McLaren’s Oscar Piastri achieved a fantastic second career victory in Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix after first passing and then holding off polesitter Charles Leclerc lap after lap.

George Russell took a surprising third for Mercedes following a dramatic late crash between Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz.

Leclerc had taken his fourth consecutive Baku pole on Saturday and looked good to finally convert it into a first win on the high-speed street circuit.

The Ferrari driver kept the lead at the start from Piastri, with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez passing Carlos Sainz for third.

World champion Max Verstappen followed his Red Bull teammate by diving up the inside of Russell for fifth into Turn 2.

With a one-stop on mediums and hards expected, Leclerc built up a comfortable six-second gap on Piastri and Perez, while Verstappen complained of his car’s behaviour and struggled to keep up with Sainz in fifth place.

Perez was the first of the frontrunners to pit for hard tyres on lap 14, but his stop didn’t trigger an immediate reaction from Leclerc and Piastri to avoid an undercut.

Waiting an extra lap, Piastri was about to lose second place, but Perez came back out behind Piastri’s teammate Norris, who had started in P15 and helped by holding Checo up so Piastri could retain his position.

Piastri’s in and out-laps also cut his deficit to Leclerc to just over a second, and on lap 20 the McLaren driver made a late lunge to the inside of Turn 1 to take the lead of the race.

Leclerc first told his team he thought Piastri’s pace was “crazy”, given there were another 30 laps left to run on the hard tyres.

But rather than letting Piastri disappear up the road, Leclerc stayed with him and tried to return the favour on several occasions into Turn 1, with Piastri standing firm each time.

That battle allowed Perez to sit back behind the pair in third, taking less life out of his hard tyres, while Sainz was also closing in following a lonely race in fourth.

As Perez failed an overtake on Leclerc on the penultimate lap, Sainz looked poised to benefit and slip past for third, but coming out of Turn 2 the pair tangled and made a hard crash into the wall.

Piastri headed Leclerc and Russell home under the virtual safety car, while Norris rounded off his comeback race in fourth.

Norris started on the hard tyres and was initially able to hold off Verstappen, who continued to struggle with rear-end bouncing. After finally making his lap 38 pitstop, Norris reduced the 15-second gap to repass Verstappen for fourth.

This was important moment in terms of the championship with Norris overtaking Verstappen gaining extra points.

In the background Fernando Alonso rounded off a lonely race to sixth, holding off hard-tyre starter Alex Albon who had run as high as third in the first stint.

Rookie Franco Colapinto put in a solid performance to follow Albon in eighth, taking points on his second Grand Prix outing for Williams.

Lewis Hamilton made a good comeback from a pitlane start to finish ninth, after choosing to make engine and suspension changes overnight.

Impressive Oliver Bearman also took a maiden point for Haas, edging out his experienced teammate Nico Hulkenberg for tenth. So Bearman has scored points as both a Ferrari and Haas driver. Solid performer.

RB’s Yuki Tsunoda was the only other retirement after a lap one clash with Aston’s Lance Stroll, with left Tsunoda with terminal floor damage and Stroll with a puncture.

By taking the fastest lap, Lando’s comeback drive saw him reduce the points to Verstappen, narrowing the gap to 59 points.

So a thrilling race at Baku. Well done to Oscar Piastri in scoring his second career victory. Kudos to Charles Leclerc in fighting with fair, clean racing for the lead. P2 is still a solid result. The next event is the Singapore Grand Prix in a week’s time, so expect another street fight for victory.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix, race results:
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:32:58.007
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +10.910s
3 George Russell Mercedes +31.328s
4 Lando Norris McLaren +36.143s
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull +77.098s
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +85.468s
7 Alexander Albon Williams +87.396s
8 Franco Colapinto Williams +89.541s
9 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +92.401s
10 Oliver Bearman Haas +93.127s
11 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +93.465s
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine +117.189s
13 Daniel Ricciardo RB +146.907s
14 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +148.841s
15 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1 lap
16 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +1 lap
Sergio Perez Red Bull DNF
Carlos Sainz Ferrari DNF
Lance Stroll Aston Martin DNF
Yuki Tsunoda RB DNF

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc achieves his fourth successive pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix while an error in Q1 left Lando Norris just P17 on the grid.

A dominant Leclerc held off McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by three tenths, with both his Q3 laps good enough for pole as the Scuderia driver extended his Baku qualifying form. Piastri managed to hold off Carlos Sainz to be on the front row.

Sergio Perez confirmed his strong Baku weekend form by outqualifying teammate Max Verstappen for the first time this season. Perez took fourth, with George Russell splitting the Red Bulls in fifth ahead of the current championship leader.

