Norris claims it was "painful" for him to box later than Piastri

Having ended up second behind championship leader Oscar Piastri at last Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix, Lando Norris was slightly left to rue the decision to pit a lap later than the Australian.

Championship leader Oscar Piastri endured disappointment when he got beaten by his team-mate Lando Norris in the standard qualifying session on Sunday.

However, the 24-year-old managed to make up for the defeat on the opening lap of the Belgian Grand Prix. Piastri got a better run than his team mate through the complex of Eau Rouge and Raidillon, allowing him to then make the move on the Kemmel straight.

As drivers switched from intermediates to slick tyres, Piastri enjoyed priority, pitting a lap earlier than Norris which allowed him to build up a margin of over eight seconds.

Although the Briton looked very competitive and comfortable in the closing stages of the 44-lap race on his hard Pirelli tyres, Piastri did not allow to slip the victory through his fingers.

Asked to comment why he boxed a lap later than Piastri, opting against double stacking, Norris conceded that he might have needed to pit earlier given the fact that the track dried up so quickly.

"I need to ask the team. It's tough because you're going to lose quite a good chunk of time doing that as well. Considering the slick tyre was so much better by that point… like Oscar said, it was a late call for us to box on that lap.

"I think if we review it, we probably would have kicked ourselves a little bit for staying out as long as we did. I think there was enough evidence that we should have boxed early, but no one boxed that early.

"It was just Lewis that boxed one lap earlier than us. It was just more painful for me that Oscar got the good lap. I had to go one lap longer. That's life," concluded Norris.

His team-mate Oscar Piastri added that it was also a late decision from his side to pit on that particular lap: "We'd spoken about it before the race. It was quite a late decision to pit on the lap we did, but there's risks either way.

"If I was in Lando's position, I probably would have done the same thing. At that point, it seemed like the safest thing to do was go on the Medium, because the Hard is two steps harder here. You don't know how it's going to react in those conditions.

"If there's a Safety Car, which often there is in those conditions, then you probably want a Medium, not a Hard. There are risks both ways, but ultimately I'm happy with what we did.