Max Verstappen was victorious at the Belgian Grand Prix sprint race beating the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
The Red Bull driver made the move on the approach to Les Combes on the first lap to take the lead and from there, resisted the pressure from the Papayas for 15 laps to take the win. His twelveth sprint success.
In Verstappen’s wake Charles Leclerc made a similar overtake to take third from Lando Norris, while Esteban Ocon led the midfield battle in fifth ahead of Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman.
With Leclerc unable to keep up with the two leaders, Norris reclaimed third on the fourth lap on the Kemmel Straight and soon caught up to the lead battle between Verstappen and Piastri.
Starting on used mediums compared to new tyres for Piastri and Norris, Verstappen could not escape DRS range but used his straight-line speed to hold off Piastri, who continued to close in on the Red Bull’s gearbox towards Les Combes and yet unable to make the move.
On lap 11 Piastri came closest at Turn 5’s main overtaking opportunity, with McLaren still the quickest car overall and Verstappen starting to report brake issues. But that was as close as he would get, with Verstappen taking the chequered flag to start Red Bull’s new era without Christian Horner with a win.
Norris too was keen for an opening to attack his championship rival Piastri, but was forced to sit back and watch Verstappen and his teammate cross the finishing line. The result means Piastri adds a single point to his championship lead on Norris, which now amounts to nine points.
Leclerc was a distant fourth as his Ferrari was easily dropped by the leaders, while Ocon and Sainz finished fifth and sixth. Bearman secured a double points finish for Haas in seventh, with Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar easily defeating Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and his teammate Liam Lawson for the final point in eighth.
The Mercedes pair of George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli were unable to significantly move up in the DRS train after a poor sprint qualifying session, Russell crossing the line down in P12 and Antonelli in P17. Lewis Hamilton moved up from P17 to P15 in his Ferrari after an equally difficult race.
Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly lost out on a points-scoring opportunity with Alpine as a water leak meant he could not take up his eighth grid spot. Gasly eventually joined the race two laps down for what turned out to be a test session.
So not the most thrilling sprint race at Spa as the opening lap decided the outcome of the result. It will be interesting for the main race as the weather is going to be wet.
Belgian Grand Prix, sprint results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 26:37.997
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.753s
3 Lando Norris McLaren +1.414s
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +10.176s
5 Esteban Ocon Haas +13.789s
6 Carlos Sainz Williams +14.964s
7 Oliver Bearman Haas +18.610s
8 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +19.119s
9 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +22.183s
10 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +22.897s
11 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +24.551
12 George Russell Mercedes +25.969s
13 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +26.595s
14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +29.046s
15 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +30.175s
16 Alexander Albon Williams +30.941s
17 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +31.981s
18 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +32.867s
19 Franco Colapinto Alpine +38.072s
20 Pierre Gasly Alpine +2 laps
Max Verstappen has clinched his first Sprint win of the season at the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, the Red Bull driver holding on for victory after making an impressive overtake on Oscar Piastri during the opening lap of action.
While Piastri initially made a solid launch to hold onto P1 off the line, Verstappen surged ahead later in the lap to take the lead. But as the Sprint entered into its second half, the Dutchman faced increasing pressure from both Piastri and the other McLaren of Lando Norris.
Despite Piastri’s best efforts, Verstappen continued to defend his position and sealed a dominant win, with Piastri and Norris ultimately having to settle for second and third respectively.
Charles Leclerc followed in fourth for Ferrari, despite briefly running ahead of Norris in the early stages, while Haas’ Esteban Ocon, Williams’ Carlos Sainz, the other Haas of Ollie Bearman and Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar followed in fifth through to eighth.
After just one practice session on Friday, Sprint Qualifying had decided the grid for the third 100km dash of the season, a format that awards points to the top eight finishers from a maximum of eight for P1 down to one for P8.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-takes-commanding-sprint-victory-at-spa-francorchamps-from-piastri.UeJY08iyKDHZmKHRLvtXY
Max Verstappen says he had to forget about tyre usage and drive “over the limit” to resist the faster McLaren of Oscar Piastri during Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix sprint race.
Verstappen passed polesitter Piastri on lap one, slipstreaming past the Australian championship leader on the long run up the Kemmel Straight and into Les Combes, which he deemed as his only shot at winning the 15-lap contest.
“It worked out really well,” Verstappen said. “That’s the only real opportunity, of course, that you’re going to get against them and we got it into Turn 5. Then I knew it was going to be very tough to keep them behind.
