Yahoo Autos F1 Belgium Grand Prix Results: Verstappen Maintains Unbeaten Run
Max Verstappen made it eight victories in a row, and 10th overall from 12 races in 2023, to continue his unstoppable march to a third straight Formula 1 world title. Autoweek rounds up the main talking points from the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
Verstappen’s Eighth In A Row
The countries change, the view outside the window changes, but a cursory glance at the timing screens tells an unchanging picture. Max Verstappen continued his crushing dominance of the 2023 Formula 1 season with another imperious display, this time at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, to extend his title advantage to an astonishing 125 points.
It has been an absolute snoozefest at the front of the field this season as not even a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change could halt the Verstappen train. The reigning World Champion made it into the lead on lap 17 of 44, won by 22 seconds, and even had time to have petty arguments with Race Engineer Gianpiero Lambiase over tire usage during the final stint of the grand prix.
Verstappen’s victory was his eighth in a row, leaving him just one shy of Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine, which he could match on home soil in the Netherlands next time out, when Formula 1 returns from its summer recess. In eight of the 11 races so far this season Red Bull has had a margin of at least 20 seconds over the next non-Red Bull car, and in those other three races there were mitigating circumstances whereby the advantage was smaller than it should have been. Verstappen and Red Bull are operating at a relentlessly extraordinary level as man, machine, and team gels in perfect harmony.
Leclerc Puts Ferrari Back On The Podium
Ferrari entered 2023 with ambitions of competing for the title but they were dismantled pretty early on once it realised the extent of its weaknesses and the strengths of Red Bull’s RB19. Charles Leclerc nonetheless gave Ferrari a reason to enter the summer recess on a relative high by claiming third spot at a circuit where he captured his first victory back in 2019.
Leclerc’s pole position was something of a mirage owing to fastest qualifier Verstappen taking a penalty, and his lead lasted only a few metres before Sergio Perez blasted past, but the Ferrari driver kept the rest at bay to take just his and Ferrari’s third podium result of the season.
“Before the first race the target was to do a step better [than 2022], to win the world championship, if you look at the first half of the year we are very far from where we put our expectations,” said Leclerc. “On the other hand, once we understood, we reset, and there was an incredible reaction from the team, they brought some upgrades one-and-a-half months earlier [than planned].
“We still have things to look at as maybe we haven’t optimized the package in some races, such as Budapest, and maybe we did something to optimize it here. It’s good to finish anyway on a positive note on the first half of the season and we will take the summer break to look and analyze and hopefully maximize the package at all races for the second half of the season.”
Piastri Brought Back Down To Earth
Oscar Piastri starred in Saturday’s Sprint by taking the runner-up position behind the unbeatable Verstappen, but his race unraveled from the outset on Sunday. Piastri started fifth on the grid but was involved in a clash at the La Source hairpin with Carlos Sainz, which was deemed a racing incident. Piastri sustained a left-front puncture as well as front-right damage and realized the MCL60 was terminally damaged “when I went up Eau Rouge with about 180 degrees of front lock and still went straight.”
Piastri parked the car halfway around the lap while Sainz lasted half of the race lapping several seconds off the pace due to a gaping hole in his sidepod before Ferrari finally raised the white flag.
“I think it’s quite firmly in the category of a lap one, turn one incident,” said a sanguine Piastri. “I got a good start, got my nose alongside, when we got to the braking zone Carlos moved to the right and locked up, I also had to try and avoid that a bit, and then from there to the apex my options were quite limited in where I can go.”
Sainz adopted more of a finger-pointing attitude in the aftermath.
“I think I was on the attack with Lewis [Hamilton] and pretty much had the move done into Turn 1,” he said. “I made the apex cleanly, but unfortunately Oscar was trying to do a bit of an optimistic move on me I think and a bit of a shame because when you review the past races here in Spa and you know what has been a typical Turn 1 incident it’s exactly that. Everyone who tries the inside line in Turn 1 and tries to make it around there normally generates an incident or a crash and this time it was my turn to receive [the impact].”
Under-The-Radar Tsunoda Grabs A Point
The underperformance of the now-axed Nyck de Vries, and his high-profile replacement by the ebullient Daniel Ricciardo, means Yuki Tsunoda has flown under the radar a little in recent weeks.
Tsunoda excelled at Spa-Francorchamps as he put a wretched Sprint Saturday to bed by converting 11th on the grid into a top 10 position to score the final point on Sunday. It marked his and AlphaTauri’s first point since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix back in April and he accomplished the feat in a race with 18 finishers.
“I’m really, really happy,” said Tsunoda. “The team did a fantastic job, the car was flying today, I knew we’d struggle in rain, but we were able to maximise the car performance today. I’m happy, the last couple of races I struggled a lot and yesterday was really a horrible day but I’m definitely happy and it’s a positive way to enter the summer break. In the first stint we were flying, matching the Astons’ pace, and that was key to score the points as Alpine was still much faster.”
F1 Belgian Grand Prix
Results
Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 44 laps
Sergio Pérez Red Bull Racing - 22.305
Charles Leclerc Ferrari -32.259
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes -49.671
Fernando Alonso Aston Martin -56.184
George Russell Mercedes -1'03.101
Lando Norris McLaren -1'13.719
Esteban Ocon Alpine -1'14.719
Lance Stroll Aston Martin -1'19.340
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri -1'20.221
Pierre Gasly Alpine -1'23.084
Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo -1'25.191
Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo -1'35.441
Alexander Albon Williams -1'36.184
Kevin Magnussen Haas -1'41.754
Daniel Ricciardo AlphaTauri -1'43.071
Logan Sargeant Williams -1'44.476
Nico Hülkenberg Haas -1'50.450
Carlos Sainz Ferrari 23 laps Accident damage
Oscar Piastri McLaren 0 - Accident damage
