It’s back to the future for Lando Norris. A return to the psychologist’s couch. And those championship-denting facts became clear out of the spray at 170mph when he lost the Belgian Grand Prix to Oscar Piastri.
Just when you detect a smidgeon of a stiffening to his approach, as with his emphatic win in Austria last month, another reminder comes around the corner that McLaren have a Jackal in their team and that man exploding watermelons is Piastri, not the Briton.
In a race delayed for 1hr 20min, for which the dangerous Spa-Francorchamps track was as culpable as cautious FIA officials, Norris’s chance of victory lasted a handful of corners and half the Kemmel Straight.
The safety car, under which the race finally started, withdrew. Norris, leading after taking pole, made a mistake at La Source, the opening corner. His wheelspin was seized on by Piastri, lying second, and he was all over his quarry as they steeplejacked the famous Eau Rouge corner and then into Raidillon.
On to the straight, a fantail of water sprung from Norris’s car into Piastri’s face. But the Australian, seemingly unhampered by this potential disadvantage, pulled out left and made the pass stick.
It was an exhibition of supreme guts. ‘Lively,’ smiled Piastri afterwards.
Lando Norris started the Belgian Grand Prix on pole but came second to Oscar Piastri
When it had appeared that Norris was, stiffening to approach, another reminder came that Piastri is the Jackal in the McLaren team
Norris made a mistake at the opening corner – his wheelspin seized on by championship leader Piastr,
‘He committed a bit more than me at Eau Rouge,’ admitted Norris, the doomed runner-up. ‘There was nothing I could do beyond that point.’
The outcome was settled there and then, Piastri extending his championship lead to 16 points. Norris talked over the radio of a battery recharging problem. Perhaps, but it sounded too easy an excuse, a possible fact beside the point.
At the deciding moment, he had blinked. Piastri had shown pluck in excelsis, and the disparity was all too predictable.
On Thursday, in Norris’s press dealings, you did not need to be Freud to read a vulnerability in him. That was not evident when he was in charge in Austria. His mind was laser focused then.
This time he eschewed the value of ‘momentum’, as if running scared of it, or at least pushing it out of his mind. Well, momentum is a useful friend as Max Verstappen discovered when he won 22 of 23 races three years ago. It adds up to points at the very least.
Piastri’s heist gave him the right to go from intermediate tyres to slicks before Norris. Needing to try something different, Norris, alone of all the field opted for hard tyres. Piastri and the rest were on mediums.
The cunning plan was that Norris could go to the end and that Piastri would need to stop. Baldrick might have dreamt it up for all it came to pass. Neither stopped again.
The difference between tyre compounds is among the most overrated, over-analysed, wrongly read hokum in Formula One.
Piastri has shown pluck in excelsis, and the disparity between the two was all too predictable
There is vulnerability in Norris – but that was not evident when he was in charge in Austria
Nobody knows for certain what tyre will be fastest or last longest. Most expert predictions as useful as a manifesto pledge.
Anyway, Norris now has to pick himself up for Budapest next Sunday, the last stanza before the summer break. As it stands, it hard to resist the belief Piastri will claim his maiden title. His record of six wins to Norris’ four buttresses this expectation.
For the record, Charles Leclerc finished third for Ferrari, a place ahead of Max Verstappen, Red Bull’s winner of the sprint race on Saturday.
Elsewhere, a day of restoration for Lewis Hamilton. The rest of his weekend was dispiriting: he spun in sprint qualifying, finished it 15th, had a time deleted in qualifying proper, and started from the pits in 18th place. But, hurrah, he managed a fine seventh place, his performance echoing old virtuosities.
Yes, he was powered by a new Ferrari engine, but in wet conditions he was quicksilver.
He was first on to slicks and made immediate good use of them. At one point, he was one second faster than the next man.
He pulled off overtakes with dexterity and looked an outside bet for a podium, which would have been his first in red. But his pace was blunted as the track dried and the race lengthened, but still an afternoon in the sun for him.
As for the delay, Portuguese race director Rui Marques was, in a harsh assessment, something of a Nervous Nellie.
Charles Leclerc finished third for Ferrari, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton down in seventh
Verstappen, Red Bull’s winner of the sprint race on Saturday, could only manage fourth
The rest of Hamilton’ weekend was dispiriting, but in the wet conditions he was quicksilver
The race could have started earlier than it did, and he deployed a safety car for too long when it eventually crawled into action.
But, in fairness, Spa, an especially Eau Rouge, is a hazardous conundrum. Forty-nine fatalities in 100 years at this track attest to this. And then you add in the Ardennes’ capricious weather. Not easy.
In fact, Spa is the most overrated circuit in the world whatever its many disciples may contend. But that’s a debate for another day.
For now, all hail Oscar the brave.
