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Mark Webber believes Oscar Piastri’s “telemetry” shows why the McLaren man was slower than teammate Lando Norris in qualifying for the 2026 F1 Belgian Grand Prix.
Piastri has endured a tough time at Spa-Francorchamps so far this weekend, yet Norris was one of the stars of qualifying on Saturday. While Piastri only ended qualifying for the Belgian GP in seventh place with a 1:45.016 lap, Norris set the third-fastest lap time with a 1:44.801.
Norris also set his best time of Q3 during his first run in the top-10 shootout, whereas Piastri produced his quickest effort in the final seconds of the session. But Norris will start Sunday’s Belgian GP from P13 due to a 10-place grid penalty after fitting his fourth battery of the year.
Which driver will make up the most places during the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix?
Mark Webber saw a deployment issue in Oscar Piastri’s qualifying data at Spa
Piastri has struggled throughout the Belgian GP weekend, with his deficit during qualifying to Norris the latest instalment of his struggles at Spa. The 25-year-old was also the slowest driver from the established top four teams in Q3, as Red Bull sacrificed Isack Hadjar to help Max Verstappen in qualifying at Spa by giving the latter a tow that helped him qualify in P2.
READ MORE: How to watch the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix, plus the weather forecast for Spa
Former Red Bull F1 driver Webber, who serves as Piastri’s manager, took a look at his fellow Australian’s data following the conclusion of qualifying for the Belgian GP. Webber believes Piastri’s data also proved his deficit to Norris was due to a deployment issue out of Stavelot.
Webber told Channel 4 (18/07, 20:40): “I’ve just seen some telemetry and it looks like it was a deployment thing, to be honest. The team will run through it, I know, and I’m not going to talk on behalf of them. But it was an identical, identical lap time until the last straight.”
Piastri had initially lapped the legendary Spa circuit 0.661 seconds slower than Norris during their provisional runs in Q3 on Saturday. Their efforts put Norris on provisional pole with his 1:44.801 lap, while Piastri ranked seventh in the order as his first lap time was just 1:45.462.
Who was your star of qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix? 🤩
Norris ultimately aborted his second run in Q3, yet still finished the session in third place, as Piastri improved his time to 1:45.016. Piastri also improved his split times in all three sectors at the end of Q3, but his last sector was clearly the one that let the Melbourne native down.
Piastri set personal best times in all but one of the eight mini-sectors in zone one, as well as personal bests in 10 of the 12 mini-sectors in zone two (including posting an overall best in mini-sector 18). Yet he actually improved in just two of the eight mini-sectors in zone three.
The nine-time Grand Prix winner was faster out of Stavelot on his last lap in Q3 than during his provisional run. He was also faster on the approach to the Bus Stop chicane at the close of Q3 than at the start of the final session but lost out in the high-speed parts of the sector.
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