Expert explains: Lando Norris ‘tricked’ by Oscar Piastri, cost him F1 Belgian GP

Oscar Piastri’s victory in the Belgian Grand Prix was down to a “dummy move” he used to outfox Lando Norris, according to Sky F1 analyst Anthony Davidson.

Piastri clinched his sixth victory of the 2025 F1 season in a rain-delayed race at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday to extend his advantage to 16 points at the top of the championship standings.

Norris had claimed pole position in a tightly-fought qualifying shootout on Saturday, but it was Piastri who emerged ahead when it mattered the most after he pulled off a brave move at Les Comes at the start of Sunday's race.

As the safety car pulled into the pits for the rolling start, Norris went on the throttle too early before braking for the Bus Stop chicane, allowing Piastri to close right in on him.

However, former F1 driver Davidson believes it was La Source which played the decisive role in their battle for victory.

With the help of the Sky Pad, Davidson explained that Piastri deliberately moved to the right under braking for the first corner to force Norris to cover him on the inside.

This, he said, compromised Norris’ line, while Piastri got a better exit coming out of the corner.

Piastri was also able to carry more speed through Eau Rouge, and with the added benefit of slipstream, he breezed past the Briton on the run down to the chicane.

“This is where, as a driver, you have to have your wits about you,” he explained. “You are trying to feel the track. You haven’t been in these conditions all weekend. You are living by your senses.

"It’s natural driving, coming into it.

“Piastri, on the attack, trying to upset the rival into the first corner, goes to the inside.

“Lando is looking into the mirror at where his teammate is. He can see Piastri on the inside.

“This is what Piastri wants Lando to do - to turn in early.

“As Lando turns in early, on a slightly compromised line, Piastri turns left and crosses the line as Lando moves in. In doing so, he gives himself a much better exit.

“Lando has a massive oversteer from his compromised line which he was, in a way, tricked into by Piastri’s dummy move to the inside.

“Piastri set himself up nice and clean on the exit.

“Now the next phase comes in: bravery. You’ve never been into this corner at these speeds on these tyres. It is a gamble - how fast do you go?

“Oscar goes ‘however fast you’re going, I will go quicker’. He had an advantage in the slipstream. He has momentum not just from Turn 1, but through Eau Rouge, from the extra bravery and because he’s got someone in front to judge the speed. It is harder when you are the car in front.

“But at Turn 1? I feel that Lando was tricked into it. It wasn’t Oscar’s intention to turn down the inside, he planned it very well, brilliant stuff. In a way, it gave him a huge part of the race victory.”

Pitstop problem spotted for Lando Norris

Not only the lap-one pass gave Piastri track position, it also meant he got preferential treatment during the pitstops when the track became dry enough for slicks.

So while Piastri was able to pit at the first opportunity, along with most of the field, Norris had to go a lap longer on his old worn-out intermediate tyres.

“It is advantage Piastri, as the car in front, he gets to pit first,” explained Davidson. “It’s a normal pitstop by McLaren’s standards.

“Lando was a lap later to pit. His intermediate tyres are completely destroyed, he’s wishing he could have pitted when his teammate did.

“It was slow [to change the left-front tyre at the pitstop]. It doesn’t go on at the right angle. Another second-and-a-bit wasted.

“A lap of going slower than your teammate on slick tyres on a drying circuit, then that happens, it’s seconds lost. By the time he comes out, he’s seven seconds away. He was originally just behind him.”

McLaren split the strategy for its two cars in the pits, with Piastri being given a set of medium tyres and Norris’ car being fitted with fresh hard tyres.

But while Norris did have a tyre advantage towards the end of the race, he couldn’t hunt down the championship leader, eventually finishing more than three seconds behind at the chequered flag.

“For Lando the decision to go onto hard tyres was brilliant,” he said. “But because he was fighting so hard he starts to make mistakes in his quest to drive flat-out like a quali lap.

Into Turn 1, it cost him big time. It was five tenths to a second, at Turn 1. I excuse those mistakes at the end because he was up against it.”