Oscar Piastri told to forget about winning F1 title ‘easily’ after what Lando Norris did at Spa

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Oscar Piastri extended his lead in the Drivers’ Championship by taking his sixth win of the 2025 season in the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Australian put in a commanding drive by overtaking teammate Lando Norris when the race started, following an 80-minute delay because of rain.

Fans were left unhappy that F1 didn’t attempt to run in the rain, despite most of the teams switching to wet setups for their drivers, including Red Bull with Max Verstappen.

This impacted the competitive order in the race, with the McLarens generating a significant gap to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in third.

Piastri overtook Norris after what Damon Hill branded an ‘extraordinary’ overtake after Raidillon, with Piastri remaining in the lead despite an aggressive strategy for his teammate, which saw him switch to the Hard tyre when they switched to slicks.

Discussing his win on the Pelas Pistas podcast, Nelson Piquet Jr outlined why he thinks that the last few races have shown that it will be more difficult than anticipated for the Australian to win the title.

Nelson Piquet Jr expects it will be tougher than expected for Oscar Piastri to win title

Piastri has been named as the title favourite by many in the F1 paddock, including Nico Rosberg, who felt he was the more consistent driver after seeing his performance in Canada.

Piquet Jr also predicted Piastri would ascend to the title, but thinks it will be more difficult than he thought because of how well Norris is performing in qualifying.

“Lando to me, still seemed like he has that one-lap speed. He still seems to be better at that. Maybe you put him together with Max, and the two are swapping (places) in the same team. But Piastri clearly has the head [in the races], he’s good at the races,” said Piquet Jr.

“He’s at least three years younger than Lando, and he’s learning. So it’s his third year. He’s learning more, every mile, every race he does, more. Piastri won’t be a champion as easily as I thought he would be. I think it will be in the last stage where Piastri will win.”

Lando Norris’ final chance to close gap before summer break

The upcoming Hungarian GP will be Norris’ last chance to close the gap to Piastri before the three-week summer break.

It is an important period for the Briton, as he’ll want to minimise the amount of points needed when they return at the end of August with less than half of the races left.

With 16 points separating the drivers, a win for Norris would shorten the gap to nine points, providing Piastri finishes no lower than second place.

McLaren returns to Hungary 12 months on from Piastri’s first F1 race win and their team orders controversy, in which Norris initially ignored a direct instruction to swap positions after a strategy error.