Category: Motor Racing

Max Verstappen is a two-time Formula 1 world champion in surreal circumstances after Charles Leclerc received a late time penalty in a heavily delayed and wet Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

The Red Bull Racing driver dominated a time-limited and controversial event to win by close to half a minute, but not scoring the bonus point for the fastest lap looked to leave him one point short of the title.

However, a post-race five-second penalty for runner-up Leclerc – adjudged to have squeezed Sergio Perez excessively out of the last corner – dropped the Ferrari driver behind the Singapore Grand Prix winner to hand Verstappen the championship.

The ever-changing weather forecast for the Suzuka weekend culminated in the rain shower that was originally predicted to hit after the race instead of dousing the grid in the build-up.

As such, all drivers opted for intermediate tyres for what was kept as a proper standing start.

But conditions proved marginal, as the red flag was deployed owing to a messy opening lap.

Leclerc had enjoyed the superior launch, despite the limited grip, to draw alongside polesitter Verstappen and the Ferrari even pulled ahead by half a car length. However, the Red Bull driver kept his foot in through the first corner to hold the line and decisively retake first position with a brave around the outside pass.

Meanwhile, there was a litany of incidents behind in the limited visibility and low grip.

Third-starting Carlos Sainz, having been jumped by Sergio Perez, caught a patch of standing water while accelerating and the torque surge spat him at considerable into the barrier.

He was eliminated with a crumpled rear wing, while Alex Albon pulled over on the gravel with Williams engine trouble, as Zhou Guanyu spun his Alfa Romeo to rejoin in P17.

Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, dropped from his impressive ninth in qualifying to P16 after a bump with Fernando Alonso into Turn 1 that pitched him into the gravel and the Aston Martin spun.

Teammate Lance Stroll, though, shot forward seven position to P11 with a committed first lap.

Pierre Gasly, starting the AlphaTauri from the pitlane owing to a rear wing spec change and revised suspension, drove over an advertising board ripped off from the Sainz impact.

That tore off his front wing and became stuck to block his visibility and force a pitstop.

For all of this, the safety car was initially deployed before the red flags halted events.

Of concern, when Gasly rejoined on full wets and just as the full red flags came, he appeared to pass at speed a flatbed recovery tractor on track through Turn 12. The driver was furious.

This incident will be investigated after the race, with Gasly summoned to the stewards.

The contention lies over Gasly’s pace while closing to the pack, which the FIA states was “up to 250km/h (155mph)”. The recovery vehicle was on track at that site for the entire field.

The stoppage had run for 42 minutes before a restart was planned, which was meant to be led by a rolling start behind the safety car as the extreme wet tyre was mandated.

However, two minutes before time, the restart procedure was suspended indefinitely by race control and over the next 80 minutes, heavier showers periodically arrived at the track.

In that time, the medical car was sent out occasionally for reconnaissance laps, but conditions did not improve sufficiently until almost two full hours had passed after the initial red flag.

But the race was then finally scheduled to restart with the cars, as before, on full wets for a rolling start with a little over 48 minutes remaining on the countdown timer.

As drivers held mixed opinions on visibility and track conditions, the safety car led an out, full and in-lap before returning to the pitlane to leave Verstappen to keep clear of Leclerc.

Vettel and Nicholas Latifi dived into the pits to swap to inters but the Aston was released side-by-side with the Williams, before Lando Norris and Valtteri Bottas stopped a lap later.

With those runners setting fastest sectors, Verstappen headed Leclerc into the pits, but the Ferrari lost one second to a sticky right-rear as Perez and George Russell were held by double stacks.

That left Fernando Alonso to inherit the lead over Daniel Ricciardo and Mick Schumacher but only the Haas driver, anticipating a safety car, did not pit for inters next time around.

Verstappen tore past Schumacher on the inside, but Leclerc lost 1.6 seconds trying to demote the Haas driver to leave him 4.6 seconds in arrears of Verstappen on the ninth lap with 31 minutes to go.

Schumacher remained a sitting duck, losing out to Perez, Esteban Ocon and Lewis Hamilton over the next tour before finally pitting on lap 12 having already dropped to P13.

Verstappen continued to extend his lead with a clear road ahead to the tune of 1.5 seconds per lap. Leclerc, though, seemed to particularly struggle as Perez was also circulating nearly 1s faster.

So, with eight minutes to run and with 243 laps completed, Verstappen held a 18 seconds advantage as Perez was only 0.8 seconds behind the sole Ferrari but despite a couple of chances, never passed.

Perez’s best attempt came when Leclerc missed the first part of the chicane only for the Ferrari driver to rejoin and squeeze Perez to the edge of the track on the sprint to the flag.

That order prevented Red Bull from pitting Verstappen late on for new inters for a shot at fastest lap, as the Dutch racer took the eventual victory an imperious 26.8 seconds clear of Leclerc.

As such, without the extra point, Verstappen appeared set to miss out on his coronation until the United States GP, only for Leclerc to be handed a five-second penalty to drop behind Perez.

Verstappen only learned of his success in the post-race interview.

Behind the top three, passing came at a premium following the rush for inters that had previously jumbled the order. Ocon defended stoutly for fourth ahead of a chasing Hamilton.

Vettel took sixth, having gained a position after Alonso made a late stop for inters to fall to P10 before climbing back up the order, as behind the Alpine ranked George Russell.

The Mercedes was one of few climbers but neatly passed Yuki Tsunoda, Norris and Latifi for ninth.

Latifi’s early move for inters returned points in ninth place as Norris completed the top ten over teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

So congratulations to Max Verstappen in winning the Japanese Grand Prix and the 2022 world championship. Has the most wins in this year’s championship in the Red Bull RB16 and has driven brilliantly all season. So fully deserved this title win despite the surreal ending at Suzuka. This won’t take away Verstappen’s achievements this season. Well done Super Max!

Japanese Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 3:01:44.004
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull +27.066s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +31.763s
4 Esteban Ocon Alpine +39.685s
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +40.326s
6 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +46.358s
7 Fernando Alonso Alpine +46.369s
8 George Russell Mercedes +47.661s
9 Nicholas Latifi Williams +70.143s
10 Lando Norris McLaren +70.782s
11 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +72.877s
12 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +73.904s
13 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +75.599s
14 Kevin Magnussen Haas +86.016s
15 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +86.496s
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +87.043s
17 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +88.091s
18 Mick Schumacher Haas +92.523s
– Alex Albon Williams DNF
– Carlos Sainz Ferrari DNF

Championship-elect Max Verstappen scored an important pole position at Suzuka by edging out Charles Leclerc but the Red Bull driver faces a stewards investigation over an incident with Lando Norris.

Despite failing to improve on his final run in Q3, Verstappen’s banker lap was quick enough to land the top spot in qualifying as Leclerc just dropped a hundredth in the final sector.

That comes as victory and a bonus point for fastest lap will earn Verstappen his second Formula 1 title.

In the climax to qualifying, Leclerc was the first of the pole contenders to begin his flying lap and duly improved on his personal best in the first sector before going quickest of anyone in S2.

But the Ferrari driver ran 0.01 seconds down through the closing part of the lap to miss out by 0.009 seconds, as Verstappen failed to improve in S1 and S3 after running wide and shedding some carbon.

Carlos Sainz, who had the legs on Leclerc earlier in the day, ran to third and was 0.06 seconds down as Sergio Perez will complete the second row, four tenths down on his teammate.

