World champion Max Verstappen came from sixth on the grid to take first at the Belgian Grand Prix, winning ahead of his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
When the five red lights went out, polesitter Leclerc went across Perez’s bows to maintain the lead at the La Source hairpin, where Carlos Sainz, starting fourth, locked up and then collided with Oscar Piastri running just behind from fifth on the grid on the inside.
The McLaren was pinched against the inside wall, damaging its suspension and ripping the side of the Ferrari’s right-side sidepod, with Piastri slowing on the run downhill to Eau Rouge and later stopping on the first lap of 44.
Up ahead, Perez used his RB19’s straight-line speed to fly by Leclerc into the lead the first time they ran up the Kemmel straight and he quickly built a DRS-breaking lead.
Verstappen was by the end of lap one up to fourth from his abnormally low grid spot, earned for taking a fifth gearbox of the season this Belgian Grand Prix weekend, where he remained behind Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who had started third, and Leclerc over the first phase of the race as Perez continued to pull clear ahead.
But when Hamilton lost DRS to Leclerc on lap six, Verstappen pounced going up the Kemmel straight and, with DRS himself, had enough to make a move to the inside and seal third position.
He then pursued Leclerc, whose gap to the lead had stabilised somewhat at just over two seconds, but as the end of the opening ten laps approached it had eked out again to three seconds.
On lap nine, Verstappen shot to Leclerc’s outside as the pair traversed the Kemmel straight, with the Ferrari defending the inside, but it was an unsuccessful defence as Verstappen braked later and swept ahead at the first part of Les Combes.
Perez’s gap to his team-mate was still the same he had over Leclerc at the start of lap 10, but over the next stage of the race Verstappen gradually ate into that advantage.
On lap 13, with Perez’s lead down to 2.4 seconds, he came into the pits – just after Verstappen and his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase had another team radio spat, this time apparently about the times the Red Bull drivers were being asked to do, with the defending champion concerned both cars would do the same.
On that same lap, Perez pitted, his stop nearly a second longer with a lot of sparks coming off his left-rear wheel and with Leclerc coming by as he pitted from third at the same time, as they switched the softs they had started on for mediums.
Verstappen was brought in at the end of the following tour having been asked if he could make it staying out on his softs until predicted rain arrived around half-distance, which he dismissed.
The second Red Bull stop was a second quicker than the first and that all added up to Perez’s lead being down to 1.5 seconds on Verstappen’s out-lap and that was down to 1.1 seconds on lap later, with the chaser soon getting DRS on the Kemmel straight for the first time.
Inevitably, the next time by at the same spot, Verstappen powered into the lead with an outside line DRS-run heading on the straight – easily went ahead of Perez, who tucked in behind his teammate.
Verstappen stayed on it to snap Perez’s DRS threat on the same lap, then shot to a near four-second lead by the time the rain arrived on lap 20.
It stayed light initially, but times went up by nearly three seconds for the leaders and Verstappen nearly dropped his car running through Eau Rouge one lap later.
That did not reduce his momentum, however, as he was soon over five-seconds clear of Perez, as the rain remained light compared to the deluges that delayed the sprint qualifying and race.
It eased off completely around half-distance, with Verstappen then ploughing on to extend his lead to near ten seconds by the time the leaders prepared for a second round of pit stops.
As the leaders had made a longer stint on the softs work better than many in the pack behind on full fuel tanks, the red-walled rubber was the compound of choice for the final run to the flag.
Hamilton, who started to close in on Leclerc in fourth during their stint on the mediums before dropping back again as it wore on, was the first to come in on lap 27.
Leclerc was brought in the next time by to cover the Mercedes, which had to fight by Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin as the Ferrari rejoined.
This phase cut Leclerc’s advantage, such as the undercut’s power, that Hamilton was the closest he had been Charles since Verstappen came by in the early laps, but again the Ferrari was able to pull away.
Red Bull made the same strategy call with Perez coming in on lap 29 and Verstappen on lap 30, after which the leader set a fastest lap nearly two seconds quicker than the personal best Perez had just achieved.
This earned a rebuke from Lambiase, who asked Verstappen to “use your head a bit more” as his pace immediately on his out-lap and then on the flier being deemed “not very sensible” with the soft still showing “reasonable deg”.
Verstappen suggested pushing on and stopping again just like Austria, but this was given short no as the lead rose to 12.4 seconds by lap 34.
From there, Verstappen continued pulling away and eventually won with a crushing victory of 22.3 seconds over Perez, who was 9.9 seconds ahead of Leclerc.
Hamilton had been running a few seconds adrift of the final podium spot when he was pitted with two laps to go to switch back to the mediums for a final stint, which he used to deprive Verstappen of the fastest lap as the Mercedes driver set that on the final lap, with a one minute, 47.305 seconds against the Red Bull driver’s one minute, 48.922 seconds set during that initial period after his second stop.
So a brilliant weekend for Max Verstappen. Winning the sprint and the main Grand Prix. The five-pace grid penalty wasn’t a problem for the world champion and his race pace is just unreal. Eight consecutive wins this season is mighty impressive and it will be fascinating if the other teams/drivers can challenge as the sport head into the summer break.