Lewis Hamilton was seventh ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, while rookie Franco Colapinto starred on his second outing with Williams, heading into Q3 in sixth and then outqualifying teammate Albon for ninth position.

Albon was bizarrely sent out for his final run with the airbox fan still attached to the car, but after unsuccessfully urging the marshals to help at pit exit, Albon managed to remove the device himself.

Albon still managed to set a lap, although he may well have compromised his tyre warm-up to find himself behind Colapinto.

McLaren’s title contender Norris, who is looking to further reduce his 62-point gap to championship leader Max Verstappen, hit a setback as he got eliminated in Q1.

Due to dramatic track evolution on the low-grip Baku street circuit, most frontrunners needed a third, error-free soft tyre run to safeguard a spot in Q2.

But Norris, who had been shuffled into the drop zone, made a mistake on the final run by sliding over the high Turn 16 kerbs, before seeing his lap definitively ruined by what the team thought was a yellow flag for Esteban Ocon coasting home in his punctured Alpine.

Norris backed off and was forced to pit instead, with his previous best only good enough for P17 on the grid.

Norris will line up behind RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, with Sauber pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu in P18 and P19, and Ocon last after touching the wall. Ocon had already lost valuable track time after losing FP1 due to a hybrid engine problem and being stranded in FP2 with a fuel system issue.

In Q2 Haas rookie Oliver Bearman missed the cut to Q3 by one tenth after ruing a slight error, but Ollie still impressively fought back from an FP3 crash to outqualify his experienced teammate Nico Hulkenberg.

Bearman will start P11 ahead of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Gasly, followed by Hulkenberg and Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll.

So a very close qualifying session at Baku with Monza winner Charles Leclerc taking pole position. It will be fascinating to see if Lando Norris can recover from his shocking Q1 exit in the race.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:41.365
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:41.686
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:41.805
4 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:41.813
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:41.874
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:42.023
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:42.289
8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:42.369
9 Franco Colapinto Williams 1:42.530
10 Alexander Albon Williams 1:42.859
11 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:42.968
12 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:43.035
13 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:43.179
14 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:43.191
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:43.404
16 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:43.547
17 Lando Norris McLaren 1:43.609
18 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:43.618
19 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:44.246
20 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:44.504

Charles Leclerc achieved a fantastic and emotional victory for Scuderia Ferrari at Monza. The team beat rival McLaren thanks to a single pitstop strategy to take the top spot at the Italian Grand Prix in front of the passionate tifosi crowd.

Leclerc delighted Ferrari’s home crowd in a strategic triumph to beat Oscar Piastri, after hanging on to the tyres in a one-stop strategy.

Leclerc managed to hold on from a rapidly closing Piastri, who had much fresher tyres thanks to a two-stop strategy, and crossed the finishing line with a 2.884-second lead – the home fans becoming more audibly ecstatic in the closing laps as the tactical gambit became clear.

The Monaco Grand Prix winner looked set to follow the pack on a two-stopper, a decision he had initially questioned as Ferrari responded to an undercut attempt from polesitter Lando Norris.

Norris initially looked like he had got over his first-lap drama with a clean start to cover off teammate Piastri from pole, but appeared surprised by Piastri’s overtake attempt around the outside at the Variante della Roggia. This put Norris off-line, allowing Leclerc to also trickle through.

Although the Ferrari driver could not stay in touch with Piastri, it became clear that the overall level of tyre wear was moving the race into two-stop territory, a strategy that McLaren opted to move towards with relatively early opening stops. Leclerc lost track position through his earlier-than-expected reaction to Norris, but crucially managed to maintain tyre performance.

And, although McLaren asked Piastri if he was able to one-stop, Oscar responded in the negative – giving Leclerc the lead from teammate Carlos Sainz.

With neither Ferrari stopping again, Sainz managed to do his part in keeping Piastri at bay for a handful of laps, stalling the McLaren driver out enough to ensure Leclerc had more buffer to play with.

This became a thrilling final few laps with Piastri reducing away at Leclerc’s lead with a considerable tyre advantage – but, ultimately, it proved not to be enough; Leclerc wins and cause waves of euphoria around the Monza circuit.

Piastri admitted that it “hurt” to finish second, noting that the graining issue that affected the McLarens might have cleared up with more laps, but nonetheless had cut a gap that stood at 11.9 seconds after he had passed Sainz to 2.7 seconds in just nine laps.

Norris recovered to third, having not expected Piastri’s first-corner move; the two were granted permission to race, but Norris was unable to sufficiently close in on his teammate throughout the race – having particularly been affected by contra-strategy runner Max Verstappen as the championship leader sought to help his cause.

