Oscar Piastri struggles in Belgian GP qualifying, ends up 7th behind Lando Norris

Oscar Piastri endured a difficult Belgian Grand Prix qualifying on 26 July 2026, ending up seventh after a weekend plagued by setbacks.

What happened?

Piastri’s session unraveled early when he triggered a red flag in Q3 after running wide at Stavelot and spreading gravel across the track. The Australian recovered to secure seventh, four positions behind McLaren teammate Lando Norris. Norris, who called his lap one of the best of his career, took third.

Piastri’s struggles began in practice. An encouraging FP1 was followed by a hydraulic issue that sidelined him for the start of FP2. Even the laps he managed were tricky. He admitted: “It’s been a bit of a struggle. It started okay in FP1, but then yesterday we had an issue. So I missed the start and a little bit of FP2.”

Why it matters for Oscar Piastri

Norris will drop ten places from third after McLaren installed a fourth power electronics unit, promoting Piastri to sixth on the grid. Yet Piastri remains unsure whether McLaren has the race pace to challenge the cars ahead. The Friday hydraulic problem left him without enough long-run data to judge the team’s true position.

He said: “We don’t really know. We didn’t really do that many laps in FP2 in terms of race running. So it’s very hard to read where we are. I think the pack around us is very tight. We’re probably just at the back of it.”

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella acknowledged the narrow gap between his drivers cost them dearly in a tightly matched midfield. Norris qualified behind pole sitter Kimi Antonelli, while Piastri lined up behind both Ferraris and George Russell’s Mercedes.

What McLaren changed

McLaren brought a revised rear wing to Spa and integrated the latest Mercedes power unit specification. Stella said the new wing worked well for the required drag-downforce balance. The team delayed the engine update to preserve mileage on existing components, but Stella insisted they were happy with the integration after working with Mercedes High Performance Powertrains.

Stella added: “There’s a couple of tenths between Lando and Oscar. But we see that with the tight competitive situation we have at the moment, in two tenths you can have three or four positions.”

What comes next?

Piastri starts sixth on Sunday, but the real question is whether McLaren’s race pace matches the improved grid position. The Australian admitted the weekend’s disrupted running leaves him guessing about the car’s true competitiveness.

He said: “The pack around us is very tight. We’re probably just at the back of it. So we’ll see what we can do. But it’s not going to be easy.”