Spa winner Oscar Piastri admits that he feared a rolling start to the Belgian Grand Prix feeling it would compromise any attempt to snatch the lead from his teammate.

As we know, he was wrong, for a superior exit out of La Source allowed the Australian to stick with Lando Norris all the way down the hill, through Eau Rouge and Raidillon before making his move on the run up the hill to Les Combes.

"To be honest, I was a bit disappointed it was a rolling start because I thought that was going to take away some opportunity," he admitted at race end. "But I got a good exit out of Turn 1, and was able to stay close and then when I was that close, I knew that I was just going to lift a little bit less than Lando did and try and keep it on the track.

"Yes, it was a bit lively up and over the hill," he added, "but I managed to make it stick and then from there the tyre helped me out, so I'm proud of my first lap."

As conditions improves and the pit stops had taken place, Piastri's main concern was whether he'd made the right choice in taking on mediums - as did the rest of the field - while Norris went for hards.

"I kind of had the same plan if I was going to be second," said the Australian, "I kind of knew that was going to be a likely decision for him. For me, the medium was the safest tyre to be on at that point. You never know if someone's going to crash, and there's a Safety Car, and then at that point you want a medium for the restart.

"Also, the medium seemed pretty good in the Sprint," he continued. "I think it didn't make too much difference, but yes, when you're fighting like that, one-two, you're always going to try and get an advantage in one way or another, and I think we did the safest thing.

"I struggled a little bit at the end," he admitted. "Maybe the medium wasn't the best for the last five or six laps, but no, we had it mostly under control which is what I wanted.

"Oscar was in control," said Zak Brown. "We tried to split strategies there which was a driver's decision to see if that's what we wanted to try. It took a little bit longer for the hards to come in than we thought. It was getting pretty close there at the end, but an exciting day.

"He's a machine," said the American. "What's impressive is how aggressive he is, but he always brings the car home. That's when it counted."

"I was pretty disappointed with myself after yesterday," said Piastri, "but it turns out starting second in Spa is not too bad after all," he smiled.

Asked about next weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, the track at which he scored his maiden victory, the Australian said: "It's a track I enjoy and the pace this weekend has been incredibly strong. Hopefully we can keep that momentum going."

Meanwhile, having complained of no battery pack moments after being passed by his teammate, Norris insists that this was not the cause of him losing out to the Australian.

"No. The slipstream, and we saw it already on Saturday," said the Briton. "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," he admitted, "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 tough to lead from the beginning. 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," he insisted. "It was a good race otherwise. I gave it a good shot. I was pushing hard, but not enough."

In the closing stages the Briton appeared to close the gap to his teammate but a number of mistakes cost him dear.

"I had a couple of lock-ups in Turn 1, I went off in Pouhon, I had a big bump," he admitted. "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," he insisted. "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. 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."

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