Sainz hit the limit of his tyres despite a four-lap advantage over Leclerc, losing his grasp on a podium place to both McLarens at the close of the race, but nonetheless had enough margin to stay ahead of Lewis Hamilton in fifth.

Hamilton managed to hold off an early assault from Verstappen which set him up for fifth, as the Red Bull driver suffered a slow stop and a disappointing final stint to make no inroads towards the Mercedes driver. George Russell recovered from a first-lap off, having been pushed by Piastri at the start, and front wing damage to finish seventh.

The Mercedes driver battled gamely with Sergio Perez and shrugged off the Checo’s robust defence to steal past. Alex Albon was classified ninth, despite finishing behind Kevin Magnussen on track; the Haas driver was handed a 10-second penalty for a minor clash with Pierre Gasly during his ascent up the order – the two concluding one-stop strategies in the points.

Fernando Alonso just missed out on the top ten by just 0.143 seconds when Magnussen’s penalty was applied, as Franco Colapinto finished his first Formula 1 race in P12 for Williams.

So a fantastic result for Ferrari at home with Charles Leclerc winning the Italian Grand Prix for the second time. McLaren should’ve won this race thanks to a faster car but Ferrari pulled off a superior strategy – one compared to two – to take victory. Kudos Scuderia and Leclerc.

Italian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrai 1:14:40.727
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +2.664s
3 Lando Norris McLaren +6.153s
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +15.621s
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +22.820s
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull +37.932s
7 George Russell Mercedes +39.715s
8 Serio Perez Red Bull +54.148s
9 Alex Albon Williams +67.456s
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas +68.302s
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +68.495s
12 Franco Colapinto Williams +81.308s
13 Daniel Ricciardo RB +93.452s
14 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1 lap
15 Pierre Gasly Alpine +1 lap
16 Valterri Bottas Sauber +1 lap
17 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +1 lap
18 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +1 lap
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1 lap
20 Yuki Tsunoda RB DNF

Lando Norris led a McLaren front row in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, while championship leader Max Verstappen could only manage P7 in the Red Bull.

George Russell took third for practice pacesetter Mercedes, with Oscar Piastri and Verstappen set to see the stewards post-qualifying due to an incident in Q1 where the McLaren was released into the Red Bull’s path in the pits and Verstappen had to step on the brakes.

Norris led Piastri after the first runs in Q3, with the Dutch Grand Prix winner leading the way with a time of one minute, 19.401 seconds and his teammate 0.035 seconds down.

At this stage, the two Mercedes trailed in third and fourth, with the Ferraris, as were the Red Bull cars – Verstappen down in eighth and behind Sergio Perez after saving a massive snap at the Parabolica on his opening Q3 effort.

In the second and final runs, Verstappen ran first of the frontrunners in Perez’s slipstream, but although he improved his personal best he only moved up slightly in the order – only beating Perez who went off at Lesmo 2 while still running ahead of his teammate on their final laps.

Behind, Norris only went quicker in sector two compared to his previous personal best, but he still improved the first-place benchmark to set pole with a time of one minute, 19.327 seconds.

Piastri could not go quicker across all three sectors of his second Q3 lap but stayed second when Sainz could not head him and then Russell slotted into third slightly later for Mercedes.

Leclerc also shuffled Sainz back to fifth, with Hamilton ending up sixth – but with a healthy margin to the Red Bull cars behind.

The other Q3 runners – Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg – ended up ninth and tenth for Williams and Haas.

The start of Q2 was delayed by nearly ten minutes as the marshals had to sweep gravel off the circuit at “multiple areas” – per an FIA spokesperson – with Franco Colapinto’s Lesmo 2 gravel trip and Kevin Magnussen going off briefly and Ascari and for longer at the Parabolica.

After this, Fernando Alonso was the highest-profile driver to exit in Q2, as he ended up P11 for Aston Martin – ahead of RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, Magnussen and the Alpine duo of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.

In Q1, Ricciardo’s last-gasp improvement knocked out Yuki Tsunoda, with Lance Stroll shuffled back to P17 ahead of Williams rookie Colapinto, who had an off on his final run.

Behind were Sauber pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, who were running behind the various Magnussen offs when it came to completing their final laps despite scattered gravel and various yellow flags.

So a thrilling qualifying session at the temple of speed and the McLarens continue to impress by being the quickest car. By starting on the front row with rival Red Bull knocked down to row four, this is an important moment in the championship. Let’s see what the race has in store.