The Singapore Grand Prix winner had gone comfortably fastest in Q2 when Verstappen did not opt for a second lap but then complained of understeer to fall out of the fight for pole position.

Esteban Ocon ran to a strong fifth for Alpine as Lewis Hamilton led the subdued Mercedes attack in sixth over Fernando Alonso.

George Russell set the eighth-fastest time over Sebastian Vettel on his final Formula 1 appearance at Suzuka, while Lando Norris rounded out the top ten.

But there is a question mark hanging over the provisional polesitter.

Verstappen, who set the pace in Q1, led the opening segment in the final part of qualifying as he toured round in one minute, 29.304 seconds to find an imperious quarter of a second over Leclerc and Sainz.

But Norris notably had to take evasive action early into Q3 as he had to take to the grass as Verstappen seemed to attempt to warm the tyres out of 130R and the RB18 stepped wide.

The Red Bull driver did repass Norris and appeared to raise his hand by way of an apology.

The incident took place when both were on an out-lap. It will be investigated post-session.

Vettel ran out of sequence in the 15-minute Q2 to ensure clean air but he did leave himself at risk of being caught out by track position, but he initially climbed as high as fifth position.

While he was shuffled down to tenth to still make it into the shootout for pole as the improvements came, he kept ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who was eliminated in P11.

The McLaren driver had looked strong on Saturday but missed the cut-off by a tiny 0.003 seconds after failing to improve on his crucial lap, as largely determined by an iffy final sector.

Valtteri Bottas dropped time in the opening sector that he could not recover so failed to improve and will start the race in P12 ahead of home favourite Yuki Tsunoda.

Zhou Guanyu took the second Alfa Romeo to P14, while Mick Schumacher was P15, the German having the measure of his teammate Kevin Magnussen despite missing all of FP2 on Friday as the team changed the chassis on his car after he crashed the Haas on an in-lap in a wet FP1.

Aston Martin driver Vettel had just about survived to fight on in Q2 after Alex Albon missed out on the top 15 by a slender 0.055 seconds in the climax to the first part of qualifying.

The Williams driver had already had a lap time deleted for pushing track limits through the famous Spoon Curve. He was then the last to run over the line in Q1 but despite a personal best first sector, he dropped time in the middle part of the lap to ensure he was eliminated.

Struggles and major complaints from both AlphaTauri drivers over the AT03’s braking throughout the session meant Pierre Gasly was knocked out at the first time of asking.

The newly confirmed 2023 Alpine driver locked up through the hairpin, to his immense frustration over team radio, to run only P17 ahead of Magnussen.

Lance Stroll failing to improve on his final go with a lock-up at the hairpin at a cost of four tenths landed him P19, while Nicholas Latifi brought up the rear – the Canadian already down to serve a five-place grid drop for his crash with Zhou in the Singapore Grand Prix.

If Max Verstappen gets a penalty for impending Lando Norris in Q3 at 130R, then the world championship will take an interesting turn at Suzuka despite the Red Bull driver scoring a pole position. If the grid penalty is applied, then Charles Leclerc will get promoted to P1. Down to the race stewards to decide the fate of the Formula 1 title.

Japanese Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:29.304
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:29.314
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:29.361
4 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:29.709
5 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:30.165
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:30.261
7 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:30.322
8 George Russell Mercedes 1:30.389
9 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:30.554
10 Lando Norris McLaren 1:31.003
11 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:30.659
12 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:30.709
13 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:30.808
14 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:30.953
15 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:31.439
16 Alex Albon Williams 1:31.311
17 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:31.322
18 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:31.352
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:31.419
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:31.511

Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez achieved his second victory for the team by resisted the pressure all night long from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. But Checo faces a post-race investigation.

Perez’s Singapore Grand Prix victory at Marina Bay was impressive, as the rain-delayed race was punctuated by safety cars for multiple crashes and breakdowns.

The race was delayed by one hour and five minutes due to torrential rain falling in the build-up to the original start time, but the result was actually not confirmed at the chequered flag as Perez faces a post-race investigation for a safety car infringement.

That had been called into action twice, with three virtual safety car activations also taking place in the wet-to-dry thriller.

At the start, Leclerc and Perez made identical reactions from the front row but the Red Bull accelerated better as they raced away from the line and he swept past the Ferrari to comfortably seize the lead into Turn 1.

Behind, Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton went side-by-side through Turn 1 and made light contact just ahead of the Turn 2 apex, which sent the Mercedes wide and down to third, the incident reviewed by the stewards by deemed not worthy of a full investigation.

The same thing happened for Max Verstappen cutting the first corner after he had bogged down badly leaving the line as his car nearly went into anti-stall mode and he fell from eighth to P12.

Up front, Perez scampered clear of Leclerc – but only to the tune of around a second over the first phase of the race, with Sainz and Hamilton – complaining about his inters to Mercedes very early – soon distanced by over five seconds.

Perez set a series of fastest laps but could only pull out a lead of 1.4 seconds before Leclerc began to home back in, reaching 0.8 seconds behind the Red Bull at the end of lap eight of the scheduled 61.

But there the race was neutralised by a safety car period, extending the streak of every Singapore race featuring such an intervention.

It was called to cover the Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu being recovered from the Turn 5 escape road, where he had parked up after Nicholas Latifi had drifted across his path and sent him into the wall.

This broke Zhou’s front-right wheel and put him out on the spot, while Latifi toured back to the pits with a puncture, where he too retired.

The race resumed at the start of lap 11 with none of the leaders having chosen to pit – the track as it did between FP3 and qualifying taking a long time to dry, hence Perez and Leclerc lapping quickest in the two minutes bracket.

Perez aced the restart and immediately re-established his one-second gap to Leclerc, who also again quickly dropped Sainz and Hamilton – the pre-safety car scenes recreated as the two leaders were the only drivers to now lap in the one minute, 59 seconds bracket.

They exchanged fastest laps before Perez began to edge away, with his lead reaching 1.7 seconds by lap 15 and the quarter-distance mark, where the leaders began to be warned by their teams to cool their inters on the remaining wet patches, with the track still nowhere near the crossover point for slicks.

The leaders reached the one minute, 58 seconds bracket just before lap 20, at which point Perez’s lead went over two seconds for the first time.

Leclerc had just started to slide quickly further back, the race was suspended again with a virtual safety car activation on lap 21 when Fernando Alonso pulled off at Turn 10, his 350th Formula 1 start ending with an apparent engine problem.

The leaders again eschewed pitting for new inters, but back in P15 George Russell made a bold call to take medium slicks.

The VSC lasted two laps, with Perez’s lead over Leclerc resuming at 2.5 seconds but after just three further tours the first of two further VSC activations kicked in when Alex Albon – a lap one spinner at the rear of the pack – slid into the Turn 8 barriers and knocked his front wing off.

He reversed away and drove back to the pits to retire the other Williams, with the VSC ending on lap 27 but being activated again on lap 28 because Esteban Ocon had also retired with an engine issue – the Alpine expiring in a massive blowout over the Anderson Bridge and approaching Turn 13.

Racing resumed on lap 30, with Perez’s lead up to 4.3 seconds before Leclerc shot into the one minute, 56 seconds and he cut the gap back down to under three seconds within two laps.

Here a series of dramatic events took place in the background, with Hamilton, who had been very frustrated tucked up behind Sainz sliding into the barriers solo as he chased the Ferrari on lap 33.

