The Formula 1 edit

After three weekends off of racing, it’s time for a much needed Spa day!

q1

Before the drivers can even think about setting lap times, there’s some action in the pit lane! Fernando Alonso is driving in lane when a Haas car drives out in front of him, almost causing a collision. Not even a couple seconds later, the second Aston Martin is slowly making his way to the track when Nico Hulkenberg bumps into him, causing unnecessary damage to his front wing! The mechanics quickly replace it and we’re back to what we’re all here for, the qualifying round of the Belgian GP!

Lando Norris, fresh off his hometown win in Silverstone, sets the fastest lap time at 1:30:010. His teammate and the leader for the world championship trails behind in P2.

We pick up with a minute and three seconds left in the first sector of qualifying. Both Mercedes boys find themselves in the drop zone. George Russell in 17th and Kimi Antonelli in 19th. The Italian teenager is the first to complete his lap and crosses the line with a much faster time, sending him to P11. His teammate is next. The Briton has the fastest first sector of any driver thus far and completes his lap with a time that sends him to 8th place.

Next to come down the track are the Aston Martin drivers, currently P17 and P18. Lance Stroll passes the line before his fellow driver but doesn’t improve beyond 18th. Maybe there is still hope for his teammate though! The oldest rookie on the grid passes the white line, but hopes of making it into Q2 are gone with the wind. He only improves 1 position, which takes him to P16.

Two 2025 rookies, Gabriel Bortoleto and Oliver Bearman, are next to cross the white line. The Brazilian Sauber driver is in the belly of the beast, P20, but with a fast lap time he could catapult out of last place and make his way into Q2. He crosses the line and does just that! He completes his lap and jumps up 10 grid places to P10. Ollie comes flying across the track. Already P9, all the Briton needs to be worried about is staying where he is! He stays out of the drop zone, but not only that, he also improves to 5th! Bearman’s teammate, Esteban Ocon, is in 18th and about to complete his lap! He jumps out of the drop zone and makes P13, sending his former Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly into the bottom five. As Esteban was completing his lap, Nico Hulkenberg, our own little podium finisher, crosses the line and made it out of 16th place, which sent Kimi Antonelli back to 16th to replace the German driver.

Pierre Gasly, after getting sent to the bottom five by Esteban, finishes his lap and improves to 11th, which sends the 7-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton to the drop zone, something you don’t see very often! So now all eyes turn to Lewis to see what he can make of this new-found P16, he completes his last lap and improves to P7. Next to come down the straightaway is the current pole sitter. Lando finishes his lap and isn’t able to improve, but he’s already on pole so it’s okay!

Franco Colapinto, the Argentine Alpine rookie, finds himself in P20. He only improves to P17, still in the drop zone.

Before the drivers can start to wind down from Q1, the news is issued that Lewis’s time that got him out of the bottom five was deleted for exceeding track limits, so the hope of a follow up win at Spa for the Ferrari driver was quickly crushed. He replaces Gabriel Bortoleto in the drivers eliminated.

The drivers eliminated in Q1 are Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), Franco Colapinto (Alpine), Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), and Lance Stroll (Aston Martin).

Onto Q2!

q2

With 10 seconds left on the clock for Q2, the tables have turned! Oscar currently has the fastest lap and Lando is behind him.

Pierre Gasly finds himself in 13th place. He crosses the line and improves to P9, sending Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson to P11. Liam’s teammate is next to complete his lap. He finishes his last lap of Q2 and improves to P6!

Here come the Sauber drivers. Nico Hulkenberg in 12th and Gabriel Bortoleto in 13th. Nico is the first to complete his lap out of the pair and he improves one position but not beyond the bottom five. Unlike his teammate, there is still hope for Gabbi! He crosses the line and makes it to 7th!

George Russell improves to 6th, Carlos Sainz stays in P14, and Liam Lawson is able to turn his P13 into 8th! Esteban Ocon was pushed to P12, but is yet to complete his lap. He can only make P11. His rookie teammate, Ollie Bearman, sees the white line but he can only turn his last place grid spot to a P12, right behind his teammate.

The drivers eliminated in Q2 are Esteban Ocon (Haas), Oliver Bearman (Haas), Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber), and Carlos Sainz (Williams).

One last chance for the final 10 to prove themselves!

q3

As the drivers begin to set their first lap of the final sector of qualifying, George Russell completes his first and takes pole position. George’s known frenemy, Max Verstappen quickly takes his rival’s place at the front of the field. Max’s possible replacement for the title of world champion this year, Oscar Piastri, comes blazing through the track. His fellow driver in Papaya, Lando Norris, is also setting his lap time. Oscar is quite quick but Lando is quicker! Piastri is the first of the pair to cross the line and he jumps up to pole position. Here comes Lando! He finishes his lap quicker than the man who took the lead for the WDC away from him! Lando Norris takes provisional pole!

Now with less than a minute left of Qualifying in Belgium, Lando still leads the pack! Verstappen is hot on Lando’s tail and looking to follow up his Sprint race win with pole position! He heads through the final Chicane with perfect precision but only manages third place. Next to cross the line is the race lead, he finishes but isn’t able to shorten his already quick lap! Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc follows behind and improves to third, knocking Max back to 4th. Here comes Piastri! He misses out by 8 hundredths of a second, Piastri to second. George Russell makes 5th just for Alexander Albon to take it right away! George is knocked down to 6th!

