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
Belgian Grand Prix race review as reported by Formula1.com.
Max Verstappen made light work of his grid penalties to win the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix from P14 on the grid in a Red Bull one-two backed up by Sergio Perez, while pole-sitter Carlos Sainz finished P3 for Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso tangled at Les Combes on Lap 1, leaving the Mercedes driver out of the race before Valtteri Bottas spun out in avoidance of Nicholas Latifi and brought out a Safety Car on Lap 2.
The restart saw Verstappen line up eighth while Sainz led Perez – Leclerc having had to pit for mediums with a tear-off in his brake duct. Verstappen made quick work of the cars ahead, sweeping into P3 by Lap 8 with only Perez and Sainz to beat.
Sainz pitted from softs to mediums on Lap 12, when Perez allowed Verstappen past and into the lead. The Dutchman extended his lead until Lap 15 and clawed back the deficit to Sainz, taking the lead on Lap 19 – taking another free pit stop on Lap 31 – before going on to win over Perez by over 18 seconds in a dominant display, with fastest lap to boot.
Sainz completed the podium ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, who had previously passed Charles Leclerc but lost out on the final podium place by just over two seconds.
Leclerc made a late pit stop for soft tyres in an effort to take fastest lap, but missed out on the bonus point and only just held on to P5 ahead of Fernando Alonso. However, after being caught for speeding in the pit lane, a five-second penalty dropped him to P6.
The two-time champion was re-passed by the Ferrari on the final lap but finished ahead of team mate Esteban Ocon, who overhauled Sebastian Vettel (P8) and Pierre Gasly (P9) late in the race. Alex Albon rounded out the top 10 for Williams, fending off Lance Stroll for the final point.
Lando Norris caught up to a battling Albon and Stroll by the end of the race but the McLaren driver missed out and finished 12th, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, who won a late-race battle against Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.
That left Daniel Ricciardo in P15 ahead of the Haas pair – Kevin Magnussen 16th and Mick Schumacher 17th – while Nicholas Latifi finished 18th after taking three pit stops.
Almost heralding the news that Spa-Francorchamps will remain on the calendar for 2023, the historic Ardennes circuit was basking in the sun on Sunday afternoon. That of course meant that conditions would be markedly different to the cool climes of Friday and Saturday.
Qualifying saw Carlos Sainz take pole position ahead of Sergio Perez even though Max Verstappen set the fastest time, as eight drivers were hit with engine and gearbox-related grid penalties for the Belgian Grand Prix. Those drivers were Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon, Lando Norris, Zhou Guanyu, Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda – who would cop a pit lane start after further power unit changes.
Verstappen was therefore aiming not only to extend his championship lead of 80 points, but become the first driver to win the Belgian Grand Prix from P14 or lower since Michael Schumacher, in 1995. Only Sainz, Bottas, Verstappen and Leclerc would start on softs, Tsunoda the sole hard-tyred starter – with the rest on mediums.
Lights out, and Sainz reacted quickest while Fernando Alonso jumped to second ahead of the Mercedes pair and Perez was bumped down to fifth behind the Silver Arrows. Hamilton edged ahead of Alonso going into Les Combes but the Alpine driver ran out of room and briefly rendered his rival airborne. The Mercedes driver was out of the race.
“This guy only knows how to drive and start in first,” exclaimed a furious Alonso.
Verstappen had a flying first lap, jumping all the way to P8 on his soft compounds, while Leclerc was up to 10th by the end of Lap 1. The start of Lap 2 signalled another collision – and a Safety Car – as birthday boy Valtteri Bottas spun out in avoidance of an out-of-control Nicholas Latifi, who himself seemed to be avoiding Ocon.
Behind the Safety Car, Sainz would line up ahead of Perez then Russell and Alonso, with Vettel rounding out the top five. Leclerc would have lined up ninth behind Verstappen but he reported smoke from his front-right tyre and soon had to pit under caution, on Lap 4, taking medium tyres, and lining up 17th ahead of new-nosed Latifi. Ferrari’s pit wall soon confirmed that a tear-off had caused Leclerc’s front-right brake to overheat, and that he was aiming for a one-stop strategy from there on.