He reversed away and rejoined just in front of 2021 title rival Verstappen, who in turn had been hotly perusing Lando Norris.

On lap one, Verstappen had looked to make quick progress back past Kevin Magnussen, but did not have an easy time of it.

He dived past the Haas at Turn 7, but on the exit appeared to squeeze the Haas towards the wall, the pair making contact and Magnussen’s left-front wing endplate getting damaged.

Magnussen then barged Verstappen out of the way at the tight Turn 11 left just before the Anderson Bridge, but the world champion made his way by on the next lap.

The Turn 7 incident was later investigated by the race stewards, but no penalty was given despite Magnussen being forced to pit to have his front wing changed by the officials just before the safety car appeared.

Verstappen by that point had also passed Yuki Tsunoda before getting stuck behind Sebastian Vettel and running over 20 seconds off the race lead.

That gap was erased by the neutralisation, after which Verstappen jumped Vettel and Pierre Gasly to run seventh by one-quarter distance.

But again he got stuck, this time behind Alonso and he remained there until the Alpine retired ahead.

Verstappen was soon all over Norris’s rear but did not look likely to a quick pass before the Albon and Ocon VSCs – at the end of the second named nearly overtaking Norris when trying to get an early restart jump and falling back.

It was into the gap Hamilton slotted, but his left-front endplate was damaged, which Verstappen reported over the radio in the hope of the Mercedes being black-and-white flagged.

Now at just past the halfway point, Russell was finally setting purple sectors on his slicks, albeit way off the back of the pack.

This triggered a wave of cars to come into the pits, with Tsunoda among the first to do so and take mediums.

But he pushed too hard on his second full lap on the slicks and smashed into the Turn 10 barrier, triggering another safety car.

Perez and Leclerc had already come into the pits – the Ferrari doing so first on lap 34 – before the race was neutralised again on lap 36 so Tsunoda’s wrecked car could be recovered.

Sainz, Hamilton and Verstappen had done likewise, with the Mercedes getting a new nose fitted, while Norris stayed out.

He came in under the safety car, which preserved his lead over Verstappen and they were the centre of attention at the lap 40 restart as Perez and Leclerc, weaving to build temperature into their mediums, easily restored their advantage over Sainz.

On the restart lap, Verstappen immediately moved to pass Norris after the Turn 6 kink down the track’s first long acceleration zone following the corner where Zhou and Latifi had clashed so long before.

But his car appeared to bottom out as he went offline and the world champion locked both his front wheels, severely damaging his mediums.

He pitted at the end of the lap and fell to P13, with the action at the front hotting up as Leclerc fired his slicks up to temperature better than Perez.

He put the Red Bull driver under severe pressure for nearly ten laps, with it now clear the race would end at the two-hour time limit and not go the scheduled distance.

Perez reported engine driveability issues under braking and while accelerating out of corners, which compound his attempts to break free from Leclerc’s lost attention.

This became even harder when DRS was finally activated on lap 43 and here Leclerc’s thrilling pursuit began.

Time and again he feigned to Perez’s inside at every major stop around the Marina Bay track – locking up briefly at Turn 15 on lap 45.

The next two times by there, Perez had major lock-ups too, but he was soaking up the pressure well.

Leclerc got the gap down to 0.4 seconds at the end of lap 47, but having to catch a massive oversteer slide at Turn 16 meant he lost critical momentum and dropped out of DRS range.

He never regained it thereafter, a lap 52 Turn 16 near-off finally breaking his pursuit as Perez’s lead shot to 2.6 seconds.

The was still work for the leader to do as he had been placed under investigation following the second safety car restart, apparently for dropping too far back from ten lengths allowed to the pace car too early, something Hamilton suggested Perez also did at the first safety car restart.

He therefore charged to a winning margin of 7.5 seconds over what was a final distance of 59 laps, with Ferrari telling Leclerc after he crossed the line second that Perez could be facing a pair of five-second penalties if found to be at fault in the investigation.

Sainz took a distant third having never had his teammate’s pace at any point, with Norris also lonely in fourth once Verstappen had erred, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who had also stopped under the safety car and so gained against his Aston Martin rivals.

Lance Stroll was the top green car home – ahead of Verstappen who had put in yet another fight back now on softs, rising back to the points over the concluding laps.

It looked as if he might stay ninth for the finish as he was bottled up again, this time behind Hamilton before the seven-time world champion made another mistake.

While sandwiched between Verstappen and Vettel up ahead, Hamilton tried to pass the second Aston on lap 57, but slid deep having taken to a still-wet part of the track approaching Turn 8.

This allowed Verstappen through and he got Vettel on the last lap, with Hamilton finishing ninth ahead of Gasly.

Russell finished at the rear of the pack behind Valtteri Bottas (11th), who he had lightly hit in a passing lunge during the early stages.

Magnussen took P12 ahead of his teammate Mick Schumacher, who Russell also collided with – this time at Turn 1 just after the second safety car restart in an incident that was investigated but not deemed worthy of punishment.

Russell stopped four times, with a late final service for a second set of softs that he used to set the race’s fastest lap at one minute, 46.458 seconds, for which he will not get a bonus point as he finished P14.

So congratulations to Sergio Perez in winning the Singapore Grand Prix with a solid drive all night by holding off Charles Leclerc. This victory was even more impressive than his Monaco Grand Prix triumph earlier this season as he had pressure all race long with so many safety cars. The post-race investigation is a worry but his dive is well deserved.

Singapore Grand Prix, race results:
1 Sergio Perez Red Bull 2:02:15.238
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +7.595s
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +15.305s
4 Lando Norris McLaren +26.133s
5 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +58.282s
6 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +61.330s
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull +63.825s
8 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +65.032s
9 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +66.515s
10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +74.576s
11 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +93.844s
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas +97.610s
13 Mick Schumacher Haas +1 lap
14 George Russell Mercedes +2 laps
– Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri DNF
– Esteban Ocon Alpine DNF
– Alex Albon Williams DNF
– Fernando Alonso Alpine DNF
– Nicholas Latifi Williams DNF
– Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo DNF

Charles Leclerc came out on top following an exciting wet-to-dry qualifying session at Marina Bay, Singapore, while championship leader Max Verstappen ended up eighth fastest after being told to abandon his final lap.

After heavy rain ahead of the final practice session had soaked the Singapore Grand Prix street circuit and meant that the segment was cut in half, Q1 began with patches for the layout still very wet but the majority dry.

This meant the front-running drivers ran intermediates to get through to Q3 before finally the majority made the switch to slick tyres, with all cars fuelled to circulate throughout each segment to take advantage of the drying conditions and the major track evolution factor.

Lewis Hamilton led the way early in Q3 with a one minute, 53.082 seconds that better Yuki Tsunoda’s initial leading effort still running the inters.

Hamilton, Leclerc and Fernando Alonso exchanged first position throughout the middle part of Q3, while Verstappen showed rapid pace in the first sector before he regularly lost out with big slides in the still-damp parts of the final sector.

Leclerc’s pole-winning time of one minute, 49.412 seconds came with under a minute remaining but his opposition could not depose him at a race where he could lose the 2022 title fight to Verstappen.

Sergio Perez slotted into second before Hamilton posted a purple second sector to briefly threaten Leclerc’s top position before he fell back in the final turns.

Carlos Sainz took fourth ahead of Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly and then came Max Verstappen.

He abandoned his two final runs, the first featuring a stunning first sector before a slide at Turn 18 meant he backed off for one final effort.