“I was just playing cat and mouse with DRS, battery usage and basically the whole race [the gap] was within seven tenths, so I couldn’t really afford to make big mistakes.”
Piastri piled on the pressure in the intrinsically quicker McLaren but, apart from one slip-up on lap 11 that gave Piastri his best chance to attack, Verstappen didn’t budge as he admitted to having to drive over the limit to keep his lead, which also resulted in him struggling with brake pressure.
“Basically you’re keeping faster cars behind, so you have to drive over the limit of what you think is possible,” Verstappen explained of his worried radio messages about the brakes.
“Tyre management is out of the window, so that is what’s making it really difficult. I’m just doing 15 qualifying laps to try and keep them behind on the track where tyre management is important.
“I had one tiny lock-up in the last corner, but apart from that it was a great result to keep them behind and to have a win here in Spa for me.
“Of course, it’s a sprint win, but still it counts and I’m very happy with what we did out there.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-forced-over-the-limit-to-hold-off-frustrated-piastri-in-belgium-f1-sprint/10745362/
Oscar Piastri conceded that it was “a bit frustrating” to not be able to overtake Max Verstappen during the Sprint at the Belgian Grand Prix, while McLaren team mate Lando Norris admitted that the team may need to “reassess” prior to Qualifying later on Saturday.
Despite initially holding onto the lead at the start of the event, Piastri lost the position to Verstappen later in the lap as the Dutchman surged past on the Kemmel Straight – and from there onwards the Australian was unable to retake P1, despite trying to chase down the Red Bull.
Asked afterwards if Lap 1 had played out as he expected, Piastri responded: “Pretty much, yeah. I tried my best to snake my way through the straights and not give too much of a tow, but I just didn’t have enough straight-line speed, and then obviously, I didn’t have enough straight-line speed for the next 15 laps either.
“Still a good result, still good points. It is only the Sprint and the main points are tomorrow. I’m pretty happy with it, just obviously a bit frustrating that I couldn’t get past.”
Pushed on whether the team may trim some downforce from the car ahead of Sunday’s Grand Prix to prevent the same scenario from happening again, Piastri said: “It’s a great question.
“The weather is looking pretty bad tomorrow, which obviously means you don’t want to take off too much wing, but I don’t really want to repeat the Sprint we’ve just had. We’ll have a look and see what we can do, but there are a lot of things to look into before tomorrow.”
Despite being left disappointed by his result in the Sprint, Piastri is remaining optimistic about Qualifying later on Saturday.
“I’m looking forward to it,” he explained. “Spa is my favourite track of the year, and especially in Qualifying, it’s just mega around here. I’m looking forward to some more laps in anger.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/piastri-reflects-on-frustrating-sprint-at-spa-as-norris-admits-mclaren-will.4qhdSjHBZKToqGVPBzVeGd
Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman were left delighted after claiming a double points finish for Haas in the Sprint at the Belgian Grand Prix, with the pair converting their respective grid slots of P5 and P7 into a total tally of six points.
While Max Verstappen fended off the McLaren pair of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the battle for the lead – ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in fourth – Ocon was best of the rest in fifth place, a showing that the Frenchman is aiming to replicate in Saturday’s Qualifying.
“[I’m] super pleased with this,” Ocon smiled after the Sprint. “I think it’s six points for the team in total on a Saturday, so it’s a really good result. We can be obviously satisfied with this.
“The cars in front were the cars that are out of reach for the moment, with Charles just being quicker than us, so we finished on top of our race basically, and overall it was fantastic.
“We need to do it all again obviously for this afternoon which is not going to be an easy task, but we’ll push hard to make it happen.”
Bearman was similarly pleased with the outcome of the Sprint, in which he held onto seventh place despite facing a challenge from Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar behind.
“It was a good race,” the Briton said. “Nice to score some points, both cars in the points in a Sprint race which is no mean feat. It was a fight out there for sure.
“I think we lacked a little bit of pace, the rear wing that we have means that we’re very difficult to overtake, so on the straights we were absolutely flying.
“It does make the car balance then a bit difficult over a longer stint so we need to see what we do for tomorrow, also with rain in the forecast, but I’m happy. It’s been a while since we scored, so it’s nice to do that.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/its-no-mean-feat-ocon-and-bearman-super-pleased-with-haas-double-points-in.6Q4Qnkc0bCcNTsIvkTpP6w