Italian Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:19.327
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:19.436
3 George Russell Mercedes 1:19.440
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:19.461
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:19.467
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:19.513
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:20.022
8 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:20.062
9 Alexander Albon Williams 1:20.299
10 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:20.339
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:20.421
12 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:20.479
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:20.698
14 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:20.738
15 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:20.764
16 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:20.945
17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:21.013
18 Franco Colapinto Williams 1:21.061
19 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:21.101
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:21.445

Lando Norris earned his second Formula 1 victory at the Dutch Grand Prix with an excellent race performance to beat Max Verstappen at his home race.

Despite losing the lead into the first corner, Norris held his nerve and passed Verstappen to take back P1. Lando immediately started to build a break over the Red Bull to ensure he had a considerable gap in hand – crossing the finishing line with a 22.9-second lead. This ensured that, with the fastest lap, Norris managed to reduce Verstappen’s championship lead to 70 points.

The pressure had been on Norris to preserve the lead into the first corner, having been unable to do so from pole at both Barcelona and Hungary, but the McLaren driver ended up with too much wheelspin into the first corner and lost ground to Verstappen into Turn 1.

Verstappen then proceeded to build up a DRS fightback through immediately putting over a second on Norris, which grew to 1.5 seconds over the next few laps to keep Norris at bay.

However, the Red Bull driver was unable to extend his lead any further, as Norris gamely hung on just outside of the DRS margin and Verstappen struggled with turn-in on the slower corners. After the opening 15 laps, Norris then snapped out of his early tyre management to close in on Verstappen, although his attempt with DRS into Turn 1 at the start of lap 17 was fended off.

His assault on the next lap was not, however, and proceeded to gather a huge amount of momentum through the banked Turn 14 to cruise past Verstappen down the inside.

Soon after, Norris shook Verstappen off and started to gap his championship rival by a rate of over half a second per lap. Although Verstappen pitted a lap earlier, Norris retained plenty of gap in hand and disappeared down the road in a crushing – and Verstappen-like – display of dominance.

Charles Leclerc completed the top three after holding off a lengthy spell of pressure from Oscar Piastri, having undercut the McLaren driver and George Russell during the pitstops.

The Ferrari driver dealt with traffic around him after his stop to ensure he broke free of Russell and, despite Piastri’s best efforts, Leclerc retained enough top speed into Turn 1 to keep Piastri at bay.

Piastri had gone longer into the race to claim a nine-lap offset on the hard tyre for the second stage; although he caught and passed Russell with relative ease, Leclerc proved a much tougher nut to crack.

Carlos Sainz recovered from his Q2 exit to finish fifth with a series of well-judged overtakes, crucially putting a move on Sergio Perez despite the Red Bull driver’s robust defence to move up to sixth.

This was set to become fifth as he caught Russell, but the Mercedes pitted for a soft-tyre gamble towards the end of the race. This did not entirely work out, as Russell ran out of time – and, in reality, lacked the pace – to catch Perez to lose track position.

Lewis Hamilton also put in a solid recovery drive to collect eighth, after also dropping out in Q2 and taking a grid penalty for impeding Perez. Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso completed the top ten, the latter relegating Nico Hulkenberg from the points.

So a well deserved second victory for Lando Norris. This was an impressive result for Lando following his debut win in Miami. He held his nerve despite a wheel spinning start. Caught and passed Max Verstappen. Pulled away with superior race pace and victory plus fastest lap is a bonus.

Dutch Grand Prix, race results:
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:30:45.519
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +22.896s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +25.439s
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren +27.337s
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +32.137s
6 Sergio Perez Red Bull +39.542s
7 George Russell Mercedes +44.617s
8 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +49.599s
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine +1 lap
10 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +1 lap
11 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +1 lap
12 Daniel Ricciardo RB +1 lap
13 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1 lap
14 Alexander Albon Williams +1 lap
15 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1 lap
16 Logan Sargeant Williams +1 lap
17 Yuki Tsunoda RB +1 lap
18 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
19 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +2 laps
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +2 laps

Lando Norris achieved his fourth career pole position by taking the top grid spot ahead of fan favourite Max Verstappen at the Dutch Grand Prix. Oscar Piastri was third fastest in the other McLaren.

George Russell finished in fourth after setting the pace in Friday’s practice. Not so for Lewis Hamilton, who fail to progress from Q2 in a session where all the drivers were struggling to build tyre temperature on the cool track surface that was very green after further rain hit the event earlier on Saturday.

Norris led Q3 throughout – his initial lap of one minute, 10.074 seconds on the first runs putting him ahead of Piastri and Verstappen at this stage.

Verstappen led the pack around for the final go and improved significantly to rise to provisional pole with a time of one minute, 10.029 seconds, gaining particularly from a very strong middle sector, but Norris’s final sector was better.

Norris roared to the top with a lap time of one minute, 09.673 seconds – the only driver to break that barrier – as Verstappen was pushed to 0.356 seconds adrift.