He was close but not bettering his previous personal best but was ordered to pit and not complete the lap by Red Bull to his clear frustration and confusion.

The team told him to abort in fear in running out of fuel and not giving a suitable fuel sample in parc ferme. So to avoid disqualification, it’s best to back off, abort and accept this.

Kevin Magnussen had like Tsunoda started Q3 on the inters but switched to slicks much earlier than the AlphaTauri runner, the pair ending up ninth and tenth.

Leclerc topped Q2 while running the inters throughout, despite asking his Ferrari team to consider slicks as the track continued to dry.

While this was assessed at all teams, only the Aston Martin cars of Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll, plus Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu opted to risk the softs.

None of them went quicker than the inter runners, with Vettel blowing what had been a promising final lap by locking both his front wheels and sliding down the Turn 7 escape road.

That left him P14 ahead of Zhou who complained of having “no grip” on his slicks gamble, with Stroll ending up ahead in P12.

Late jumps up the order from Gasly and Magnussen meant George Russell was shuffled down to a shock elimination in P11 for Mercedes, while Mick Schumacher was the other non-slicks runner to miss out on a Q3 berth.

The Haas driver did set a personal best on his final lap but could do no better than P13.

In Q1, the drivers headed out on inters, with the two Mercedes cars queuing at the end of the pitlane waiting for the action to begin, with Magnussen, Leclerc and Alex Albon among the drivers to slide down the escape roads at Turns 8 and 18.

Verstappen also had a big moment sliding towards the wall exiting Turn 17 heading towards the corner underneath the big waterfront grandstand late in the third sector, but held on and went on to top the segment ahead of Hamilton and Leclerc, the last of which did not come in to take a fresh set of inters.

Schumacher’s last-gasp improvement knocked out Valtteri Bottas, with Daniel Ricciardo P17 despite setting a personal best on his final effort.

Esteban Ocon likewise could not find enough late on and ended up a shock P18 ahead of Williams pair Albon and Nicholas Latifi.

So congratulations to Charles Leclerc in taking pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix. His championship rival Max Verstappen will start in the midfield so it’s going to be challenging for the world champion to fight through in the race. So this year’s title success might have to wait until the next race.

Singapore Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:49.412
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:49.434
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:49.466
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:49.583
5 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:49.966
6 Lando Norris McLaren 1:50.584
7 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:51.211
8 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:51.395
9 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:51.573
10 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:51.983
11 George Russell Mercedes 1:54.012
12 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:54.211
13 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:54.370
14 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:54.380
15 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:55.518
16 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:56.083
17 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:56.226
18 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:56.337
19 Alex Albon Williams 1:56.985
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:57.532

Championship leader Max Verstappen produced another superb recovery charge to overcome a grid penalty and jump Charles Leclerc to deny Ferrari a home victory at Monza.

Polesitter Leclerc defied expectation by running a two-stop strategy but his late push on fresh tyres failed to produce enough pace to reel in the defending champion as Verstappen rose from seventh position.

Leclerc had his hopes bolstered by a late safety car that had the potential to throw a spanner in the works, but it was slow to pick up the leaders and duly denied a thrilling sprint to the finish and denied any Ferrari comeback.

That allowed the Red Bull Racing driver to claim his 31st victory, fifth in a row and eleventh of the season to close to within two triumphs of the record for the most successful Formula 1 season.

After a change of internal combustion engine on the advice of supplier Honda, Verstappen lined up seventh thanks to a five-place grid penalty following his lap for second in qualifying.

His RB18 was shod in the softest available C4 tyre to launch well and claim fifth swiftly following an anti-stall trigger for third-starting Lando Norris and a pass on Fernando Alonso.

Verstappen kept climbing in the early stages of the 53-lap 100th anniversary race at Monza. He relegated AlphaTauri pilot Pierre Gasly for fourth at the end of lap one before diving past 2021 Italian Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo under braking into the first chicane for a provisional podium.

That left only Leclerc and second-starting George Russell up ahead, the Mercedes holding firm after aborting the first chicane while squabbling with the Ferrari for the early lead.

Despite the W13 separating the pair, Leclerc and Verstappen traded early fastest laps over the timing line as a net 2.5 seconds split the protagonists.

Then the Red Bull claimed second with a great run out of Ascari before combining DRS and the tow to pass Russell cleanly down the main straight to tee up the fight for the win.

With Verstappen a couple of tenths faster per lap, Ferrari attempted to twist by using a virtual safety car – called when Sebastian Vettel parked up with a smoky engine – to give Leclerc a cheaper pitstop.

He stopped for a set of mediums on lap 13 with a swift 2.2 seconds service just as the green flags were waved to dent the effectiveness of the undercut and Leclerc was released in third with 18 seconds to find.

Despite his aging softs, Verstappen was able to hold a decent pace – lapping only 0.5 seconds slower than Leclerc while holding a 10.2 seconds cushion to Russell as Leclerc trailed by a further 4.1 seconds.

As the F1-75 began to make gains, Verstappen pitted for mediums on lap 26 and courtesy of a quick 2.4 seconds stop, came out only a touch over 10 seconds adrift of the leader.

Verstappen’s fresh rubber enabled him to close the gap to 5.4 seconds when Ferrari called Leclerc in again on lap 34 for softs seemingly for a straightforward run to flag, the Red Bull returning in second over Russell.

Leclerc’s initial pace was subdued but he managed to turn up the wick to lap 0.4 seconds faster than Verstappen as the gap stood at 18 seconds with ten laps to go.

But a spanner was thrown in the works on lap 47 when Ricciardo parked up out of Ascari with an engine failure to trigger a safety car, which was deployed late but Verstappen pitted next time around for new softs and Leclerc swapped to used C4s along with Russell in third.

With the field well spread out, the safety car picking up Russell instead and then the lapped cars of Valtteri Bottas and Yuki Tsunoda splitting the lead duo, plus the McLaren taking time to be cleared by the crane, the race was not restarted to deny a sprint to the flag.

As such, Verstappen secured the win over Leclerc as Russell completed the podium, while Carlos Sainz turned in a rapid first-stint ascension to offset his back of the grid penalty and snare fourth.

Lewis Hamilton did similar, notably holding onto his Mercedes while chasing Alonso plus performing a slick double pass on Norris and Gasly to bag seventh position.

Sergio Perez was able to make the flag despite a persistent brake fire at his first stop for hard tyres, as Norris claimed seventh over Gasly.

Formula E champion Nyck de Vries equalled Williams’ best result of the season in ninth to cap off his fine substitute appearance for an appendicitis-side-lined Alex Albon.

This was an impressive drive by De Vries, subbing at late notice and delivering by finishing in the points with P9.

Zhou Guanyu, meanwhile, completed the top ten for Alfa Romeo ahead of Esteban Ocon and Mick Schumacher.

Behind Bottas and Tsunoda, Nicholas Latifi and Kevin Magnussen (picking up a 5 seconds penalty for aborting the first chicane) completed the runners.

Alongside Ricciardo and Vettel, Lance Stroll and Alonso (suspected water pump failure) were forced to pull up early.

So congratulations to Max Verstappen. After a triple header of races at Spa, Zandvoort and Monza, the Red Bull driver has won it all and is heading towards his second championship title thanks to the big haul of points. Well deserved.

