By Alan Baldwin
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium (Reuters) -McLaren boss Andrea Stella says teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are racing like champions and the Formula One title will probably be decided by fine margins and individual brilliance.
The pair are 16 points apart in a two-horse race, with Australian Piastri leading McLaren’s sixth one-two of the season in Belgium on Sunday and taking his sixth win of the campaign.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is third but 81 points behind with his hopes of a fifth successive title fast receding.
There are 11 races left and the intra-team rivalry will be the major focus with McLaren set to retain the constructors’ crown with ease as they now a massive 268 points clear of second-placed Ferrari.
Norris won in Britain after Piastri was penalised for braking erratically behind the safety car but the Australian triumphed at Spa by slipstreaming past from second on the grid.
“There is very, very little between our two drivers and this is because the two drivers are racing at a very, very high level,” Stella told reporters.
“I think the difference will be made by the accuracy, the precision, the quality of the execution,” added the Italian, who worked with champions at Ferrari and said Piastri and Norris were both operating at that level.
At Spa, the regular grid lineup was replaced by a rolling start in wet conditions after four laps behind the safety car, with Norris finding pole position was no real advantage once the race got going.
Piastri had discovered the same during the Saturday sprint, when Verstappen won from second on the grid after seizing the lead on the opening lap.
“We saw in Silverstone that an issue, a sporting issue for Oscar, during the safety car restart and the consequent penalty cost him the race,” said Stella.
“Here we saw that, somehow related to the circuit characteristic, it would have been very difficult for Lando to keep the position, starting first at the safety car restart.”
Stella discounted a battery problem that appeared to be an issue initially, saying a slight anomaly had occurred on both cars and Norris should not have been any worse off.
“It would have always been very difficult for Lando to keep the position starting first at the safety car restart, but at the same time I think Lando didn’t help himself by not having a great gap…,” he said.
“So I think the execution is what is going to make the main difference.”
Piastri was not unhappy after qualifying second, observing that Spa was probably the best place not to have the best lap and planning his next move already.
“The move through Eau Rouge, I knew it was going to be by far my best opportunity to try and win the race. I’d been thinking about it for a while, put it that way,” said the Australian.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond)
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