Norris: Tough to lead from the beginning at Spa

After a delayed start for the race and a few laps behind the Safety Car, Norris led the pack when the racing commenced at the Belgian Grand Prix, but he couldn't complete a full lap in the lead as Piastri passed him on the Kemmel straight after a ballsy move coming out of the Eau Rouge/Raidillon sequence.

Norris complained over the team radio that he didn't have enough battery power, and Brown shed light on that after the race.

“We had a small battery issue which we’ve got to look at, which I think didn’t help him," the American said. “At the start there we had a battery issue. It only takes a little bit especially going up the hill."

But Norris insisted it was a couple of errors he made in addition to the slipstream Piastri had at his disposal that cost him the lead and not the battery issue.

“No," he responded when quizzed whether the battery was the culprit. "The slipstream, and we saw it already on Saturday.

"The slipstream, especially when it’s wet and especially when you’re the first car, you have to push through the first bit of water, which means the following effect in the rain like this is even more than normal.

"I didn’t get the best Turn 1, so I need to go and look at things. I had two snaps on the exit, and maybe that could have got me out of trouble. But I think it only would have given Oscar an even bigger slipstream to pass me.

"Like we saw on Saturday, it’s just tough to lead from the beginning," he pointed out, referring to Piastri losing out to Verstappen at the start of the Sprint Race.

"I’m not saying I did the best job, but it just seems like this weekend, it was a headwind down that straight and just pretty much impossible to keep ahead.

"Nothing to complain about too much. It was a good race otherwise. I gave it a good shot. I was pushing hard, but not enough," Norris insisted.

As the track dried up, Piastri pitted first for slicks and took on Medium tyres, while Norris pitted a lap later, which was not ideal, opting for Hards, hoping to go to the end of the race while his teammate would need to pit again.

But Piastri managed to nurse his tyres till the end as Norris was pushing every lap to try and catch him, and while he managed to close the gap to a little over three seconds, a couple of errors meant the gap increased and he couldn't challenge for the win.

He said: "I had a couple of lock-ups in Turn 1, I went off in Pouhon, I had a big bump. I lost a couple of seconds there.

"At the same time, Oscar made some mistakes as well. It’s just the conditions were tricky. I’m sure everyone makes mistakes like that.

"Especially for me, when I was trying to gain that time, I had to push. I couldn’t just chill. And when you’re playing on the edge like that, you’re going to make some mistakes.

"But that’s racing, that’s life. In a way, I’m not unhappy," Norris stated. "I need to look what much more I could have done today. I felt like I still did a good job, I felt like I was quick, I felt like I was on top of things, but just lap one let me down."

Norris heads to the Hungarian Grand Prix next week 16 points behind Piastri in the 2025 Formula 1 Drivers' Championship.

(Quotes from Sky Sports F1)