But Piastri could not knock the crowd hero off the front row as he paid the price for not going quicker than before in the middle sector and finished 0.499 seconds down on his teammate despite putting in a personal best time at the end.

Russell did enough to beat Sergio Perez to fourth, with Charles Leclerc the lead Ferrari in sixth.

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll ran offset to the rest in the middle of Q3 as they only had one set of new tyres left for the final segment, as did everyone except the McLarens, Verstappen and Russell.

Alonso took seventh and Stroll ninth, with Alex Albon getting in between them and Pierre Gasly behind in P10.

In Q2, Leclerc’s last-gasp improvement knocked out his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz, who had not driven on the softs this weekend pre-qualifying due to his Friday gearbox issue and the rain seen so far at this event. Hamilton missed the cut behind in P12.

Then came Yuki Tsunoda and the Haas duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen.

In Q1, Perez’s jump from the drop zone to head the segment using an extra set of softs shuffled Daniel Ricciardo to a early exit for RB.

Perez’s extra lap was required after his first attempt was impeded coming across Hamilton going slowly on the outside of Turn 9 in an incident that will be investigated now the session has concluded.

Esteban Ocon could not find the same improvements due to the track evolution factor and was out in P17 despite setting a personal best time on his last Q1 lap, with the Sauber pair of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu also out after doing their final efforts ahead of many others.

Logan Sargeant missed qualifying for Williams as his car could not be repaired in time after his massive FP3 crash.

So another Norris versus Verstappen fight for the race win. Can Lando upset the home fans by winning at the Dutch Grand Prix? Bring on the race!

Dutch Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:09.673
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:10.029
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:10.172
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:10.244
5 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:10.416
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:10.582
7 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:10.633
8 Alexander Albon Williams 1:10.653
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:10.857
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:11.718
11 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:11.327
12 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:11.375
13 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:11.603
14 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:11.832
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:11.630
16 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:11.943
17 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:11.995
18 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:12.168
19 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:13.261
20 Logan Sargeant Williams No time

George Russell originally took his second victory of the 2024 season at the Belgian Grand Prix at beautiful Spa-Francorchamps beating his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton with a single pitstop compared to his rivals who pitted twice.

And yet post-race, the stewards found that George’s car was underweight meaning disqualification. So Lewis takes the victory at the Belgian Grand Prix. Every other driver behind the new race winner moves up and gains valuable championship points.

Last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix winner Oscar Piastri finished in third for McLaren.

In a race made fascinating from start to finish thanks to different tyre strategy efforts, Max Verstappen recovered to fifth position after his engine-change grid penalty.

In doing so he held off distant title rival Lando Norris, while on a critical day for his career Sergio Perez fell from second to finish eighth and well adrift of the frontrunning pack, as one of his would-be replacements at Red Bull – Daniel Ricciardo – came close to scoring the race’s final point for RB.

At the start, Charles Leclerc led away from pole as Hamilton immediately jumped up from starting third to run alongside Perez at the first corner at La Source, then seal second on the downhill run to Eau Rouge, which in turn allowed Leclerc to stay clear in first up the Kemmel straight.

But the Ferrari driver’s lead lasted only two laps of the 44, as Hamilton quickly closed in and then moved to the lead with a DRS overtake to the Les Combes chicane.

Hamilton then gradually dropped Leclerc across the first of three stints in the two-stop affair for most of the frontrunners, while the different tyre tactics brought other drivers behind into focus at various points.

After Norris lost three places on the opening lap by dipping his left-rear into the gravel at the exit of La Source, he soon had Verstappen roaring up behind after the world champion quickly cleared the midfielders he had started behind in P11.

Ahead of this pair was Carlos Sainz, who alone of the leaders started on the hard tyres with the rest on mediums, and the Ferrari driver was able to hang on in front of Norris after the McLaren driver made a mistake on an overtake in the early laps and then they both cycled to the front as Hamilton, Leclerc and co pitted for the first time at the one-quarter phase.

Here Russell, who had gained significantly with a good start from behind Norris on the grid, was in the thick of the action with Piastri – undercutting him at these pitstops, then getting immediately repassed and having to watch the McLaren driver head up the road fight by Perez to run a net third.

In the second stint, Norris eventually pitted and came out behind Verstappen, before quickly erasing a six-second gap to Max and in the process undercutting Sainz, while Hamilton again grew his small lead to Leclerc around getting the lead back once Sainz had come in to take the mediums on lap 20.

At this stage, Perez in fourth was the only other driver on that rubber, with it becoming apparent from Sainz’s strong, long opening stint on the hards that this was the race’s best tyre.