Italian Grand Prix, Monza:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:20:27.511
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +2.446
3 George Russell Mercedes +3.405
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +5.061
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +5.380
6 Sergio Perez Red Bull +6.091
7 Lando Norris McLaren +6.207
8 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +6.396
9 Nyck de Vries Williams +7.122s
10 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +7.910s
11 Esteban Ocon Alpine +8.323s
12 Mick Schumacher Haas +8.549s
13 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +1 lap
14 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +1 lap
15 Nicholas Latifi Williams +1 lap
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
– Daniel Ricciardo McLaren DNF
– Lance Stroll Aston Martin DNF
– Fernando Alonso Alpine DNF
– Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin DNF

Charles Leclerc scored a popular pole position in front of the passionate Tifosi at Monza. Championship leader Max Verstappen qualified in second with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz third but both will drop several grid positions due to exceeding power unit.

Regardless of Verstappen taking a five-place grid drop for a new internal combustion engine, Leclerc set the pace by a quarter of a second to the delight of the home fans as Sainz, who will start at the back of the grid, clocked third over Sergio Perez.

Ferrari had provisionally secured a 1-2 in Q3 as Sainz delivered a one minute, 20.584 seconds on his first run in Q3, helped by a purple run through sector one, to edge Leclerc’s one minute, 20.770 seconds effort.

Verstappen initially settled for third, despite his second-sector prowess, as he was a little under a tenth adrift of the second F1-75.

And then for the climax, it looked as though the Red Bull might offer a last-ditch reply when Verstappen clocked the fastest run through the middle part of the circuit yet again to heap on the pressure.

Even though Leclerc had been a couple of hundredths slower than Sainz’s benchmark in S1 and never stitched together a purple sector, his combined effort scored a peerless one minute, 20.161 seconds.

That gave him the bragging rights over Verstappen’s one minute, 20.306 seconds even before the RB18 takes up sixth on the grid as Sainz ran to a one minute, 20.429 seconds.

With Perez dropping ten places – Check having been a league behind the top three as he 0.8 seconds down on the sister Red Bull – and Lewis Hamilton another driver exceeding his permitted parts limit, George Russell will start alongside Leclerc.

This came despite the Mercedes W13 again struggling to heat its tyres.

Lando Norris, meanwhile, snared seventh fastest over Daniel Ricciardo as Pierre Gasly did enough to pip Alpine’s Fernando Alonso – the double champion aborting his final run.

Gasly had fired himself into the top ten shootout courtesy of a one minute, 22.062 seconds effort in Q2 to find 0.07 seconds over Esteban Ocon, the Alpine driver missing out in P11 after running slower in the first and second sectors compared to his previous lap.

Gasly escaped the stewards’ attention for being released side-by-side with Lando Norris as part of a late flurry to find track position when all left the garages with two minutes and 20 seconds to go.

Valtteri Bottas, who struggled on the brakes throughout practice, ran to P12 ahead of Formula E champion and Alex Albon replacement Nyck de Vries aboard the Williams.

De Vries had been complaining in his first-ever F1 qualifying session of struggling on the brakes into the first chicane, but his final flying lap was scuppered later in the lap.

On the approach to the second chicane, the former Formula 2 and Formula E champion locked the rears to suffer a big snap which he eventually caught, but immediately knew his qualifying session was done.

Despite that error, he put the FW44’s straight-line speed supremacy to good use to take a solid P14 ahead of Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo and Yuki Tsunoda.

The AlphaTauri driver, who joins Hamilton and Sainz with a back of the grid penalty, did not take part in Q2.

That came after Verstappen became the first driver of the weekend to fall below one minute, 21 seconds, having topped the 18-minute Q1 by 0.35 seconds over Leclerc courtesy of his one minute, 20.922 seconds flier.

But it was less rosy for Nicholas Latifi, whose struggles on the brakes eliminated him in the first part of qualifying as he lapped just two hundredths slower than de Vries’s first go.

Subbing for an appendicitis-sidelined Alex Albon, de Vries hung on for a Q2 appearance despite his final faster lap in Q1 behind scrubbed for pushing his luck with track limits.

Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, continued his run of Q1 exits in P17 while Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll was only P18 as Haas brought up the rear.

It was a messy session for both VF-22s, as Kevin Magnussen twice had his times deleted for exceeding track limits thanks to a brace of offences at the second Lesmo.

Mick Schumacher, who was stymied in practice by clutch issues, ran slowest after a considerable front-right lock up into the first chicane to run straight on.

So congratulations to Charles Leclerc. To take pole position in the Italian Grand Prix driving a Ferrari in the team’s home event is a rewarding and with so many drivers with grid penalties this is the best chance for Leclerc to win the race.

Italian Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:20.161
2 George Russell Mercedes 1:21.542
3 Lando Norris McLaren 1:21.584
4 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:21.925
5 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:22.648
6 Fernando Alonso Alpine No time
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:20.306
8 Nyck de Vries Williams 1:22.471
9 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:22.577
10 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:22.587
11 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:22.636
12 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:22.748
13 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:21.206
14 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:22.130
15 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:22.235
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:22.908
17 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:23.005
18 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:20.429
19 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:21.524
20 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri No time

Championship leader Max Verstappen scored an important result at his home race in front of the massive orange army by winning the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, his tenth victory of the season for Red Bull Racing.

Although Verstappen won from pole and initially looked to have Charles Leclerc easily covered, Mercedes’ race pace brought it into play with a one-stop strategy versus Red Bull’s planned two services.

That gave Lewis Hamilton a chance for an unlikely win, before he initially lost that then regained during dramatic virtual and the full safety car periods close to the end of the race.

When the lights went out under thick cloud cover that had built up ahead of the start, Verstappen quickly moved to chop off Leclerc’s look to the inside of Turn 1.

In any case, the Ferrari driver was never close enough to make a move, while behind, Sainz and Hamilton touched lightly as the Mercedes gained ground considerably around the inside of the Tarzan hairpin.

The pack made it through the opening turns without further incident, with Hamilton the only one of the leaders to use the low line through the steeply banked Hugenholtz Turn 3.

Verstappen pressed his advantage to escape DRS range to Leclerc by the end of the second lap of 72, with Leclerc going from 1.5 seconds behind two laps later to only a second behind his rival over the next few tours.

But just as it looked as if Leclerc might be able to gain the overtaking aid, Verstappen suddenly found a chunk of pace in the low one minute, 16 seconds to re-establish his bigger advantage.

The two leaders were the only pair able to stay in that laptime bracket, with Sainz soon falling far behind Leclerc and with Hamilton swarming, the highest place driver to start on the medium tyres compared to the softs being run on the leading three cars.

As the race settled down, Verstappen continued to edge away from Leclerc, his lead rising steadily towards three seconds before ballooning to nearly five before Ferrari called Leclerc in at the end of lap 17.

Red Bull responded on the subsequent tour and despite his similar service to go from the softs to the mediums being nearly a second slower than Ferrari’s, Verstappen emerged with his lead barely tripped given his in- and out-lap speed.

The top two pitting left Hamilton to lead on his first stint mediums, with George Russell running three seconds behind his Mercedes teammate having started on the same compound and battled by Lando Norris once DRS was activated after the McLaren had jumped the second Silver Arrows car at the start.

Verstappen and Leclerc used their fresh mediums to head back towards the Mercedes cars over the next phase of the race, with the Red Bull, which had been nearly nine seconds off Hamilton’s lead when he returned from the pits, reaching DRS range behind Russell on lap 27.

