Max Verstappen overcame a five-place grid penalty to ease to victory at the Belgian GP: Sergio Perez came second to complete a Red Bull one-two, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc completing the podium; Red Bull extended their record winning streak with a 13th successive triumph
Monday 31 July 2023 10:39, UK
Max Verstappen came from sixth on the grid to lead team-mate Sergio Perez home in a Red Bull one-two at the Belgian Grand Prix, as the team claimed a record-extending 13th successive victory.
Having been demoted from the pole position he claimed after receiving a five-place grid penalty for exceeding his gearbox allowance, Verstappen eased through the field to become just the second driver to win eight successive Formula 1 races.
Pole-sitter Charles Leclerc, who was overtaken by Perez on the first lap, held off the challenge of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton to claim just his third podium of the season for Ferrari.
Fernando Alonso arrested Aston Martin's recent slump to take fifth ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and McLaren's Lando Norris.
Alpine's Esteban Ocon produced a late overtake on Alonso's Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll to claim eighth, while Yuki Tsunoda took a valuable final point for AlphaTauri in 10th.
Verstappen gained two places on the opening lap as Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and McLaren's Oscar Piastri clashed at the first corner in an incident that eventually led to the retirement of both cars, before the Dutchman calmly eased past Hamilton, Leclerc and Perez to take the lead after 17 of the 44 laps.
From there, a brief rain shower that wasn't strong enough to force any of the field onto intermediate tyres was the only threat to Verstappen extending his winning run, as he almost went off at the high-speed Eau Rouge.
With disaster averted, Verstappen eased into the distance, ignoring suggestions from his race engineer to drive more carefully as he opened up a 22-second gap to Perez by the time they took the chequered flag.
The 25-year-old, who appears all but certain to claim a third successive drivers' title, extends his world championship lead over Perez to 125 points going into the sport's summer break, having also won Saturday's Sprint at Spa.
"I knew that we had a great car and it was just about surviving Turn One," Verstappen said. "I could see it getting really tight so I was just going to stay out of that and it worked out."
"From there onwards we made the right overtakes and moves. I got a bit stuck in a DRS train at the start but once that cleared I could do my own pace. Again, really enjoyable."
When the season resumes at his home race in Zandvoort in late August, Verstappen will have the opportunity to match Sebastian Vettel's record of nine successive Grand Prix wins, which was also set in a Red Bull car back in 2013.
Along with extending the overall record they set in Hungary last time out, Red Bull now have the most successive wins within a season, having won all 12 races of the 2023 campaign to build a 256-point constructors' standings lead over Mercedes.
Belgian GP result
1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2) Sergio Perez, Red Bull
3) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
4) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
5) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
6) George Russell, Mercedes
7) Lando Norris, McLaren
8) Esteban Ocon, Alpine
9) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
10) Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri
Verstappen had been top of the standings for each of the three previous competitive sessions on an action-packed Sprint weekend, but Red Bull's decision to fit a new gearbox on his RB19 at least provided the sport's dominant force with a slight challenge for Sunday's race.
Having won from 14th on the grid at Spa last year, Verstappen was confident he could repeat the feat from further up, and the relative ease of overtaking around the circuit was one of the reasons Red Bull chose this weekend to fit the new gearbox.
Their thinking was swiftly justified as Verstappen used Red Bull's brilliant drag reduction system (DRS) to make effortless overtakes in the fast opening part of the lap.
While his charge into the lead wasn't as quick as some might have expected, the way in which he pulled away from Perez after moving to the front on lap 17 left little doubt that he was merely taking a cautious approach on the opening stint.
Verstappen was repeatedly told over radio by his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase that he wasn't being sensible by pushing too hard on the final stint, but the Dutchman appeared hellbent on opening a gap that would allow him to pit again for fresh tyres to get the fastest lap of the race.
"I did slow down (after the radio messages)," Verstappen said.
"We look at the numbers, we look at the wear of the tyre and this track is super hard on the tyre so you don't want to do any unnecessary things and that's what we did until the end."
Ultimately it was his old rival Hamilton who pitted from fourth, with a huge advantage to Alonso in fifth, to put on fresh tyres and set the fastest lap with his final circuit of the track.
However, the fact that Hamilton was so far behind Verstappen that he was able to make such a move reflects the incredible chasm that has opened between the Red Bull and Mercedes teams that fought so closely in 2021.
It's currently difficult to see how Red Bull and Verstappen's winning streak will end, with his near-perfect form threatening to rewrite many more of the sport's records.
Verstappen's cause was aided by some opening-corner drama, as Sainz locked up his tyres, before squeezing Piastri on his inside into the barrier.
The damage to the McLaren was immediately obvious as Piastri was forced to stop out on track, and it became clear there were also issues with Sainz's car as the Ferrari fell backwards, before eventually retiring on lap 24.
Red Bull's domination aside, it was still an encouraging day for Ferrari as Leclerc claimed his and the team's third podium of a season they had begun hoping to contend for titles.
Ferrari have often performed well in qualifying but lacked the pace to stay ahead of the likes of Mercedes and Aston Martin on a Sunday, but on this occasion Leclerc was able to deny Hamilton what would have been a fourth podium in six races.
Aston Martin, who were Red Bull's closest challengers in the opening weeks of the season, were a step further back as Alonso was unable to keep pace with Leclerc and Hamilton.
Having been the surprise story of the season, Aston Martin will hope they can use the summer break to arrest a concerning slide back towards the midfield.
Behind Alonso, Russell produced another good recovery drive after a largely disappointing weekend to take sixth.
McLaren were brought back down to earth as their recent resurgence, which had seen Norris take consecutive second-placed finishes, was halted as the MCL60 struggled amid high tyre degradation.
The team will hope that their struggles were heavily impacted by a setup choice that had been geared towards the wet conditions of Friday and Saturday in Spa.
Ocon's eighth provides some much-needed respite for Alpine, with the team having announced on Friday that the Belgian Grand Prix would be the last for team principal Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane.
Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda will be buoyed by sealing a third points finish of the season and outperforming new team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, who could only manage 16th in his second race since replacing Nyck de Vries.
Formula 1 now pauses for a summer break, before returning with the Dutch Grand Prix from August 25-27.
After an action-packed first half of the season, teams will be obliged to completely shut down F1 operations at their factories for 14 consecutive days at some point during the break.
There promises to be a special atmosphere in Zandvoort, with Max Verstappen looking to match Sebastian Vettel's record of nine successive victories in front of his Orange Army.
The fun doesn't stop there either, with the Italian Grand Prix following a week later at Monza as the season resumes with a European double-header before heading around the globe for the final eight races.