The race restarted on Lap 5, just after Sainz locked up into the final chicane while prepping for the resumption, which caused Perez to back off and lock up into La Source and Russell to slow in avoidance. That gave Alonso a run at Russell down the Kemmel Straight but no positions had changed hands, at least in the top five; Verstappen had jumped to seventh at the expense of Alex Albon and taken another to P6 from Daniel Ricciardo at the final chicane. Ricciardo would then relinquish P7 to Albon down the Kemmel Straight.
Apart from Verstappen, the biggest gainers by the end of Lap 5 were Ocon, Norris, and Zhou, who had made up five places apiece in the start, Tsunoda up six.
The championship leader was far and away the fastest on track, prying places off Vettel on Lap 6 at the final chicane, then Alonso with DRS on Lap 7. Sainz, holding a two-second lead over Perez, was told to switch to “Plan B”.
By Lap 8, Verstappen had made his way into the podium places with a DRS pass on Russell well before Les Combes, and had just 2.5s between him and the leader. Leclerc meanwhile was 14th by the start of Lap 9, having made it past the AlphaTauris in a show of Ferrari’s pace, overhauling the Alfa Romeo of Zhou and the Haas of Kevin Magnussen soon after.
Albon and Gasly chose to pit for hards on Lap 11, the Williams and AlphaTauri all but committing to a one-stopper, before Sainz stopped for mediums at the end of that tour – emerging sixth but making his way past Ricciardo for fifth soon after.
At the start of Lap 12, Verstappen meanwhile lit up the airwaves by telling his team that he was losing a “silly amount of time” behind Perez, and the Dutchman duly swept past down the straight to take the lead into Les Combes.
Pit stops for hard tyres soon came for McLaren’s Ricciardo and Alpine’s Ocon – but not the Red Bulls – with Russell taking mediums and Norris taking hards shortly afterwards on Lap 14. Sainz was up to third, having easily passed Vettel and the stationary Mercedes of Russell; Verstappen was adamant about extending his stint.
Perez had to react to Russell and pitted for mediums on Lap 15, emerging perilously close to Leclerc (the pair making slight contact down the Kemmel) and just behind Sainz.
With a 13.8-second lead over Sainz, Verstappen entered the pits at the end of Lap 15 and emerged in second, just 4.6 seconds behind the pole-sitter.
Leclerc reeling from his close call with Perez, Russell made it past the Ferrari driver with DRS, dropping Leclerc down to P5. As for the other Ferrari, he was being reeled in by Verstappen and the Dutchman took the lead down the straight, having previously and sensibly aborted a move around the outside of La Source on Lap 19. By the end of that lap, his lead stood at over 2.5 seconds.
While Verstappen pried the lead off Sainz, Ferrari opened up long negotiations with Leclerc – asking him if he would like to stop again to ensure a P5 finish…
Perez had his chance to back up a Ferrari one-two long before Les Combes on Lap 21 and duly made the pass on Sainz, leaving the Spaniard in the final podium position.
With Red Bull heading into the sunset for a one-two finish, Ferrari double-stacked their drivers – Sainz taking hards and Leclerc mediums – on Lap 26 with the former emerging fourth in chase of Russell’s podium place, and the latter seventh. Leclerc would soon pass Ocon for P6, prying P5 off Vettel on Lap 31.
Perez reacted to the Ferraris on Lap 28, taking his second stop for hard tyres and emerging third – which became second when Russell pitted from mediums to hards on Lap 30. That released Sainz back into the final podium spot, the Briton chasing him down having extended his second stint.
