Piastri sealed his win with a trademark dedicated, decisive transfer on Norris when the situations have been at their most treacherous when the race lastly began.
The unique begin was deserted due to heavy rain and poor visibility after the formation lap behind the security automotive.
The drivers then sat within the pit lane for an hour and 20 minutes, adopted by 4 laps behind the security automotive earlier than the race was lastly allowed to start out 90 minutes later than scheduled.
Piastri tracked Norris carefully via the primary nook and thru the high-speed swerves at Eau Rouge earlier than diving across the exterior into the Les Combes chicane on the finish of the lengthy Kemmel straight.
Norris complained over the radio that he was down on battery energy, however was informed he had used it up in the beginning behind the security automotive.
And after the race he stated that Piastri had merely performed a greater first lap by pushing more durable via Eau Rouge, the place within the moist drivers have to decide on how a lot to raise off, when it’s flat within the dry.
“Oscar did a very good job, nothing extra to say,” Norris stated. “Dedicated a bit extra via Eau Rouge and had the slipstream and acquired the run and that was it. Like to be up prime however Oscar deserved it at this time.”
Piastri stated: “I knew that lap one was going to be most likely my finest likelihood of successful the race.
“I acquired a very good exit out of Flip One after which lifted as little as I dared via Eau Rouge and it labored out fairly nicely. We had it principally underneath management after that.
“I used to be a bit upset it was a rolling begin as a result of I assumed that will take away some alternative however once I was that shut I knew I used to be going to raise a bit of bit lower than Lando did. A bit vigorous over the hill however then the slipstream helped me out.”
As soon as in entrance, Piastri inched away within the lead till he was just below two seconds in entrance when he selected to cease for slick tyres on lap 12, his place in entrance giving him precedence on cease timing and forcing Norris right into a tough place.
Piastri fitted the medium tyres whereas Norris needed to do an additional lap on a drying observe on extremely worn intermediate tyres.
His engineer requested him if he would love exhausting tyres and attempt to run to the top, a choice Norris agreed with, and he rejoined 9.1 seconds again from Piastri after his cease.
By round lap 20, Piastri informed his engineer that he thought it could be “robust” to get his intermediates to the top however for a very long time he held the lead at about eight seconds, and it slowly grew to become obvious he had determined to not cease once more.
Within the closing few laps, Norris started to make important inroads into Piastri’s lead, and was inside 4 seconds of the chief with three laps to go.
Norris, who stated he drove your complete stint as if he was on qualifying laps, value himself about 4 seconds in his chase, with three errors – operating broad on the quick Pouhon left-hander at one level, and a few lock-ups at La Supply. He additionally had a slower pit cease than Piastri when the mechanics struggled to suit his left-front wheel.
However Piastri managed the hole expertly to win by 3.4 seconds.
Behind the leaders, the drivers have been caught of their positions after the pit stops, even when there was some pressure for Leclerc as Verstappen pushed him exhausting within the closing laps.
A lot of the thrill within the race was supplied by Hamilton. The seven-time champion began from the pit lane after Ferrari determined to vary his set-up after his error in exceeding observe limits in qualifying left him down in sixteenth on the grid.
And Hamilton justified the choice with a collection of wonderful, improvisational overtaking strikes to rise to thirteenth place earlier than changing into the primary driver to cease for slicks on lap 11, one earlier than Piastri.
That received him a piece extra locations, and Hamilton was promoted to seventh by the pit-stop interval, which he held to the top of the race.
He closed to inside a second of Albon on the ultimate lap however was unable to cross.
