Oscar Piastri says he knew he had to be brave in wet conditions to catch up with Lando Norris in the wet and the Belgian Grand Prix.
Norris started from the post and led the field away on a wet track as part of a rolling start, with Piaastri from the second place just behind him. With Norris who struggled with Wheelspin from La -Source, Piastri remained close to Eau Rouge and Raidillon to pass the Kemmel straight and led the rest of the road to extend his championship to 16 points.
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“I knew it would help me considerably if I did [take the lead at the start]”Said Piastri.” I had a good run of turn 1 and then tried to be as brave as I could go through Eau Rouge and could stay pretty close. Then the slipstream did the rest for me. I knew that it would be pretty important for trying to win the race today.
“I had a good restart in general. I was close to the last chicane, had an OK run from the last chicane and then a good output 1. The movement by Eau Rouge, I knew it would be by far my best chance to win the race. I had thought about it for a while.
“It is clear that in those circumstances it is a bit harder than if it is dry. I knew I had to try to do that. When I looked at the board, it didn’t look as scary when it felt in the car. I knew that I had to be very dedicated to do that.”
Piastri was never put under serious pressure after that point, but Norris opted for another strategy that worried the racing man when his teammate was able to keep the hard tire compound strong.
“It was a tough race. Difficult circumstances in the beginning and then just try to manage the inters,” he said, “because it dry relatively quickly, but you can kill the inters in a round or two if you really want here. So that was a bit tricky.
“I felt good on the media for about five laps, and when I could see that the hard on Lando’s car was not worse than the medium, I was a bit nervous considering that we had almost 25 laps at that time to go at that moment. So I had to be a bit careful, but it eventually held much better than I feared. I had nothing special.
“We had talked about it before the race. It was a fairly late decision to put on the lap that we did, but there are risks anyway. If I was in Lando’s position, I would probably have done the same thing. At that time it seemed that it was safest to go on the medium, because the hard is two steps are more difficult.
“If there is a Safety Car, which is often there in those circumstances, then you probably want a medium, not difficult. There are both sides at risks, but in the end I am happy with what we did.”
Norris admitted that Piastri had earned the victory with his move in the beginning, and would not consider a few small mistakes that cost him about three seconds of racing time, despite the end of 3.4 s Driisy of his teammate.
“Oscar just did well,” said Norris. “Nothing to say anymore. A little more committed by Eau Rouge and had a slipstream and got the run. Nothing to complain about. He did better in the beginning and that was it. Nothing more that I could do after that point. I would like to be at the top, but Oscar deserved it today.
“It’s ‘Shoulda, Zoua, Coulda’, so I don’t go … Oscar deserved it. I am sure he made a few mistakes. So if he drove a perfect race … I couldn’t have won today. I will judge my things, but I am so happy for the team. A two-one-I think that our first one-two-year-old.
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