Verstappen, having extended his first soft-tyred stint, came in for another set of mediums on Lap 31 and emerged well in the lead. Ferrari might have begun to sense that their woes would be compounded with Russell cutting into Sainz’s five-second lead for the final podium spot. That became clear when Sainz asked if a three-stop strategy was on the cards, before being told that this would drop him behind Russell.
With a margin of victory of 17.841s, Verstappen led a resounding Red Bull one-two while Sainz held on for P3, Russell just over two seconds back as he missed out in P4.
As for Leclerc, he made a penultimate-lap pit stop in the chase for fastest lap but emerged just ahead of Alonso, who passed him. The Monegasque driver managed to hit back and salvage P5 but it turned out that he had sped in the pit lane, dropping Leclerc to P6 by the flag, behind Alonso.
Alonso shrugged off his Lap 1 tangle with Hamilton – for which no action was taken by the stewards as they deemed it a racing incident – to finish fifth ahead of team mate Ocon in P7. The Frenchman made two daring moves, the first a double pass on Ricciardo and Latifi through Blanchimont on Lap 17, before going three-wide with Gasly and Ricciardo on the Kemmel Straight on Lap 36 as he blazed to P7.
Vettel pried P8 off Gasly in that melee but couldn’t overhaul Ocon, the pair having made similar medium-hard-medium strategies. Although Gasly and Albon followed the same strategies, they finished ninth and 10th respectively thanks to longer third stints – ending long point-less droughts for both AlphaTauri and Williams.
Stroll missed out on the final point, choosing mediums for his first two stints before finishing the race on hards. Despite a strong start, Norris finished just over a second behind the Aston Martin driver in P12,
Zhou and Tsunoda both finished the race on soft tyres and battled at the end of the race, Tsunoda winning over the Alfa Romeo driver to take P13 for AlphaTauri.
Ricciardo was running in the top 10 along with Norris until the second stint, and the Australian would fall to 15th by the chequered flag. Kevin Magnussen settled for P16 after a slow Lap 11 pit stop, and Mick Schumacher 17th in an uneventful first race with the latest Haas upgrades – while Nicholas Latifi endured a race to P17 having pitted three times.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won’t apologise for Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix clash after Fernando Alonso rant. Motorsport.com has the full details.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton has shouldered the blame for his collision with Fernando Alonso in the Belgian Grand Prix, but said he won’t apologise after the Spaniard called him an “idiot”.
On the opening lap Hamilton attempted to pass Alpine driver Alonso for third around the outside of Les Combes after pulling alongside the Spaniard on the Kemmel Straight.
Hamilton was partly ahead of Alonso when he turned into the corner to catch the apex, denying Alonso any space and triggering a collision.
While Alonso was able to continue, the rear end of Hamilton’s car was catapulted into the air and the Briton was asked to pull over by his Mercedes team with damage.
Afterwards Hamilton accepted blame for the incident, explaining that Alonso was in his blind spot.
“It was definitely my fault today,” he said when Motorsport.com quizzed him about the collision.
“It’s unfortunate. I mean, it’s motor racing. I gave it everything I tried to overtake on the outside into Turn 5.
“I just didn’t leave quite enough space and I paid the price for it. So yeah, it wasn’t intentional. It just happened.”
Alonso was furious at Hamilton on the team radio, labelling his former rival an “idiot” who can only “drive and start in first”.
When asked about Alonso’s comments, Hamilton said it was “nice to know” how Alonso feels about him.
“I don’t really have a response to it. I know that how things feel in the heat of the moment, but it’s nice to know how he feels about me,” Hamilton wryly smiled.
“It’s better that it’s out in the open how he feels. And like I said, it wasn’t intentional, and I take responsibility for it. That’s what adults do.”
When asked if he was going to talk to his former McLaren teammate, he said: “No. I would have until I heard what he said.”
Hamilton added he was happy to escape unhurt after taking a big vertical hit when his car smacked back down onto the tarmac, and said it was quickly apparent his car had suffered terminal damage.
