What an absolute banger of a rookie season Oscar Piastri is having. If you leave the first 9 races of the season alone, the Australian rookie has shown up in style! And what better way to leapfrog the entire grid and take the battle to Max Verstappen. At the Belgian GP, the reigning world champion was expected to yet again outperform everybody. But Piastri’s heroics almost knocked him out of contention for victory at Spa.

McLaren did get some Superman-like upgrades midway through the season. But still, they were very short of the rampant Verstappen. However, in the Sprint shootout, Piastri nearly pipped the Dutchman for Pole. It was only a matter of 11 thousandths of a second between the two. And the McLaren rookie built on that in the Sprint race. For the first time since his F2 days, he led the grid from Lap 2 to Lap 6.

Eventually, Verstappen’s race pace was too good to handle and he overtook Piastri after in Lap 6. Still, the rookie’s valor in keeping a 2-time (and reigning) World Champion behind did not go unnoticed. Post the Sprint Race, Piastri said, “Very, very happy. We tried our best, we boxed when the Safety Car came in, led a few laps and tried my best, but we were no match for Max. Apart from Max, our pace was really strong.”

He even said some kind and heartfelt words for the team that is facilitating his success. He elaborated, saying “The last three weekends have been special. I can’t thank the team enough for the car, we still have a little bit of work to do but to lead my first laps is a day I won’t forget.“

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The rookie might have surprised everyone with his performance. But he too was surprised with how easily the Dutchman took his place back on the back of Red Bull‘s race pace.

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After 4 formation laps behind the safety car and on the wet tires, half the grid pitted as Max Verstappen led the rolling start. But, Verstappen too decided to pit immediately in the next lap. By the time, he came out of the pits, Piastri had overtaken him to take the race lead, be it only for a short while.

But in Lap 4, Alonso went onto the gravel and brought out the safety car. Now, it was up to Piastri to restart the race when the safety car went back in Lap 6. But the gap had been closed between the Top 2. And Verstappen, in classic fashion, easily took back the lead of the race after Eau Rouge. And such was his pace, that he extended his lead by 6.3 seconds in the remaining 5 laps.

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After the race, Piastri said, “I thought the safety car would play into my favor but I did the restart and looked behind me and at Eau Rouge, he was already right behind me. It was hard to hold them off on the straights.”

“Not bad,” said Verstappen after the race. That should show you the animal mindset of this man. He gained 6.3 seconds in 5 laps and still wasn’t as ecstatic as any other racer would have been.

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