Max Verstappen comes from 14th Place to win Belgian Grand Prix

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dominated the rest of the field to earn a well-deserved victory in the Belgian Grand Prix.

The World Championship leader was clearly a cut above the rest of the drivers as he managed to claw his way up the grid from 14^th place to 1^st place by lap 18 and clear some distance from then onwards.

Verstappen was a second a lap faster than his teammate Sergio Perez, who managed to finish second to complete the one-two finish from Red Bull. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz finished in third place in front of Mercedes’ George Russell.

Dominant display by the Dutchman

Verstappen’s ninth win in 14 races has solidified his Championship lead.

His only competitor – Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc – finished fifth but was demoted to sixth by a penalty for speeding in the pit lane and now trails Max Verstappen by 98 points in third place, five points behind Esteban Perez.

After starting 10th on the grid and going on to win in Hungary, Verstappen went into the summer break on a high, thanks in part to another Ferrari mistake, this time involving Leclerc.

Verstappen started the final stretch of the season with a more decisive declaration of Red Bull and his dominance. From the moment he stepped onto the track for practice on a dreary Friday afternoon, he looked powerful, and even a grid penalty for using too many engine parts couldn’t stop him.

Despite being one of seven drivers who received penalties and started at the ‘back of the grid,’ Verstappen managed to capture an amazing pole position, leading to speculation from many in the paddock that he would triumph despite his penalty and so it was proved.

At the beginning of the weekend’s first sunny day, Verstappen chose the unfavoured soft tyre, making rapid progress – he was eighth by the end of lap one.

Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes was forced to stop on track after he and Fernando Alonso’s Alpine collided on Les Combes on the first lap. A second incident occurred when Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo crashed trying to avoid a spinning Nicholas Latifi’s Williams on the second lap.

Verstappen was up to fifth on the restart of lap five, just behind team-mate Perez as Sainz closed in on the Spaniard. Sainz pitted on lap 11 to switch to softer tyres, and Verstappen took the lead as he overtook Perez.

Despite driving on worn soft tyres, Verstappen continued to set a prodigious pace, but Sainz passed him on lap 15 when he stopped. He fell three seconds behind Sainz, but was back on his tail a lap later, and was two seconds in front by the end of the long Kemmel Straight.

Verstappen destroyed the competition, obliterating Sainz by two seconds. Ferrari, who have been in close competition with Red Bull all season, had no speed, and Sainz had to worry about Russell’s Mercedes behind him for the remainder of the race.

Sainz held on to finish third despite Russell closing in over the final stages of the race but as his tyres became overworked and he was unable to make any further progress when he got to within two seconds of Sainz.

Poor Day for Leclerc

At the beginning of the Belgian Grand Prix, Leclerc realised that he needed to overtake Verstappen and make up ground in the championship. However, he and Ferrari were astonished by Red Bull’s pace and didn’t know how they had messed up.

Because of a tear-off visor stuck in a brake duct, Leclerc’s front wheels overheated, forcing him to pit early, damaging his race. He battled back to fifth place but was unable to catch Russell, who finished more than 20 seconds ahead of him.

On the final lap, Leclerc tried to set the fastest lap, but he came out just ahead of Alonso’s Alpine, and Alonso overtook him into fifth place going up the hill into Les Combes.

Unfortunately for Leclerc, he was unable to take back the fastest lap from Verstappen as he lost 0.6 seconds when he repassed Alonso on the final lap. In addition, Leclerc was penalised five seconds for speeding in the pit lane and dropped back behind Alonso.

Esteban Ocon’s sixth-place finish was secured after a strong drive from third on the grid. His team-mate Alonso finished fifth after pulling off the race’s most impressive passing move.

As Sebastian Vettel passed Pierre Gasly at La Source hairpin, Ocon, who was right behind them, drafted both of them as Gasly attempted to pass Vettel again.

Three-wide into Les Combes, Ocon braved out-braking to snatch the lead, when they went outside. Vettel finished eighth, followed by Gasly.

Williams Racing Performance

Alex Albon managed to grab the final point for Williams after finishing ninth in qualifying, which became sixth on the grid.

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:

Tyre degradation today was higher than we had anticipated, which meant at least two stops were required. Nicholas’s race was largely determined by the collision with Valtteri [Bottas] early in the race, which required him to pit for a new front wing. His start set of tyres were also damaged and so we chose to complete two further stops using a Soft tyre for the final stint.
Alex had a difficult start and lost places initially before recovering on the opening lap. We chose to pit him relatively early at each stop to give him the best chance of holding track position and using his straight-line speed advantage to defend. We asked a lot of him in the final stint and he was under a lot of pressure from the cars behind for whole of that stint. He drove very well and played his hand without fault to deliver another hard-earned point.

Alex Albon:

This was one of the tougher races I’ve done in my career and also one of my personal bests. We did the best job we could today and it’s a good feeling. On the lap to the grid, it was clear that tyre degradation was going to be really high and hotter track temperatures than we have had the rest of the weekend made tyre wear worse. On the final stint I was thinking about three-stopping, but we held on, kept Lance [Stroll] behind and then it was about not making any mistakes. I think, as a whole, we executed the weekend from FP1 onwards well, maximised the positive of our car being quick on the straights, and made no mistakes. We experimented, made the best of the tyres in qualifying and maximised the results potential in the race, so I’m very happy. As a team, we had a complete weekend and that’s what it shows; when you don’t have the fastest car but you do everything right, you can still come away with a point or two.

Nicholas Latifi:

I went a little off the line in turn six, there must have been a lot of marbles from the junior categories and I understeered right off. It felt like driving in the wet on slick tyres. I dipped the wheel in the gravel, and it spun the rear around which caught me by surprise quite a bit. I thought I would go straight into the gravel and come back on slowly, but Instead I spun across the track as a result and made contact with Valtteri [Bottas]. My race was compromised from there as that set of tyres we needed to make the two-stop strategy work were damaged. One to forget but we’ll try and bounce back In Zandvoort.

Belgian Grand Prix Results

2022 FIA Formula One World Championship Schedule