“I remember looking at the ground, it was definitely high up. I’m grateful to be still alive and in shape,” he said.
“I could hear something’s broken in the gearbox. Coming down I would have broken so much in the back end, so I was told to stop.
“But obviously in that moment, you’re hopeful you can keep going.”
The FIA race stewards also determined that Hamilton turned into Alonso, but as it was a first lap incident they decided not to take any further action.
The stewards noted: “Hamilton’s front wheels were ahead of Alonso’s at the entry to the corner. Alonso moved his car off line to the inside with both right side tyres fully on the kerb and even somewhat inside the kerb.
“At no point did Alonso appear to lose control or understeer. Hamilton turned into towards the apex of the corner with Alonso still alongside and the collision occurred.
“The Stewards considered that this was a first lap incident with a lot of movement relative to other cars in the first few corners, and thus take no further action.”
Hamilton was also later warned for not attending the medical centre immediately after his accident, which was mandatory.
The FIA has explained why Lewis Hamilton was not penalised for the opening lap clash that upset Fernando Alonso at Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Alonso was left furious after he and his Mercedes rival came together at Les Combes on the opening lap of the Spa-Francorchamps race as they battled for second spot.
Hamilton had got a run on Alonso up the Kemmel Straight and moved to the outside in a bid to get a slingshot past him.
After getting ahead on the entry to the first right hander at Les Combes, Hamilton closed the door on Alonso, who had nowhere to go, and the pair came together – with the Mercedes being flicked up in to the air.
While Alonso was able to continue, Hamilton’s car had suffered damage and, as the result of a suspected water leak, he was advised to stop later around the lap.
Alonso was far from impressed with Hamilton’s driving, and hit out on team radio at the lack of awareness of the Briton when racing against other cars.
“What an idiot closing the door from the outside,” said Alonso. “We had a mega start but this guy only knows how to drive and start in first.”
While the FIA stewards did investigate the incident, they deemed that neither driver was to blame as it was put down to being a typical kind of crash that can happen on the opening lap as cars jostle for position.
A statement issued by the FIA said: “The Stewards reviewed the video evidence and determined that Alonso was on the inside at turn 5.
“Hamilton’s front wheels were ahead of Alonso’s at the entry to the corner. Alonso moved his car off line to the inside with both right side tyres fully on the kerb and even somewhat inside the kerb.
“At no point did Alonso appear to lose control or understeer. Hamilton turned into towards the apex of the corner with Alonso still alongside and the collision occurred.
“The Stewards considered that this was a first lap incident with a lot of movement relative to other cars in the first few corners, and thus take no further action.”
Source: Motorsport.com
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso commented that the first-lap Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix clash is Lewis Hamilton’s mistake. Motorsport.com provides the full story.
Fernando Alonso has put the blame firmly on Lewis Hamilton for their clash at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix but played down his criticism as a “first-lap incident”.
On the opening lap Hamilton tried a move on Alonso for third place around the outside on the entry to Les Combes, but the Mercedes driver squeezed his rival and that triggered a collision.
Alonso avoided any major damage but Hamilton’s car was thrown into the air and the British driver had to stop at the side of the track under instruction from his team due to damage.
Immediately after the clash Alonso said on team radio: “What an idiot closing the door from the outside. We had a mega start but this guy only knows how to drive and start in first.”
Speaking after the race Alonso maintained it was Hamilton’s mistake for not giving him room and compared the clash to Hamilton’s coming together with former Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg at the same corner in 2014.
“For me it was a little bit of a mistake from his side to close the door like this,” Alonso said. “At Turn 5 we’ve seen many, many times here that it goes parallel and it happened the same to him with Rosberg a couple of years ago [in 2014].
“I think it was a first-lap incident. I think it happens, at that corner especially, there are a lot of things that are going on and normally you cut the corner at Turn 6 and keep going at Turn 7.
“It is a tricky part of the circuit for sure and it was a racing incident.”
