Belgian Grand Prix – No competition for Max Verstappen, Perez secures a one-two finish for Red Bull

For the second consecutive time this season, the pole position escaped Max Verstappen. Despite setting the fastest lap in qualifying, leaving his closest competitor 8 tenths behind, the Dutchman was penalized 5 places on the grid for changing his gearbox. Starting 6th on the grid, the Red Bull driver took advantage of a collision between Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri to claim 5th position.

The start was positive as well for the other Red Bull, that of Sergio Perez. Benefiting from a much longer straight line than Charles Leclerc, the Mexican erased the Monegasque on the Kemmel straight. The former Racing Point driver then opened a gap of 2 seconds with the Ferrari as early as the third lap. Perez’s objective was then to escape as quickly as possible at the start and hope that his teammate took longer to make his way up to him.

Oscar Piastri, who had a magical Saturday leading the sprint race and finishing in second place, had a less pleasant Sunday. Despite opting for a setup with a lot of downforce, his fifth position on the grid suggested a good result at the end of this Grand Prix. These hopes were quickly dashed by a overly greedy Carlos Sainz. The Ferrari driver, starting from fourth on the grid, tried to dive on the inside of Lewis Hamilton in third position without considering the drivers around him. Locking up his brakes, the Spaniard squeezed the McLaren between his sidepods and the wall. Oscar Piastri was forced to retire without being able to show his driving skills.

Despite substantial damage to his car, Carlos Sainz decided to stay on track. His engineer communicated to him via the radio that the damage to his right pontoon was causing a 5% loss in aerodynamic efficiency. By the fourth lap, the injured Carlos Sainz was 6 seconds behind the leaders ahead of him. Just celebrating his forty-second birthday, Fernando Alonso took advantage of his compatriot’s situation to pass him effortlessly. After his nightmarish sprint race, the Aston Martin driver was determined to get his weekend back on track.

Despite a setup supposed to favor Lewis Hamilton on the straights, the British driver couldn’t match the pace of the Red Bull and its formidable DRS. Faced with this lethal weapon, the seven-time world champion had to let his rival pass on the 6th lap. On the 9th lap, it was his rival from 2022, Charles Leclerc, who he overtook to move up to second position. Only 3 seconds on the track separated the championship leader from his runner-up. Making a pit stop, the Verstappen train had only one destination: first place. Exiting the pits 2.5 seconds behind his teammate, the Dutch driver closed the gap in just one lap to effortlessly pass his neighbor in the garage on the 17th lap of the race. By the 22nd lap, the gap between the two winged bulls was 4 seconds. Regardless of his starting position, the Dutch driver’s finishing position is inevitably always the same.

Despite some small tensions on the radio with his engineer regarding strategic discussions or tire management, Max Verstappen once again dominated the race and finished with a 25-second lead over his teammate.

Charles Leclerc can indeed congratulate himself for finishing ahead of the Mercedes and Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin. The Ferrari driver thus offers his team their third podium only this season. The road still seems long for the red team to catch up with Red Bull, and it is unlikely that the Italian team will be able to close the gap in just one summer.

Having finished fourth with the fastest lap in the race, Lewis Hamilton is now only one point behind Fernando Alonso in the drivers’ championship. While the battle for the title no longer holds any surprises, the fight for third place in the standings is likely to liven up this second half of the season. Mercedes must continue to improve their W14 bis, while Aston Martin must find new solutions to finish this 2023 campaign as they began it.

In the current administrative chaos within the Alpine team, the two French drivers have managed to maintain some clarity to finish 8th and 11th. Esteban Ocon had an electrifying end to the race. The Evreux native finished just one second behind Lando Norris, a driver who has been on the podium in the last two races. Despite a start hampered by the collision between Sainz and Piastri, an unsuccessful strategic gamble, and a botched pit stop, Pierre Gasly managed to bring his car just outside the points. If the rain had intensified and remained on the track, Pierre Gasly was one of those drivers, like Lance Stroll and George Russell, who had postponed their pit stops, who could have finished higher.