But at the start of the next lap, Verstappen used the DRS to shoot right up behind the Mercedes and blast by to move up to second on the outside run through Tarzan.

Before Verstappen could close on Hamilton, Mercedes brought the driver in to take the hard tyres at the end of lap 29, an attempt to complete the race on a one-stop strategy.

With the home hero handed the lead back and saying he was not interested in trying the hards, Hamilton rejoined a net fourth behind Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull, Sainz having fallen out of contention due to a calamitous Ferrari pitstop shortly before Leclerc came in for the first time.

As Verstappen began a charge that would double his lead over Leclerc and be ten seconds clear shortly after halfway, while Hamilton and Russell used their hards to quickly home in on Perez.

On lap 36, Hamilton used DRS to attack Perez on Tarzan’s outside line, with Perez locking up on the inside and the running aggressively running the Mercedes wide before Hamilton backed off.

Hamilton attacked again on the Turn 11 entry to the track’s stadium but was again rebuffed on the outside line, but the next time by into Turn 1 he was able to run around the outside to take third.

But there was a sudden danger when Sebastian Vettel’s lapped Aston Martin emerged from the pits just ahead of the battling pair and stayed ahead for several corners, which meant Perez could crowd Hamilton but was unable to pass when Vettel eventually allowed the by, the Aston Martin driver receiving a five-second penalty for his actions.

Hamilton set off after Leclerc and Verstappen, who had changed his mind about the durability of his mediums and Red Bull considering hards for his second stop, which it gave to Perez on lap 40, just after Russell had also passed him at Turn 1.

Ferrari realised Leclerc would have little defence against the charging Mercedes pair and he also came in to take the hards at the end of lap 45, by which time Hamilton had gone from nearly 20s behind Verstappen to not much above half that.

But around the same time, the race changed dramatically when Yuki Tsunoda stopped in the middle of the fast Turn 4/5 sequence, initially fearing his wheels were not properly attached after his second stop back in the pack.

He got going again and returned to the pits where AlphaTauri spent 30 seconds checking something inside his cockpit – possibly his seat belts – before he rejoined but then did stop at Turn 4 saying he thought the differential was broken.

That meant the virtual safety car was activated and Red Bull could bring Verstappen in for hards with a cheap pitstop, which preserved his lead.

In fact, it stayed exactly the same as Mercedes also used the temporary suspension to put Hamilton and Russell back onto the mediums – the former recognising the VSC had “stuffed” his previous charge on the one-stopper.

When the action went green again on lap 50, Verstappen and the Mercedes shot into the 1m14s bracket, with Hamilton facing a 12.6 seconds gap and Leclerc back to fourth after losing out having made his stop before the VSC.

Over the next couple of laps, Hamilton closed that to 11.4 seconds before the race picture was massively altered again on lap 55, this time because Valtteri Bottas lost power in his Alfa Romeo and pulled over just before the first corner on the main straight.

That meant the safety car was activated, with Red Bull bringing Verstappen in to go back to the hards and the two Mercedes staying out while most others – including Leclerc – also dived in to fit the red-walled rubber.

The next time by, Russell demanded Mercedes put him on the softs as he was losing tyre temperature in the mediums at low speed, which allowed Verstappen back into second behind Hamilton who remained on the yellow-walled compound.

The race restarted on lap 61, where Verstappen was all over Hamilton’s rear end as they raced down the main straight and he easily slipstreamed by to retake the lead.

Verstappen blasted to a 1.7 seconds lead at the end of the first lap back to racing speed, with Hamilton fuming to Mercedes about its decision to leave him on the mediums.

His pace was so poor Russell, who had seen off Leclerc’s attentions around the outside of Turn 1 at the restart, was able to quickly close in and jump his teammate, although not before they nearly came together running down the main straight when Russell had DRS.

Hamilton was then overcome by Leclerc to fall off the podium, still sending angry radio messages about his final tyre strategy, while Verstappen pulled out an eventual winning margin of 4.0 seconds.

Sainz crossed the line fifth having come back into the picture and got ahead of Perez during the VSC and safety car chaos, but he dropped down to eighth in the final order as a result of an unsafe release into the path of Fernando Alonso at their final stops during the Bottas-stoppage-caused race neutralisation.

That meant Perez, Alonso and Norris moved ahead to take positions five to seven, with Sainz also having to explain post-race an incident with Esteban Ocon (ninth) where the Ferrari appeared to overtake the Alpine under yellow flags activated when Bottas stopped.

This followed Sainz’s initial first pitstop disaster when Ferrari did not have all his medium tyres ready in time and Perez, behind the Alpine driver in the first stint after starting fifth, running over and breaking a Ferrari wheel gun that had been left in his path in the tight pitlane.

Lance Stroll completed the top ten, with Bottas and Tsunoda the only retirements.

So congratulations to Max Verstappen in winning his home event for the second year in a row. This is looking good in terms of the championship with a healthy points lead over his rival. It’s Ferrari’s home race next at the temple of speed at Monza.

Dutch Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:36:42.773
2 George Russell Mercedes 4.071s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 10.929s
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 13.016s
5 Sergio Perez Red Bull 18.168s
6 Fernando Alonso Alpine 18.754s
7 Lando Norris McLaren 19.306s
8 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 20.916s
9 Esteban Ocon Alpine 21.117s
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 22.459s
11 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 27.009s
12 Alex Albon Williams 30.390s
13 Mick Schumacher Haas 32.995s
14 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 36.007s
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas 36.869s
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 37.320s
17 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 37.764s
18 Nicholas Latifi Williams FW44 +1 lap
– Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo DNF
– Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri DNF

Championship leader Max Verstappen took pole position at his home race, Zandvoort, beating Charles Leclerc by a tiny margin of 0.021 seconds.

Verstappen ended up with pole after reversing Leclerc’s advantage from the opening Q1 runs, with the session interrupted by race fans throwing flares onto the track, causing Q2 to be red flagged.

Leclerc led Verstappen by 0.059 seconds after the first Q3 runs, with the 2022 frontrunners converging on pace after Red Bull’s tricky start to the weekend.

The Ferrari driver set the quickest times in the first and last sectors on his final lap, but being unable to replicate his best time in the middle part of the track cost him dear.

This was because Verstappen set a purple sector and ended up with a best time of one minute, 10.342 seconds, 0.021 seconds quicker than his rival.

Carlos Sainz slotted into third position just before Sergio Perez spun at the end of his final lap – Checo dipping his left-side wheels into the gravel at the exit of the penultimate corner and spearing around to the inside of the banked final turn.

That meant the following Mercedes drivers were obliged to lift off and so Lewis Hamilton ended up fourth with Perez fifth ahead of George Russell.

Lando Norris took seventh ahead of Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda, while Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finished tenth after being unable to run in Q3 due a technical issue on his car.

Stroll’s mechanics were spotted inspecting the front damper area of his AMR2022 before Q3 began – the final segment featuring flare smoke blowing from the pit exit but covered by a brief yellow flag ahead of the final runs.

Q2 was suspended shortly after it had begun when another lit flare from the grandstands overlooking the exit of Turn 12 and the last part of the track’s stadium section was thrown on the track.

The FIA, which said the person who threw the flare “identified and removed by event security”, suspended the action until it went out and could be removed.

During the stoppage, the marshals at Turn 7 attempted to clear some pigeons that had settled on the inside of that corner, which Alex Albon had noted as he ran solo at the start of the middle segment before the flare had to be cleared.