As Hamilton and Leclerc looked settled at the front and with Piastri a few seconds behind, Perez’s pace fell away on the mediums and Russell was able to pressure him and then get by at Les Combes just before the halfway point.

Red Bull then pitted Perez out of Verstappen’s way, with Norris right behind, and this meant the middle stint became shorter than expected as Ferrari pitted Leclerc to cover Perez on lap 25, with Hamilton coming in next time by.

Piastri showed his pace in clean air at the front for a while but then erred in sliding long in his pitbox and slamming into his front jackman – who stayed on his feet impressively – when he came in on lap 30.

By this stage, new leader Russell had already asked Mercedes to think about the one-stop, which it left him on as his pace was holding up even with Hamilton surging on his new hards.

Russell’s lead at this point was around seven seconds and although Hamilton was closing by huge amounts, by the time the seven-time world champion caught up in the closing stages, he could not find a way by and Russell hung on to score a third Formula 1 career race win.

The final lap was made tenser by Piastri’s closing threat from behind – his pace so strong in the final stint he had caught and passed Leclerc (needing two attempts to get by in successive laps at Les Combes, which cost him important time at the end to Hamilton).

In the end, just 1.1 seconds cover the top three, with Leclerc fading to 7.3 seconds off from Piastri and Verstappen and Norris each respectively 0.6 seconds further back in fifth and sixth.

They had to pass Perez once they had made their second stops around the two-thirds mark, then Verstappen, running a second set of the unfavoured mediums given Red Bull’s remaining sets pre-race, defied Norris chasing with DRS to the flag.

Sainz’s out-of-sequence strategy meant he caught and passed Perez for seventh with five laps to go, before Red Bull pitted Perez for a third time to successfully chase the fastest lap bonus point.

Fernando Alonso took ninth for Aston Martin, while the overtaking-filled races for Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo ended with the Alpine ahead in tenth and not too far from Alonso at the finish.

The race’s only retirement was Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu, who slowed with a hydraulics issue early on and stopped in the pits shortly afterwards.

So a fantastic team effort from Mercedes to finish 1-2. George Russell winning the Spa race thanks to a single pitstop and yet the pace from the Silver Arrows was solid as pre-race was saying McLaren.

Taking three victories this season is just positive news for the Brackley-based team. Formula 1 now takes a summer break and will return at the Dutch Grand Prix, which is Max Verstappen’s home event. The three-time champion finished this Belgian Grand Prix in fifth following his grid penalty.

UPDATE: Following a post-race stewards check, George Russell’s car was discovered to be underweight. Meaning the Belgian Grand Prix victory will go to Lewis Hamilton as car number 63 was found to be 1.5 kg below the minimum weight. So Russell is disqualified from the race despite an inspired single pitstop strategy.

Belgian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:19:57.566 (+0.526s)
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +1.173s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +8.549s
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull +9.226s
5 Lando Norris McLaren +9.850s
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +19.795s
7 Sergio Perez Red Bull +43.195s
8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +49.963s
9 Esteban Ocon Alpine +52.552s
10 Daniel Ricciardo RB +54.926s
11 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +63.011s
12 Alexander Albon Williams +63.651s
13 Pierre Gasly Alpine +64.365s
14 Kevin Magnussen Haas +66.631s
15 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +70.638s
16 Yuki Tsunoda RB +76.737s
17 Logan Sargeant Williams +86.057s
18 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +88.833s
Zhou Guanyu Haas DNF
George Russell Mercedes 1:19:57.040/DSQ*

*Disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix for being underweight in the post-race checks

Max Verstappen was quickest in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix but will take a ten-pace grid penalty following a change with the power unit so Charles Leclerc will start on pole for Ferrari.

In a wet session where the drivers used the intermediate tyres throughout, the teams were split on how they approached Q3, with Verstappen and the Ferrari drivers stopping to switch to fresh inters, while the Mercedes and McLaren cars continue throughout the final segment.

Verstappen led this throughout, as his time of one minute, 53.159 seconds at the end of the opening runs put him top ahead of Perez, with Lewis Hamilton third and heading Oscar Piastri, George Russell and Lando Norris.

They carried on after a cool-down/battery-charge lap, after which Norris was able to get ahead of Piastri and Russell, as they did not improve.

Further rain falling late in Q3 meant the cars that had stopped to change tyres – including Perez going from one used set to another – stood to gain.

Verstappen, even with the fastest third sector of Q3, could not and came up 0.042 seconds short of what would be the top time set on the first runs, while Leclerc edge out the rest in leaping from eighth after the opening goes to second position.

It marks his best grid spot since he was on pole in Monaco six races ago and he will now inherit the pole statistic for this race as again Verstappen drops to start P11 for his latest Spa engine change penalty.