Alonso added his frustration was heightened due to his strong start from third on the grid but accepted it didn’t hugely compromise his race.
“I was very disappointed, when I start well on the first row or second row all these things happen and for sure I was frustrated in that moment. But he accepted his mistake and it is welcomed,” he explained.
“I am just sad because when I start P2 or P3 always these things happen. When I am 12th or 13th I have a clean race.
“I wanted to have a normal [race] and we started already with an incident and then we have a very aggressive strategy and stopping early every time. I don’t think it was the smartest one but at the end top five makes it a good weekend with Charles’s penalty.
“So fifth and seventh [and seventh for Esteban Ocon] is a great result for the team. It was a bad weekend for McLaren so we maximised those points.”
Alonso also gained a late boost up to fifth place as Charles Leclerc picked up a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane when Ferrari pitted him late on to target the bonus point for fastest lap.
The extra pitstop dropped Leclerc behind Alonso on track, before Leclerc passed him on the final lap, only to be demoted again due to the penalty.
“It is OK, Ferrari has been doing strange things, so that was another strange thing,” he said of Ferrari’s strategy to pit Leclerc late on.
Scuderia Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz said that rival Red Bull Racing are “in a league of their own” in Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix. Motorsport.com provides the details.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz admitted Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were “in a league of their own” in Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix after being powerless to keep the Red Bulls behind.
Verstappen outqualified Sainz by six tenths in Saturday qualifying, but the Spaniard inherited pole due to an engine penalty for the world champion.
But even from 13th place, Verstappen produced a crushing display to win his second consecutive Belgian GP and his ninth victory of 2022, passing Sainz for the lead after a scarcely believable 16 laps.
After being powerless to resist Verstappen on the run up to Les Combes, Sainz also had to cede second to Perez. He took the chequered flag third, over 26 seconds behind Verstappen and nine seconds down on the Mexican.
“Red Bull, Max and Checo, they were in a league of their own today,” Sainz conceded. “And unfortunately, we couldn’t put a stronger fight and we had to survive. But we will have to learn why at this track we were not competitive.”
Sainz, who aside from Verstappen was the only frontrunner to start on soft tyres, quickly started to struggle with degradation on Pirelli’s softest compound and hopes Ferrari can figure out why it was so far off the pace.
“I had a good start and a good restart after the safety car, but the pace was just not there,” he explained.
“We had a lot of overheating with the tyres, and we were sliding around a lot. For some reason our package was not quite there this weekend, but in the end we finished on the podium and we will take it.
“My first two laps were strong, but then we immediately went into high degradation. And then I realised that we were degrading more than what we should.”
The Ferrari driver believes the team will have more luck at Zandvoort next weekend for the Dutch Grand Prix, despite Verstappen having won last year’s race at the recently renovated circuit.
But he conceded Red Bull are likely to have the advantage the following weekend in Monza, one of the Scuderia’s two home races this season.
Sainz added: “Zandvoort should be a better track for us. Monza should be advantage for Red Bull there, but we will try and win it in Zandvoort.”
Charles Leclerc said there was no frustration with Ferrari despite late Spa Formula 1 pit stop backfiring. Motorsport.com has the details.
Charles Leclerc says he feels no frustration with Ferrari’s Formula 1 strategists over the decision to pit him late at Spa despite the call backfiring in the last two laps.
Leclerc battled his way back up to fifth place after being forced into an early pit stop by a visor tear-off getting stuck in his brake duct, only for Ferrari to pit him again with two laps remaining to try and get the fastest lap bonus point despite some uncertainty from Leclerc on the radio.
Although Leclerc overtook Fernando Alonso while exiting the pits, Alonso passed him back down the Kemmel Straight, compromising Leclerc going onto the final lap.
Leclerc lapped six tenths of a second slower than Verstappen’s benchmark, and while he recovered P5 from Alonso using DRS, the Ferrari driver received five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane at the final stop that dropped him back to sixth.