The Q2 action resumed after a six-minute delay and when it ended Pierre Gasly ended up as the highest-placed runner eliminated in P11 – despite setting a personal best time on his final flier.

That meant Tsunoda survived to reach Q3, with Esteban Ocon likewise knocked out after producing his best time at the end of Q2.

Fernando Alonso trailed his Alpine teammate in P13, but put the blame for his early exit on encountering Perez going slowly on an in-lap through the Turn 9 double apex right-hander.

Zhou Guanyu finished P14 for Alfa Romeo, with Albon shuffled back from P10 to P15 after completing his final lap well ahead of the rest in the closing Q2 minutes.

In Q1, Gasly’s late improvement knocked out Valtteri Bottas in the other Alfa Romeo, with Kevin Magnussen, initially out in P17 but was soon dropped to P18 as his flirtation with track limits at the Hugenholtz on his final flier went too far and the FIA deleted his effort.

That meant Daniel Ricciardo finished P17 when teammate Norris had got through the opening segment in fifth, while Sebastian Vettel ended up back in P19 after making a major error on his last lap.

Just after he had set a then fastest time in the first sector and his quickest middle sector of Q1, Vettel could not hold an oversteer snap through the penultimate corner and so slid wide and into the gravel trap on the exit.

Nicholas Latifi finished last for Williams.

So after a tricky practice sessions on Friday in which Max Verstappen suffered a gearbox/driveshaft issue and lost valuable track time, the Red Bull driver bounced back in terms of pace to take pole position in qualifying. Can Max score a popular win in front of his home fans? The pressure is on at Zandvoort.

Dutch Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:10.342
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:10.363
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:10.434
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:10.648
5 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:11.077
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:11.147
7 Lando Norris McLaren 1:11.174
8 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:11.442
9 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:12.556
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Mercedes No time
11 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:11.512
12 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:11.605
13 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:11.613
14 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:11.704
15 Alex Albon Williams 1:11.802
16 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:11.961
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:12.041
18 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:12.081
19 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:12.391
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:13.353

Championship leader Max Verstappen was in masterclass form despite starting the Belgian Grand Prix in P14 following power unit changes to take victory at Spa-Francorchamps and leading home a Red Bull 1-2 over teammate Sergio Perez.

The defending champion stretched his points lead over Charles Leclerc by taking control of events at Spa, moving into first position as early as lap 12 of 44 before cruising to a 18 seconds win.

With the Red Bull RB18 proving so effective in a straight line to allow Perez to dart past polesitter Carlos Sainz on the long Kemmel Straight, Checo brought home second.

Meanwhile, Sainz completed the podium ahead of George Russell as Lewis Hamilton retired following an opening lap crash with former McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso.

Despite topping qualifying over Sainz by a might 0.6 seconds, Verstappen was dropped into the pack for exceeding his allocation of power units – but an electrical glitch on the grid for AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly promoted Verstappen to start P13, one spot over Leclerc.

That appeared to leave it up to second-starting Perez to take the fight to Sainz, but he fluffed his launch to drop to fifth into Les Combe behind both Mercedes and Alonso.

With the medium tyre RB18 bogging down, soft-starting Sainz was afforded an easy run through La Source to consolidate first place ahead of the Alpine as Hamilton tucked into Alonso’s tow on the climb up the hill.

But the pair made contact into Les Combe. Alonso appeared to be fully over the inside kerb, but was pinched by the W13 as Hamilton’s rear-right making contact with Alonso’s front-left tyre.

That launched the W13’s back axle into the air and although the seven-time champion initially rejoined, he was very slow and swiftly parked up with a loss of water pressure.

The yellow flags then morphed into a full safety car after Nicholas Latifi and Valtteri Bottas came to blows at the exit of the chicane, with the Alfa Romeo ending up in the gravel.

Starting in P14, Ocon messed up the corner to run over the inside sausage kerb, it appeared to put Latifi off line as he ran wide and kissed the gravel to pitch the Williams into a spin.

Bottas was innocently collected and turned around to retire. However, both this and the Alonso-Hamilton bash passed without penalties after investigation.

However, Hamilton was given with a warning for not visiting the medical centre despite his shunt exceeding the stipulated impact limit.

Sainz lost his initial 2.1 seconds lead over Perez to the safety car as Russell slotted into third ahead of Russell and a flying Sebastian Vettel, the retiring Aston Martin driver rising from ninth.

Leclerc, meanwhile, was forced to pit at the end of lap three after a visor tear-off had lodged itself in his front-right brake duct to cause overheating and reports of smoke.

He was stopped from ninth, one spot behind title rival Verstappen, for mediums.

As the safety car peeled in at the end of lap four, Sainz led a very slow restart and even locked up into the Bus Stop chicane but a fine exit kept him clear of Perez.

The RB18 driver duly locked up into La Source, forcing him to worry about Russell behind as Sainz pulled a 1.2 seconds gap.

Meanwhile, Verstappen picked off Daniel Ricciardo and then used DRS to fly past Alonso for fourth place on the Kemmel Straight with 1.6 seconds to find to the Mercedes ahead. But that only took until lap eight before Verstappen dragged past Russell to get one foot on the podium.

The 2.6 seconds deficit to Perez was soon eviscerated by Verstappen, but he was delayed getting past his team-mate, who didn’t give way as easily as he could have done into Les Combes.

But with an early fastest lap effort under his belt, and having complained about the “silly” amount of time lost, Verstappen closed and slipstreamed past out of Eau Rouge.

With Ferrari pitting Sainz for a set of mediums at the end of lap 11 before losing time rejoining behind Ricciardo, Verstappen’s initial ascent to first place had been completed.

Such was Verstappen’s prowess that despite running the more delicate soft tyres in warmer temperatures than experienced at any point in the weekend, he was more able to edge life out of them than renowned tyre whisperer Perez on the mediums.

So much so, Red Bull pitted Perez at the end of lap 14 for another set of the yellow-walled tyres while Verstappen stayed out and continued to nurse his C4s.

With Perez effectively keeping Leclerc at bay as he rejoined, the Red Bull squeezing the Ferrari on the outside into Les Combes to the point where the pair made brief contact.

Verstappen eventually came into the pits at the end of lap 15 as his levels of traction deteriorated, Red Bull swapping him into mediums to rejoin in front of Perez.

That left Sainz with a 4.7 seconds cushion to protect the win, the Ferrari’s mediums now four laps old. But Verstappen tore chunks out the gap and on lap 17 was on the F1-75’s rear.

First position and eventual win would effectively be decided when Verstappen powered up Eau Rouge and used DRS to leap Sainz into Les Combes.

Three laps later, Perez was right on the Ferrari and sold Sainz a dummy on the Kemmel Straight to power around the outside for second place and a Red Bull 1-2.

Sainz would pit for his second stop on lap 25, switching to hards as Leclerc was moved onto mediums. Verstappen would make his final visit to the pits of lap 30 for mediums and returned with an 8 seconds lead over Perez.

Lapping consistently seven tenths faster than his stablemate, Verstappen was able to cross the line with fastest lap to claim the spoils by 17.8 seconds and edge closer to a 100-point lead.

With Perez on the hard tyre to cover off Sainz, the Red Bull crossed the line 9 seconds ahead of the lead Ferrari as Russell ran to fourth another 2.2 seconds in arrears.

Leclerc was pitted on the penultimate lap for a switch to softs in a bid to nick the point for fastest lap off Verstappen. But on cool tyres, was released into the path of Alonso.