Perez did not improve on the final Q3 runs either, but still stayed ahead of Hamilton, the McLarens and Russell.

Then came Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.

As he did in Q1, Verstappen got through Q2 using just a single set of inters, with the rain coming down slightly harder than in the opening segment.

Alex Albon came just 0.003 seconds in knocking Perez out in Q2, with Pierre Gasly, Daniel Ricciardo (who was in the pits as the rest set their final efforts in the middle segment), Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll also exiting at this stage.

In Q1, where threatened further rain never arrived, Haas pair Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen got shuffled out in P16 and P17, with Yuki Tsunoda behind joining them in setting a personal best on his final Q1 lap but to no avail.

Tsunoda is set to start last due to his penalty for taking a whole new engine here, which will move the other Q1 fallers – Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu, who faces a post-session investigation for appearing to impede Verstappen at Blanchimont late in the opening segment.

So well done to Charles Leclerc in recording a solid lap to take a front row slot. As for Max Verstappen, he was in the zone throughout qualifying and his pace looks good for the race despite starting P11. It should be a fascinating Belgian Grand Prix as the current championship leader fighting back.

Belgian Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:53.754
2 Serio Perez Red Bull 1:53.765
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:53.835
4 Lando Norris McLaren 1:53.981
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:54.027
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:54.184
7 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:54.477
8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:54.765
9 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:54.810
10 Alexander Albon Williams 1:54.473
11 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:53.159*
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:54.635
13 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:54.682
14 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:54.764
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:55.716
16 Nico Hülkenberg Haas 1:56.308
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:56.500
18 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:57.230
19 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:57.775
20 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:56.593*
*Grid penalties for changing the power unit

Oscar Piastri achieved his first Formula 1 victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, following a series of radio messages from McLaren to issue team orders on Lando Norris throughout the final stint.

Piastri had led the entirety of the race after taking the lead into Turn 1, opening up a healthy lead over teammate Norris in the opening stint and through the first pitstop.

“In every condition we had the race under control to get the 1-2. I don’t remember when McLaren’s last 1-2 was!” Piastri said.

“The longer you leave [the team orders call], the more you get a bit nervous. But it was well executed by the team, it was the right call, I put myself in the right position at the start.”

Despite McLaren’s intention to manage the race, giving Norris the undercuts but with the express purpose of covering off the cars behind, the situation became interesting when Piastri lost time on the exit of Turn 11 to bring Norris within 1.5 seconds.

Oscar managed to stabilise that lead ahead of the final pitstops and, despite being aware Norris would undercut him in the final round of pitstops, Piastri was told “not to worry” about his teammate with the expectation that McLaren would switch positions.

Norris hence made his pitstop on lap 45 and started to turn in quick laptimes on the medium tyre, with Piastri calling in on lap 47 and – as expected – being undercut by Norris.

Told to switch track positions whenever he had an opportunity, Norris told the team that he would only consider doing so whenever Piastri caught up. Lando had extended his lead to six seconds, initially showing few signs of willingness to comply.

As the orders to Norris eventually became increasingly firm, the Miami race winner eventually relented and slowed down on the start-finish straight at the start of lap 68, giving Piastri the lead and assuming second place.

Lewis Hamilton collected third position after surviving a Turn 1 assault from an increasingly frustrated Max Verstappen, who seemed to be in an angry mood throughout the race.

Verstappen had first been annoyed by the decision to let Norris through after the championship leader ran wide at Turn 1 and stayed ahead, and then sounded off about a strategy that allowed Hamilton to undercut him for third position.

Hamilton had defended hard at the end of his second stint on hards, stymying Verstappen’s progress, and then undercut the Red Bull driver once again – as did Charles Leclerc, who finished fourth.

Although Verstappen got past Leclerc and once again applied pressure on Hamilton, the Red Bull driver struggled to find a way past and eventually resorted to a late braking dive into Turn 1 – which caught Hamilton as he was turning into the corner and sent Verstappen slightly airborne.

Leclerc thus got past once again as Verstappen recovered, while Carlos Sainz attempted to put the irritated Red Bull driver under pressure towards the end of the race – but eventually ran out of pace to challenge for fifth.

Sergio Perez recovered from his Q1 crash to finish seventh with a long stint on the hards, but held just enough over George Russell to ward off the Mercedes driver.

Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll completed the top ten, Stroll once again beating Aston Martin team-mate Fernando Alonso into the points.

So congratulations to Oscar Piastri winning his first race following that sprint success at Qatar. The team orders situation between McLaren and Lando Norris will be a major talking point and yet this is racing. Oscar deserved this victory and yet Lando wants to reduce the points gap to rival Max Verstappen. In the end, the drivers did the switch and the team scored some solid points.

