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Oscar Piastri knew it was only a matter of time before Max Verstappen cruised past him after savouring the high of leading an F1 race for the first time in his career.
Starting from second on the grid behind two-time champion Verstappen following a brilliant shoot-out performance in which he was edged out by just 0.011s, the 15-lap race started behind the safety car due to a torrential downpour that had delayed the start.
The formation lap and four additional laps were lost as the cars toured around, clearing water from the track and limiting the high levels of spray being kicked up by the current iteration of F1 car.
Once the call was made for the safety car to peel back into the pits, Red Bull decided to keep Verstappen on track on the full-wet tyres, whereas Piastri was the lead car of 10 that pitted to switch to inters.
A superb out-lap allowed Piastri to undercut Verstappen, who pitted at the end of what was effectively the first racing lap before taking on the green-striped Pirellis.
Holding a 1.3s cushion after two laps, that was quickly wiped out when birthday boy Fernando Alonso, celebrating his 42nd, spun off at Pouhon, sending Bernd Maylander back out for another safety car period.
When the racing resumed again with six laps remaining, Verstappen made short work of Piastri, soaring by at the start of the Kemmel Straight and going on to beat the 22-year-old Australian by six seconds.
Piastri at least had the honour of leading an F1 race for a few laps. Explaining the feeling, he said: “It was a good sprint.
“It was pretty obvious for us to box on the first lap. Obviously, we had the same risk as Max of potentially getting stuck with everyone coming in, but it worked out really well.
“And then I managed to lead for a few laps, which was cool, so I really enjoyed it.
“We struggled a bit with keeping the tyres alive, but apart from that, that (second place) was pretty much all we could have achieved, so I’m very happy.”
Piastri recognised, however, that keeping Verstappen at bay was always a forlorn hope.
“You’re always focusing on trying to just do the best laps you can, and when you’ve got Max and his car behind, it doesn’t put your nerves at ease, let’s put it that way,” said Piastri.
“I knew it was going to be difficult to hold him behind, although I probably wasn’t expecting him to literally catch me at the top of Eau Rouge after the safety car restart such is our straight-line speed.
“It was cool. I was just focusing on trying to do the best job I could, knowing it was probably going to be when Max passed rather than if. I tried my best and I think second was all we had.”
It was also the first time Piastri had the opportunity of controlling a safety car restart in F1, a mix of knowing for how long to bunch up the pack and then going for the release.
“I’ve done quite a few safety car restarts before, so it’s nothing new,” added Piastri, referencing those times during his F3 and F2 career in particular.
“Of course, you just try and do the best job you can in tricky conditions with quite low tyre temps at that point.
“I tried the best I could. I went a bit wide at Turn 1, which didn’t help things, but I don’t think it really made much difference.
“So that was nice to be able to control a safety car restart again, and hopefully there are a few more opportunities in the future.”