Leclerc denied feeling any frustration with Ferrari over the late decision to pit and took full blame for the penalty, saying it was “nothing to do with the team.”
“At the end, it’s more frustrating to see the delta of pace there was between Red Bull and us, which is the thing we need to work on,” Leclerc said.
The race saw Max Verstappen fight from 14th on the grid to win the race by 17 seconds, extending his points advantage over Leclerc in the drivers’ championship to 98 points with eight races remaining.
Verstappen displayed an ominous pace throughout the Spa race weekend, setting the fastest time in qualifying by six tenths of a second before dropping down the grid because of his power unit penalty.
“If you look at Red Bull, they were on another level, and they found something this weekend that is a bit worrying for us,” said Leclerc, who admitted the championship was “definitely looking extremely difficult now” for Ferrari.
“For now, we don’t exactly understand [it],” Leclerc said.
“They are still extremely quick in the straights, it looks like they have no downforce, but then they get into the corner and they are as quick as us, or quicker.
“So it’s a bit worrying.”
The race also included a lot of radio chatter between Leclerc and his engineer, who regularly asked about strategy options and which tyre he would prefer.
At one stage, Leclerc asked Ferrari why they would consider pitting him so early and seemed unsure of its thinking, but he said there had been no change in Ferrari’s approach over the radio to discuss strategy.
“No, we’ve always done that,” Leclerc said. “This time we were a bit clearer because we were a bit in no man’s land and nobody was fighting with us, so we had more freedom to speak about it.”
Belgian Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen commented that his Red Bull Formula 1 car was ‘on rails on incredible Spa weekend’. Motorsport.com has the news story.
Max Verstappen felt his Red Bull Formula 1 car “was really on rails” after a crushing win in the Belgian Grand Prix.
Verstappen was forced to start from 14th on the grid – which effectively became 13th as Pierre Gasly retreated to the garage before the start – as one of several drivers taking an engine change penalty. On soft tyres, he quickly scythed through the field in his dominant Red Bull RB16.
Following an early safety car, the Dutchman came through in seventh after just five laps and then steadily moved up to second, passing second-starting teammate Sergio Perez.
That became first after leader and polesitter Carlos Sainz pitted and, after Verstappen had made his first pitstop on lap 16, he comfortably passed Sainz for the net lead on lap 18.
Verstappen then regaled the tens of thousands of Dutch fans that flocked to Spa-Francorchamps with a crushing display, taking his ninth win of the season with a 17-second gap to Perez in second.
Afterwards Verstappen said his car was “on rails” on what he hailed an incredible weekend.
“It was quite a hectic first lap to try and stay out of trouble, so many things are happening in front of me,” he said.
“But once we settled in after the safety car, the car was really on rails. I picked the right places to pass people and we could look after our tyres and that’s how we made our way forward.
“After that once we were in the lead, it was all about managing everything. But this whole weekend has been incredible.”
After winning a farcical 2021 edition which was called after two rain-soaked laps behind the safety car, Verstappen’s first bona fide Spa win in the country of his birth was the result of a weekend so utterly dominant that he “couldn’t have imagined” it.
“Of course, it’s been a weekend I couldn’t imagine before. But I think we want more of them, so we keep on working hard,” he added.
Perez, who was passed by Verstappen in the first stint despite starting 11 places ahead of his teammate, had to concede the reigning world champion was “on another planet” on Sunday.
“I really hoped for more today. It was a good opportunity, but Max was just flying. He was on another planet and was untouchable,” Perez admitted.
“Especially the first stint was quite poor in terms of degradation. But still, it’s a very strong result for the team. I think we managed to get a lot of points today, which is important.”
Verstappen’s nominal championship rival Charles Leclerc, who started one place behind him, only managed sixth after another challenging race for Ferrari.
That means Verstappen will now head to his official home race in Zandvoort with a mammoth 93-point lead on Perez, with Leclerc slipping to third – a further five points behind.