Verstappen eases to third consecutive win at Spa-Francorchamps

Starting from sixth was the least of Max Verstappen’s issues as he quickly returned to the entrance and constructed a lead that made successful look simple as soon as once more. Sergio Perez was no match to his teammate and completed second whereas Charles Leclerc had an excellent race for Ferrari to full the rostrum.

Following a sequence of moist to damp periods on Friday and Saturday the solar greeted the F1 circus for the Belgian Grand Prix. Rain was nonetheless a chance however not within the minds of the drivers once they took their positions for the beginning of the race.

The prime 4 (Leclec, Perez, Hamilton and Sainz) plus Verstappen began on softs, the remainder of the highest 10 on medium. All others additionally went for tender tyres whereas Hulkenberg began from the pitlane on mediums.

When the lights went out Leclerc snug held on to the lead into La Source however the slipstream at the Kemmel straight was too highly effective to maintain again the Red Bull main to Perez taking on P1. Hamilton held on to P3 whereas Verstappen quickly handed Piastri after which additionally Sainz earlier than Les Combes.

Piastri incurred harm due to contact with Sainz at Turn 1 and fall again rapidly earlier than parking his automobile at the Pif Paf chicane to retire. Piastri was merely squeezed between the Ferrari and the boundaries and could not stop the harm.

Alonso behind had a strong begin and gained three positions to sixth whereas Tsunoda moved up from eleventh to seventh. Norris adopted in 8, Albon gained 6 locations to ninth with Stroll holding on to tenth.

Sainz additionally incurred some harm from the Turn 1 incident and shortly had Alonso proper behind him. A gap in his sidepod allowed Alonso to make a straightforward go on the Kemmel straight on lap 4 whereas son extra vehicles had been keen to tackle the Ferrari. Tsunoda handed Sainz at Les Combes the subsequent lap adopted by Albon at Bus Stop.

Moments later Hamilton misplaced DRS from Leclerc forward and instantly noticed Verstappen breeze previous on the straight to transfer up into third place, instantly ensuing within the quickest lap up to now for the Dutchman. By then, Perez had pulled a 2.2s benefit over the Ferrari driver.

As Sainz continued to drop behind and pitted with out the crew even making an attempt to patch the opening within the sidepod, Verstappen handed the main Ferrari of Leclerc for second place, then 2.8s behind his Mexican teammate.

Of the highest runners, Alonso was the primary to pit. The Aston Martin driver pitted on lap 11 and took on a recent set of medium tyres, following up his medium stint for the reason that begin. The Spaniard rejoined forward of Hulkenberg however the Haas driver acquired forward after which held him up for a lap.

Hamilton was extra fortunate together with his cease 2 laps later. The Mercedes driver emerged forward of Stroll and Russell and managed to emerge and keep forward of Stroll and Russell. Perez and Leclerc pitted one other lap later, adopted by Verstappen the subsequent lap. Verstappen was requested if he wished to keep out since rain was anticipated in 9 minutes however pitted nonetheless, saying “I can’t see the weather forecast, I don’t know”.

As Hamilton ran away from Stroll and Russell, the 2 fighters quickly acquired firm by Alonso who had simply handed Gasly. Alonso pushed onerous and whipped up some gravel at Stavelot earlier than getting previous Russell at Bus Stop and being allowed to go by Stroll to take fifth once more.

In entrance, Verstappen had taken the lead after getting up to pace with the medium tyres a lot faster than Perez did. Verstappen appeared extra at ease on the medium tyres and as soon as previous Perez put in two consecutive quickest laps to quickly construct a spot.

36 minutes into the race the rain returned! First just a few drops right here and there however 5 minutes later Verstappen reported “quite a lot of rain”. At that point, Stroll appeared to hit a cliff together with his tyres and opted to pit, altering medium to softs. Russell did the identical a minute later whereas it actually rained correctly at the pitlane and at the Raidillon, main to Verstappen to have a little bit of a second there.

Other elements of the observe remained dry and when the rain stopped about 5 minutes later the intermediates had been prepared to be returned to Pirelli.

Positions within the prime 5 had been just about fastened till Hamilton pitted on lap 28, attempting to undercut Leclerc. The Mercedes driver ended up behind Alonso bit cleared him rapidly. Leclerc coated Hamilton by pitting the subsequent lap and kind of anulled the stops because the hole just about remained the identical between them.

Perez, Alonso and Verstappen pitted quickly after, bringing them again in the identical positions, all on tender tyres. The solely factor that actually modified was for Alonso as he now had Russell at 2s and seemingly barely faster regardless of having 6 lap older tyres. Norris adopted 3s additional down the street with Stroll, Tsunoda and Ocon finishing the highest 10 with 11 laps remaining.

Nothing a lot occurred anymore in entrance, apart from some banter between Verstappen and his engineer. The latter first steered to “use your head a bit more. The tyre you’re on had quite a bit of deg in the first stint”, however Verstappen was fast to reply: “I could also just go faster and we can do some pitstop practice”.

Battling on observe was extra for the ultimate factors scoring positions. Ocon made some progress by passing Tsunoda with a powerful extra on the surface by Les Combes after which chased and handed Stroll for eighth.

At the top of lap 42 Hamilton opted to pit and tackle model new medium tyres. He might accomplish that with out shedding a place to Alonso and went on to take quickest lap, snatching it away from Max Verstappen.