Piastri reveals why he "was a bit nervous" after his victory at Spa
On the back of another dominant victory, championship leader Oscar Piastri has admitted that he "was a bit nervous" after his pit stop due to the length of the slick-tyre stint on the medium rubber.
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 on his race and the closing laps on his degrading mediums, Piastri noted: "It was a tough race. Difficult conditions at the start and then just trying to manage the Inters firstly because it was drying relatively quickly, but you can kill the Inters in a lap or two if you really want around here.
"So that was a bit tricky. And then I felt good on the Mediums for about five laps, and then when I could see that the Hard on Lando's car was not worse than the Medium, I was a bit nervous considering we had nearly 25 laps to go at that point.
"So, I had to be a bit careful, but it held on in the end much better than I feared. I had to manage a bit, but nothing special," the Australian added.
Asked whether he considered using the hard tyres just as his team-mate Lando Norris, Piastri conceded that he was unsure about the behaviour of the white-walled tyres in the damp conditions.
"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.
Reflecting on his race-deciding overtaking on the opening lap of the Belgian Grand Prix, Piastri noted: "I knew it was going to help me pretty significantly if I did.
"I had a good run out of Turn 1 and then tried to be as brave as I could through Eau Rouge and was able to stay pretty close. After that, the slipstream did the rest for me. I knew that was going to be pretty important for trying to win the race today."
