game of Connect Four. 2016 Champion-turned-F1-correspondent Nico Rosberg shared anecdotes of his time racing alongside Lewis Hamilton, sharing a picture that caused the fandom side of F1 Twitter to implode. Even Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson distilled the day's momentum into 12 savage words: “Dear God in heaven. What is the race director at Spa doing?”
But alas, Lazy Thoughts is for streamlined, snarky recaps of F1 races— not for me to ramble about what I saw on social media today. So let’s refocus: Spa happened, it was wet, and Oscar Piastri walked away with a clean, commanding win.
Once the safety car peeled off the track four laps in, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri wasted no time in overtaking his teammate, pole sitter Lando Norris. From there, the race was Piastri’s to take. He managed his tires brilliantly, extending his lead as the circuit transitioned from damp to drying.
Let’s not forget that Norris clenched pole from Piastri by roughly a tenth of a second on Saturday. It was he who ultimately secured McLaren’s first Spa pole since 2012 and set the stage for Sunday’s drama (or lack thereof). Sure, he tried to fight back against his teammate to reclaim first place. But two lock-ups at two separate turns cost him momentum when it mattered most. Not to mention the pit strategy error: while Piastri jumped on mediums on lap 12, Norris stayed out too long, then swapped to hards.
The result? A 3.415-second gap by the time Piastri crossed the finish line. Piastri extended his championship lead to 16 points over Norris, quietly deepening McLaren’s internal shift in dominance. What began as a friendly rivalry is now tilting toward hierarchy. And whether or not McLaren admits it, the de facto number one seat is starting to take shape.
Rounding out Sunday’s podium is Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. He held onto P3 with a calm, calculated consistency. Starting from the same position, he made no major errors and executed a flawless one-stop strategy to stay ahead of a surging Max Verstappen in the final stint.
While he never looked likely to challenge the McLarens, Leclerc kept Verstappen at bay by around 1.5 seconds at the flag, defending with just enough pace to protect Ferrari’s best result since Austria. For a team that’s spent most of the season playing catch-up, it was a competent finish.
Speaking of Ferrari, I can’t end this without talking about the one other source of on-track action. Lewis Hamilton’s race started as one to forget— qualifying in P16 after a lap was deleted for exceeding track limits, then being forced to start from the pit lane when his team violated parc fermé regulations.
But in a weekend that looked scripted for humiliation, Hamilton reminded us how he’s a seven-time World Champion. He carved through the track with clinical precision, making overtake after overtake and managing the drying track better than many of his younger peers.
His early switch to softs when others hesitated was a masterstroke. While the front-runners played chess with strategy, Hamilton played poker with grip— and won. He finished P7 in what should be considered a well-deserved comeback (and a well-deserved Driver of the Day win).
I wish I had more to say about the main action. The past two Grands Prix delivered a lot of action— wheel-to-wheel scrapes, shocking retirements, and chaos throughout the races. But at Spa? Once the rain cleared and the safety car ducked out, the race fell into a rhythm that never really broke.
There were no DNFs. No dramatic crashes. No surprise strategies that turned the field upside down. Just clinical execution from Piastri, late but futile retaliation from Norris, and quiet competence from Leclerc. It was a race where everything unfolded exactly as it looked like it would after Lap 10.
Maybe it’s a palate cleanser for things to come.
Miscellaneous Notes
And now, the other thoughts I had that don’t fit into the main race recap:
Not a good day for Yuki fans. After qualifying in P7— his best qualifier since his Red Bull Racing promotion— Yuki Tsunoda’s momentum faded disastrously during the race. A late pit‑stop mix‑up rooted in miscommunication sent him out of the points, and over a minute behind Piastri. New team principal Laurent Mekies, for what it’s worth, took the rap and said, “We are sorry to [Yuki] for that. We have to do better next time.” Here’s to hoping things get better for Yuki for the rest of the second half.
Things are looking up for Alex Albon. The Williams driver quietly delivered a P6 finish at Spa—the team’s best since Imola. A solid result considering how inconsistent the midfield team has been this year.
About racing in the rain… Many on social media criticized the decision to delay the race until the rain cleared up, especially because tires made to race in the rain exist. Why aren’t the wet tires ever used? Well, I’m working on an article explaining just that. Expect it to come out soon.
That’s all for now. See you in Hungary— for real this time.
Flower