Lando Norris takes provisional pole for the Belgian Grand Prix! What a fantastic drive!

the grid

Here is your grid for the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix. P.S: the driver lineup was slightly switched at the back due to certain drivers starting in the pit lane.

1. Lando Norris (McLaren)
2. Oscar Piastri (Mclaren)
3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
5. Alex Albon (Williams)
6. George Russell (Mercedes)
7. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)
8. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
9. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
10. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
11. Esteban Ocon (Haas)
12. Oliver Bearman (Haas)
13. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
14. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
15. Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
16. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
17. Carlos Sainz (Williams) (Pit Lane Start)
18. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) (Pit Lane Start)
19. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) (Pit Lane Start)
20. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) (Pit Lane Start)

the race

With heavy rain, racing is made quite difficult. After an hour race delay, the Belgian Grand Prix is now underway, just with a safety car leading the drivers instead of Lando Norris! The Safety Car leads the 20 racers for the first four laps of the Grand Prix. Multiple drivers complain that they want to start racing at full speed, because under the guise of the Safety Car, it’s illegal to overtake! The man in second place, Oscar Piastri, tells his race engineer that he hopes for a standing start instead of a rolling start, but his wish isn’t granted. The Safety car leaves the track and Lando now has control over the speed of the race for a short period of time. After racing over the white line, the drivers start racing at full speed!

Not even one turn into the race, Oscar Piastri is already looking to pass his teammate for first! Lando slides just a little bit which allows Oscar to get impossibly closer! Oscar goes around the inside and takes the lead from Lando! Oscar to first!

1 lap later, George Russell is on the hunt! He easily passes Alex Albon for 5th.

In lap 8, Lewis Hamilton, who unfortunately started the race from 18th and the pit lane, has already improved to 17th! Now tracking down Carlos Sainz for 16th, the Knighted Briton is absolutely flying! He moves to pass the Smooth Operator for 16th position but is late on the brakes. He quickly moves around the outside and takes the place away from the man he replaced at Ferrari! Later in the same lap, Lewis is already planning his next attack! His unfortunate victim, Franco Colapinto. Lewis passes him nice and easy. In the next lap, he’s at it again! He passes Nico Hulkenberg for 14th place! Onto the next Alpine! He passes Pierre Gasly for 13th!

In lap 13, Piastri pits for new tires. Lando takes the lead! Lando pits on the same lap. Instead of the fan favorite Medium tire for the track conditions, Lando has hard tires put on, which can take him to the end of the race! While pitting, Lando’s front left tire does not want to be attached to the Papaya colored car! The pit stop costs Lando the lead, Piastri back to first!

4 laps later, Oliver Bearman, 14th, comes up behind Fernando Alonso and easily passes him for 13th. As he does so, Bearman’s fellow rookie Kimi Antonelli simultaneously passes Isack Hadjar for 16th. So many rookie passes!

In lap 21, Oscar’s race engineer lets him know that they can stay on the Medium tire for the rest of the race, but it’s Oscar’s decision if he wants to pit or not. Oscar responds that the tires are starting to feel not that great and that it will be hard to take them to the end, but with such a small margin to second place, Oscar can’t risk pitting and giving up the race lead.

5 laps later, our current second place, Lando Norris, speeds through the turns of Spa. In one particular turn, he goes way too wide and drives off the track. He quickly regained control of the car and rejoined the race, but not without losing a second of lap time.

Now in lap 33, Oscar still hasn’t pitted, which is very clear due to the wear on his tires. Lewis Hamilton quickly approaches Alex Albon like a lion hunting it’s prey. Alex is especially good prey as well. He has reported numerous times to his race engineer that his tires are done, so it’s only a matter of time before one of two things will happen. Either he will pit or Lewis will pass him and leave the Williams car in his dirty air.

2 laps later, Oscar is told by his race engineer that they can see the degrading of his tires, but they believe it to be best to stick it out until the end of the Grand Prix.

In lap 36, Kimi Antonelli is fast approaching Esteban Ocon and is ready to overtake him. He goes around the outside and does so, only for Esteban to go around the inside of Kimi and retake 15th position!

Throughout the next few laps, Lando holds a strong pace, but so is Oscar. Lando has the strongest tires out of the Mclaren duo, so if he can get close enough, there may be a potential Lando first place in Spa!

With one lap left to go of the race, Oscar still holds onto the lead with a margin of a little over 3 seconds. Lando goes wide. He recovers, but the time margin damage has already been done, adding another second to the gap to first.

The Man from Melbourne sees the checkered flag first! Oscar Piastri wins the Belgian Grand Prix! This marks Oscar’s sixth win this season! What an outstanding drive from the leader of the WDC, who’s margin to second place was just expanded to 16 points!

results

Here are the top 10 for the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix!

1. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
2. Lando Norris (McLaren)
3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
5. George Russell (Mercedes)
6. Alex Albon (Williams)
7. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
8. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
9. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
10. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)