Belgian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:22:30.450
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull +22.305s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +32.259s
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +49.671s
5 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +56.184s
6 George Russell Mercedes +63.101s
7 Lando Norris McLaren +73.719s
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine +74.719s
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +79.340s
10 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +80.221s
11 Pierre Gasly Alpine +83.084s
12 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +85.191s
13 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +95.441s
14 Alexander Albon Williams +96.184s
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas +101.754s
16 Daniel Ricciardo AlphaTauri +103.071s
17 Logan Sargeant Williams +104.476s
18 Nicolas Hulkenberg Haas +110.450s
Carlos Sainz Ferrari DNF
Oscar Piastri McLaren DNF
Belgian Grand Prix race review as reported by Formula1.com.
Max Verstappen recovered from a five-place gearbox penalty to claim his eighth successive victory in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, with team mate Sergio Perez adding to the celebrations for Red Bull as he completed a one-two result.
Verstappen gradually picked off his rivals across a tense 44-lap encounter at Spa-Francorchamps, taking P1 after Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc had started the race on pole. The championship leader then kept his car on the track during a mid-race shower that threatened to – but did not quite force – a move from slick tyres to intermediates.
Perez also worked his way past Leclerc to come home in the runner-up spot, crossing the line some 20 seconds behind Verstappen and giving Red Bull their first perfect result since the Miami Grand Prix back in May.
Leclerc held on for the final podium position, denying seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton (who pitted late on to net the fastest lap), while Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin ahead of the other Mercedes machine of George Russell to take fifth.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.verstappen-charges-to-belgian-gp-win-as-red-bull-bag-1-2-finish.40AcUp3Pc8WMkmETKkngxo.html
Carlos Sainz says Oscar Piastri was “trying to do a bit of an optimistic move” in the pair’s Turn 1 contact at Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix.
The pair came together on the opening lap of Sunday’s Spa race, with Sainz, who started fourth, locking up and colliding with Piastri on the inside of Turn 1.
The McLaren was pinched against the inside wall, damaging its suspension and ripping the side of the Ferrari’s right sidepod, with Piastri slowing on the run downhill to Eau Rouge and later stopping.
Though the stewards took no action over the incident, Sainz said he felt the rookie should have yielded, especially given Sainz was mid-fight with Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.
He said: “He attacked with Lewis and I pretty much had the move done into Turn 1.
“Hit the apex cleanly and everything but unfortunately I think Oscar was trying to do a bit of an optimistic move on me.
“Yeah, a bit of a shame because when you review the past races here in Spa and you know what has been the typical Turn 1 incidents, it’s exactly that.
“Everyone who tries the inside line into Turn 1 and tries to really make around there normally generates an incident or a crash and this time it was my turn to receive.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sainz-criticises-piastris-optimistic-move-in-belgian-gp-f1-clash/10502369/
Max Verstappen was delighted to take his 10th win of the season at an “enjoyable” Belgian Grand Prix, as the championship leader navigated his way through the field to take his eighth win in a row.
Verstappen qualified fastest in Friday qualifying, but started sixth after being hit with a five-place grid penalty for exceeding the allocated number of gearbox components allowed. And after being helped by Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz colliding at the start, Verstappen found himself fourth on Lap 1.
He bided his time after being caught up in a DRS train behind Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, before eventually make his way to second. And then on Lap 17, he overtook his Red Bull team mate, Sergio Perez, for the lead, as he came home with a 22-second advantage over the field.
Speaking immediately after jumping out of the cockpit of RB19, a jubilant Verstappen said: “I knew that we had a great car, it was just all about surviving Turn 1. I could see it was all getting pretty tight. I’ve been in that position before myself.
“So I was just like, ‘I’m going to stay out of that’ [and] it worked out. I think we all made the right overtakes, moves. I just got a little bit stuck in the beginning in a DRS train. Once that cleared, I could do my own pace. Again, really enjoyable.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.verstappen-opens-up-on-radio-exchange-with-engineer-in-belgian-gp-after.zWjW77PvW2xziKiJAJNWZ.html
Lewis Hamilton has said Mercedes struggled with Formula 1 car bouncing again at this year’s Belgian Grand Prix, just like it did during 2022.
The seven-time world champion took a low-key fourth place in the final F1 race before the summer break, unable to halt Max Verstappen’s charge through the field to victory, but kept clear of rivals behind him while also picking up the bonus point for fastest lap with a late pitstop for fresh tyres.
But worryingly for Mercedes, Hamilton reported he suffered with F1 car bouncing throughout the race, a problem that plagued the team during the first season switching to ground-effect cars.
Mercedes was one of the teams worst impacted by porpoising at the start of last season and was still hurt by bouncing as it attempted to extract performance from its ‘zero-pod’ concept.
Having drastically altered its F1 car design midway through this season, Hamilton sparked concerns when he feared Mercedes is “back to the bouncing like we had last year”.
“I think it was kind of a non-eventful race, there wasn’t much really going on, I wasn’t able to keep up with the cars ahead of me,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
“I struggled at the beginning, rear end is our biggest issue. Then we had big bouncing this weekend, so we are back to the bouncing like we had last year.
“So at the end I was keeping the Ferrari within a few seconds but I couldn’t get any closer to that battle. Then to get the fastest lap at the end, it was nice to have the gap to the car behind, it was decent. But it was gusty today and it was very difficult out there and difficult to keep it on track.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamilton-mercedes-suffering-with-f1-car-bouncing-again/10502378/