A Strong Finish into the Summer Break
Oscar Piastri’s excellent 3rd place finish was bumped up to an even better P2 on Sunday after Mercedes’ winner apparent George Russell was disqualified for racing too light a car.
In what was a frantic afternoon upon the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, it was Piastri's fierce in-race battle with Charles Leclerc that probably cost him a genuine shot at a 2024 Belgian Grand Prix victory. Having finally powered his McLaren MCL38 ahead of Leclerc and into 3rd on lap 36, he set his sights on the Silver Arrows of Russel and Lewis Hamilton ahead of him… but the laps he had spent fighting the Ferrari had cooked his tires for the final push.
“It took me a couple of laps to get past Charles and I really overheated the tires doing that,” Piastri said. “Clearly the pace of George, staying out there on one set of hard tires was the right thing to do. So we just didn't quite have enough pace to mow him down. Even Lewis didn't quite have enough.”
However, the race was not quite done; two hours after the checkered flag came down, race officials discovered Russell’s car was 1.5kg lighter than the regulation weight of 798kg… leading to a disqualification, and everyone else moving up a step on the podium.
The result bumped Piastri up to 4th on the overall driver leaderboard, with teammate Lando Norris (who finished 5th on Sunday) sitting in 2nd.
The drivers will now take a well-earned rest for the summer break but all eyes will be on the return to racing at Circuit Zandvoort as the Team Papaya continue to push for the other teams for the constructors and drivers championships.
