THE BIG PICTURE: If Oscar Piastri wins the world championship, the first lap at Spa will be his defining moment.

EVENT: Let's play a word association game. "Spa." "Crazy ass weather." "That's three words." "Doesn't matter, he wins."

TRACK: Funny how the bus stop chicane isn't really a bus stop chicane anymore.

SPRINT SHOOTOUT: Piastri comes back to lay down a dominating lap, Verstappen can only make a front row statement, Ocon, Bearman, and Bortoleto are SQ3 surprises, all kinds of upsets in SQ2, and Hamilton and Antonelli throw it off the road in SQ1.

SPRINT: Once the pass was made, McLaren just didn't have the straight line speed of the Red Bull even if they might have been faster overall.

SPRINT START: Piastri gets a solid start, but Verstappen was just being patient waiting for the prime slipstream spot to take the lead while Leclerc gets Norris in the same area but under braking, as Gasly is stuck in the garage.

QUALIFYING: Norris gets back at Piastri, Leclerc is perhaps the biggest surprise, Verstappen can't find grip, Albon is impressive, Tsunoda finally does what he should be doing, and Hamilton and Antonelli are huge disappointments again.

RACE: We all knew the first green lap, whenever it was going to happen, was going to be exciting. After that, it all came down to which McLaren strategy was going to work.

START: After 92 minutes, it finally happens, but it's not a standing start. Norris doesn't have the confidence as Piastri slipstreams by him down Kemmel straight as everybody else stays in position.

PIASTRI: This performance may have once and for all established Oscar as the top overall driver on McLaren.

NORRIS: We have nothing against Lando Norris's mum. She appears to be a lovely lady. But we can't be the only ones who are sick and tired of seeing Lando Norris's mum on every garage TV shot.

LECLERC: Charles is really the only one delivering for Ferrari.

HAMILTON: It's time, despite his strong race, to start asking some serious questions about Lewis. He's falling further and further behind his teammate, the only true measuring stick.

VERSTAPPEN: Right setup for Saturday. Not quite the right setup for Sunday. Plus, using an old engine.

TSUNODA: A solid qualifying effort marred by a late call in to the pits.

RED BULL: KABLAMO! And just like that, Christian Horner is out. May the power struggles ratchet up another notch.

ANTONELLI: Ever since his podium, Kimi has regressed. And at European tracks he is familiar with. Perhaps trying too hard where he feels he should be doing better?

MERCEDES: And just like that, all the ridiculous talk that Verstappen could be going to Mercedes in 2026 ends, and they "suddenly" are saying, "We love George Russell."

WILLIAMS: It was feast or famine for their two drivers, always opposite of one another.

LAWSON: Second consecutive solid weekend for Liam. Certainly is overcoming the doldrums of his "demotion."

HAAS: When trimmed out in dry conditions, they were fast. Very excited to see how they do at places like Monza.

BORTOLETO: Yet again, another eye opening weekend.

HULKENBERG: Back to reality...

COLAPINTO: Will he last past Hungry...?

F2: Italian Leonardo Fornaroli withstood a late safety car when others changed tires to win the sprint race. The feature race had us pondering why bother watching races? Alex Dunne performed admirably to "win" from pole, withstanding changing weather conditions and offset pit stops only to suffer a penalty for an obscure rule which no one even knew he was under investigation for. Arvid Lindblad "finished" second, only to suffer a technical DQ. Czech Roman Stanek was declared the winner, by which time, nobody cared.

F3: Dane Noah Strømsted won the sprint race, his first, starting second with the reverse grid. The feature race was rained out, meaning the only driver to get points for it was American Brad Benavides, who got the bonus for pole position.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Slipstream.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 12 -- The number of career sprint wins for Max Verstappen. Nobody else has more than two.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: This is the 100th anniversary of the Belgian GP. They have not been run every year, and not just because of WWII. Nor have they run at Spa all the time (Bois de la Cambre, Nivelles, and Zolder were the other sites). And sometimes it was called the European GP. The first one was won by Antonio Ascari in an Alfa Romeo 1-2, the only two cars to finish the over 500 mile race on the original 9.31-mile Spa circuit. It would be his last victory as Ascari was killed in the French GP a month later.

TWEET OF THE WEEKEND: From @Motorsport:

Fernando Alonso made his Formula 1 debut before seven current drivers on the grid were even born. #F1

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: The problem with F1 in the rain, is that the full wet tires don't work, so they can only use intermediates. Which prompted Günther Steiner to say, "Want to be sustainable F1? Stop producing fucking rain tires you never use!

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Charles Leclerc, channeling a fellow Ferrari driver, Kimi Raikkonen, "Leave me alone, please!"

SCHEDULE: Off to Hungry, where we'll finally have a dry race again. (Looks up weather app). Oh, oh...

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