The Alpine picked off the Ferrari for fifth, and while Leclerc recovered the place on the last lap, he missed the bonus point and was then knocked back to sixth owing to a 5 seconds penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Ocon crossed the line in seventh, helped by a glorious double overtake on the Kemmel Straight as he picked up a powerful tow from Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly.

Vettel, meanwhile, led Gasly as Alex Albon completed the top ten for Williams.

For much of the second half, Albon kept a train of cars at bay – the queue led by Lance Stroll and then Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu and Danuel Ricciardo.

Kevin Magnussen led team-mate Mick Schumacher for P16 and P17 as Latifi eventually finished in P18.

So a dominant victory for Max Verstappen even with the grid penalty. The pace of the Red Bull RB18 is simply outstanding and gaining more points is vital in terms of the championship. The next race is Max’s home event so big pressure is on as his passionate fans are expecting another top result but given his top form, this is looking very good. So congratulations Max with this P1.

Belgian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:25:52.894
2 Sergio Pérez Red Bull +17.841s
3 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari +26.886s
4 George Russell Mercedes +29.140s
5 Fernando Alonso Alpine +73.256s
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +74.936s
7 Esteban Ocon Alpine +75.640s
8 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +78.107s
9 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +92.181s
10 Alexander Albon Williams +101.900s
11 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +103.078s
12 Lando Norris McLaren +104.739s
13 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +105.217s
14 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +106.252s
15 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +107.163s
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
17 Mick Schumacher Haas +1 lap
18 Nicholas Latifi Williams +1 lap
– Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo DNF
– Lewis Hamilton Mercedes DNF

Championship leader Max Verstappen dominated qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps but grid penalties mean Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz will line up on pole position.

The Red Bull driver elected not to take part in the final shootout in Q3, knowing he will start from the back of the grid owing to a drop for exceeding his permitted parts count.

Nevertheless, his banker lap was so fast that he topped the session by six tenths of a second as Sainz’s messy final flying lap meant he was unable to improve.

Sergio Perez will join the Scuderia on the front row of the grid, while Leclerc will meet Verstappen as the pair are poised to line up in P13 and P14.

Verstappen was a class apart after the first round of flying laps in the final to qualifying, the defending champopn setting a one minute, 43.665 seconds – the sole sub one minute, 44 seconds lap of the weekend.

That gave him a mighty 0.632 seconds in hand over Sainz, while Perez was third and another two tenths back before his lap was flagged for exceeding track limits at Raidillon.

Leclerc, meanwhile, was fourth, having been initially sent out on a set of scrubbed softs.

While both Alpines, Mercedes, Norris and Albon were also released on used rubber, Ferrari admitted over team radio this was a mistake.

Team boss Mattia Binotto even appeared to intimate pointing a gun to his head on the pit wall after Leclerc crossed the line.

Leclerc then dived back out of the pits after his sole effort to just pick up Sainz out of La Source to tow his teammate down the long Kemmel Straight.

But the tactics proved in vain as Sainz missed his personal best first sector before clipping the gravel through Les Fanges to wind up on a one minute, 44.714 seconds and duly failing to improve.

That left his earlier one minute, 44.297 seconds as his best effort, however the British Grand Prix winner has no penalties to carry over to the grid to line up on first.

Perez similarly failed to improve at his second attempt, while Esteban Ocon (also destined to be sent to the back of the grid) pipped Alpine teammate Fernando Alonso for a team 5-6 result.

Lewis Hamilton led George Russell for seventh and eighth, the W13s running some 1.8 seconds off Verstappen. A massive disadvantage in terms of performance…

Mercedes appears to be on the back foot for what might have been its best shot at a race win in 2022 given Verstappen and Leclerc’s reprimand.

Alex Albon starred in Q3 as Williams made its straight-line speed count in the opening sector (Albon running fastest of everyone), as he clocked ninth and is poised to line up in sixth position.

Lando Norris, meanwhile, opted against a second flying lap and was P10 in Q1, but he too has penalties to serve.

Albon’s late dash over the line in Q2 bumped Daniel Ricciardo out by 0.1 seconds, although the departing McLaren driver is set to start in seventh place with grid penalties considered.

Ricciardo stayed in the garage initially to pin all his hopes on one flying lap. But with teammate Norris destined to start at the back of the grid, Ricciardo was given a tow by his McLaren colleague.

The McLarens worked together for the Kemmel Straight but even still Daniel ran slower than Lando’s likely unaided lap to sit in P10 before Albon improved over the line.

That relegated Ricciardo, where he was joined on the sidelines by AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, Zhou Guanyu in the Alfa Romeo, Lance Stroll and Mick Schumacher, who ran P15 fastest.

Neither Red Bull required a second bite of the cherry and so remained in the garage, which left the door open for Leclerc to top Q2 late on by 0.15 seconds courtesy of his one minute, 44.551 seconds effort.

However, his banker had been only good enough for sixth – the Ferrari driver have clipped the grass in his “very strange” car before losing the back end through the Bus Stop chicane.

Perez ending Q2 only 0.07 seconds adrift of Verstappen was a little flattered by him running fresh soft Pirellis while the defending champion plied his trade on a scrubbed set of tyres.

Sebastian Vettel was the first driver to miss out on a Q2 appearance, the retiring Aston Martin driver being knocked at in the first 18-minute session yet again.

The four-time champion crossed the line just 0.002 seconds adrift of the cut-off, set by his effective protégé Schumacher in P15 after the Haas driver’s late improvement.

With Verstappen sitting pretty by 0.5 seconds at the top of the leaderboard over Sainz after their banker laps, neither Red Bull nor Ferrari drivers opted for a second flying lap as they occupied the top four positions.

The remaining 15 cars, with Ocon then fifth, headed out with three minutes and 30 seconds to go and felt the benefit of track evolution as all those in the bottom five place began to improve.

Yuki Tsunoda had been P15 at the time and the first driver at risk, and the AlphaTauri driver did his chances no favour when he locked up massively into the Bus Stop chicane to abort the corner and left himself prey. He was duly bumped to P19.

He was only faster than Valtteri Bottas, but the Alfa Romeo driver was already destined to start near the back of the grid owing to a 20-place penalty for component changes – much like Norris, Schumacher, Ocon, Zhou, Leclerc, and Verstappen.

As a result, it appears likely that despite his mistake, Tsunoda will start the race in P13.

Kevin Magnussen was only P18 fastest, behind Nicholas Latifi in P17 – while Williams team-mate Albon using the low-downforce FW44 to smash the fast-opening sector to climb to sixth in Q1.

The start of qualifying had been delayed by 25 minutes, announced a quarter of an hour before the session began, owing to Les Fagnes barrier repairs prompted by a Porsche Supercup shunt.

So a mixed up grid positions for the Belgian Grand Prix following a raft of grid penalties due to a exceeding parts of the power unit. This will certainly make the Spa-Francorchamps race exciting.

Belgian Grand Prix starting grid after penalties are applied:
1 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:44.297
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:44.462
3 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:45.368
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:45.503
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:45.776
6 Alex Albon Williams 1:45.837
7 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:45.767
8 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:45.827
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:46.611
10 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:46.344
11 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:46.401
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:46.557
13 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:46.692
14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:47.866
15 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:43.665
16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1;44.553
17 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:45.180
18 Lando Norris McLaren 1:46.178
19 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:46.085
20 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:47.718