Hungarian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:38:01.989
2 Lando Norris McLaren +2.141s
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +14.880s
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +19.686s
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull +21.349s
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +23.073s
7 Sergio Perez Red Bull +39.792s
8 George Russell Mercedes +42.368s
9 Yuki Tsunoda RB +77.259s
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +77.976s
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +82.460s
12 Daniel Ricciardo RB +1 lap
13 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +1 lap
14 Alexander Albon Williams +1 lap
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
16 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +1 lap
17 Logan Sargeant Williams +1 lap
18 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1 lap
19 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +1 lap
Pierre Gasly Alpine DNF

McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will start the Hungarian Grand Prix on the front row with Lando setting a time just 0.022 seconds faster than Oscar.

Norris slotted in his eventual pole time, with one minute, 15.227 seconds, on his first run in Q3 as an effort to extend that advantage was halted by a late-session red flag caused by Yuki Tsunoda’s Turn 5 crash.

Max Verstappen had earlier set the quickest time at the start of Q3 with one minute, 15.555 seconds on his opening run, although stated that he wanted more front wing for a follow-up lap with new tyres after losing time in the middle sector.

That shortfall was put into perspective as Norris found over three tenths of a second, promoting to the top of the order to claim provisional pole.

Piastri then beat Verstappen’s first time on his next run, 0.022 seconds off of his teammate’s initial effort, and this also put him clear of Max’s next effort with a time of one minute, 15.273 seconds.

Yuki Tsunoda then produced a red flag with just over two minutes remaining, getting on the astroturf on the exit of Turn 5 and smashing his RB into the outside wall.

The session was restarted, although Verstappen did not take to the track as Red Bull did not believe it could improve its time on used tyres. This proved to be the case for those who did run, ensuring a front-row lockout for McLaren.

Carlos Sainz starts alongside Verstappen on the second row, while Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc collected fifth and sixth.

The Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were seventh and eighth, while Daniel Ricciardo moved up to ninth after improving on his post-red-flag lap, leaving Tsunoda in a provisional tenth position.

Hamilton narrowly made the cut into Q3, as none of the late laps from the Haas duo and Valtteri Bottas proved enough to dislodge the Mercedes driver from the top ten.

Nico Hulkenberg had managed to get a lap in, despite being tight for time after struggling to find space in the pitlane. Regardless, the Haas driver was just 0.01 seconds shy of Hamilton to collect a Q2 elimination with P11.

Bottas was P12, stating that the lap was “all I’ve got” as he jumped the Williams duo in the order.

Neither of the Williams drivers was particularly impressed over their laps; Alex Albon felt he should have gone out later to benefit from track evolution, while Logan Sargeant was displeased by traffic on his final lap. Kevin Magnussen completed the top 15.

Although there had been rainfall between the earlier Formula 2 race and the start of Formula 1 qualifying, the circuit had dried enough for soft tyres at the beginning of Q1.

Light rain had continued to fall throughout, but not at a rate that could stop the cars from drying the track with continued laps in the opening ten minutes of the session.

With the majority of drivers either set to switch to a second set of softs, or already out on a new set, Sergio Perez suffered a spin on the entry to Turn 8 resulted in a crash. The Red Bull lost grip on a presumed damp kerb, hurling Checo into the barrier to bring his session to an end and produce a red flag.

The circuit was slightly damp on the restart, but the conditions began to improve throughout the remaining six-and-a-half minutes. George Russell went out too soon, however, and although he managed to move up to P10 with his next lap on new softs, he was vulnerable at the end of the session.

As such, the improving conditions were underlined by Daniel Ricciardo’s moving up from the bottom five into first, which hindered those who had gone early.

Russell had pitted in the meantime having not had enough fuel on board to keep running, and soon moved towards the bottom five. He was thus unable to take advantage of the improving conditions and came to rest in P17 – behind Perez, who was also eliminated.

Zhou Guanyu improved on his final lap but could not break out of the bottom five to start P18, while the Alpines did not go out at all despite the final series of runs, dropping into the bottom two positions by the end of the session: Esteban Ocon starts ahead of Pierre Gasly.

Hungarian Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:15.227
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:15.249
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:15.273
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:15.696
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:15.854
6 Chalres Leclerc Ferrari 1:15.905
7 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:16.043
8 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:16.244
9 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:16.447
10 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:16.477
11 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:16.317
12 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:16.384
13 Alex Albon Williams 1:16.429
14 Logan Sarganet Williams 1:16.543
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:16.548
16 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:17.886
17 George Russell Mercedes 1:17.968
18 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:18.037
19 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:18.049
20 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:18.166