Max Verstappen takes the victory once again in 2023 at the Belgian Grand Prix. He drove an impressive race after starting P6 on the grid. He came up with some impressive overtakes on some of the most talented drivers in the world including Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Max Verstappen was followed by Sergio Perez who finished in 2nd place, 20 seconds behind. Charles Leclerc completed the top 3 of the Grand Prix.
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The Belgian Grand Prix hosted the 3rd Sprint weekend of the season. Before the start of the weekend, the race was threatened by severe rain and flooding. However, the weather was managed once the weekend started.
The first Formula 1 session of the weekend was extremely wet. However, it was not wet enough to stop the session. The drivers took part in a challenging first session of the season. The second season was Qualifying already. With not much data to refer to, the drivers started the qualifying session. Max Verstappen fitted his 5th gearbox so he had to take a 5-place penalty for Sunday’s grid.
Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix
While fans were expecting another impressive result from Lando Norris in the McLaren, he suffered some underbody damage after going for a drive on the gravel at high speed. The young British driver started in 7th place in the Grand Prix. Oscar Piastri will be starting in 5th after being bumped up a place after Verstappen’s penalty.
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Max Verstappen took pole position once again for the Belgian Grand Prix. Ferrari finally put in a good qualifying performance which saw him qualify for P2 and start on the 1st spot on the grid. Perez completed the front row for the Belgian Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri impresses the paddock on Saturday
The Sprint shootout took place in the AM session. During the shootout, Oscar Piastri gave Max Verstappen a scare. The young Australian was able to take a provisional pole as Max Verstappen was not having his best lap behind him.
Somehow, the 2-time Champion was able to bring it together on the final sector of the lap to take pole for the sprint by 0.011 seconds ahead of Piastri.
Minutes before the start of the Sprint race, it had just rained heavily on the track. Hence the race was delayed. The formation lap finally took place under the safety car. The cars did 5 laps behind the safety car on wet tires.
When the race finally got underway, half the cars decided to come into the pit to get rid of the wet tires for intermediates. Max Verstappen decided to stay out and pit the next lap to avoid traffic. The Australian behind Max decided to pit as soon as the safety car ended. After Max pitted the next lap, he found himself behind Oscar Piastri.
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A few laps after the start, the safety car was deployed due to an incident involving Fernando Alonso who had lost control of the car and crashed by himself. When the safety car came to an end, Oscar failed to get the jump on Max Verstappen and gave him a proper splitstream going up the hill at Eau Rouge. This allowed Max to take the lead by the end of the straight.
Behind them, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez came together resulting in damage to the Red Bull. The damage forced Checo to retire from the race. Max went on to win the race with Oscar Piastri with his first top-2 finish. Pierre Gasly found himself in the top 3 after an impressive start.
Lights out at the Belgian Grand Prix
As the lights went out to begin the Belgian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc got off to a good start, but Sergio Perez had the pace and the slipstream to take the lead on turn 5. Behind the leaders, Oscar Piastri got tangled up with Carlos Sainz. The Australian acquired damage on the front wing. Carlos also got some major damage but decided to continue. The damage to Piastri’s car was too great for him to make his way to the pit. He was forced to stop by the side of the track.
Max Verstappen was able to make his way from P7 to P4 by the end of lap 1. This put him only behind Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and his teammate leading the race.
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Lando Norris lost some positions from the start after falling to 8th place after the start and then being overtaken by the Williams of Alex Albon on lap 4.
Verstappen fights his way for a Red Bull battle for the lead
Max Verstappen who found himself in P4 after the opening lap, started to make some moves to challenge his teammate for the lead. On lap 7, he got past Lewis Hamilton, and 2 laps later, he took second place from Charles Leclerc.
The only one standing in the way of another victory for Max Verstappen was Sergio Perez. Max was looking strong to take the lead from Perez in the next few laps. However, there was a clue that weather might play a role before the end of the Grand Prix.
The underdogs start to earn their name
AlphaTauri and Williams have not always had the best Grand Prix this year. However, after the first few laps, Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon showed some promising pace to find themselves in the points.
While Daniel Ricciardo was in last place after the opening lap, he was able to make his way to P14 by lap 12 of the race by performing a successful undercut. Alex Albon was able to utilize the high-top speed of the Williams to make his way through a few cars himself.
The leaders start to pit
With most of the cars that started on soft tires already pitted, Lewis Hamilton, who was running in P4 was the first of the top 4 to come into the pits. He was able to come out just ahead of Lance Stroll on lap 13, who still had not pitted, and maintained his position in the race. This gave him a chance to perform an undercut on Charles Leclerc who was ahead of him.
A lap later, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez came into the pits for fresh tires. Charles was able to come out ahead of Hamilton to retain his position. Max Verstappen was leading the race but was due for a pit.
The next lap, as expected, Max Verstappen pitted for fresh tires. He was able to come out ahead of Charles and maintained his position in P2. However, he was only 2.4 seconds behind Sergio Perez.
The battle of the Bulls begins at the Belgian Grand Prix
By lap 16, Max Verstappen was within a second of Sergio Perez who was leading the race. Things were not looking good for Perez as Max was much faster than his teammate.
On lap 17, Max Verstappen went for the overtake and was easily leading the race by turn 5 of the lap. Max gave Checo absolutely no chance to defend his position.
With Max Verstappen leading the race, the sun disappeared and the sky kept getting darker and darker. If the rain arrived, the only cars that had not pitted would have an advantage. These were George Russell and both the Aston Martins who were running from 5th position to 8th.
Rain makes the track tricky to drive on
On lap 19, the rain began. The cars started to slow down as a precaution against the rain. However, the cars were still managing with the soft for the moment and the track was really slippy. Even Max Verstappen almost lost it while going through Eau Rouge.
Although rain seemed to threaten the strategy of the teams, it did not rain enough for the necessity of the Intermediate tires.
Drivers come in for their 3rd set of tires
Halfway through the race, with rain falling, the teams decided to bring in the drivers for their second stops of the race. Although it was raining, the teams didn’t feel that intermediate tires would be required. And they would be right.
On lap 28, Lewis Hamilton pitted in an attempt to try and get past Charles Leclerc once again. However, Lewis came out of the pits and was stuck behind Fernando Alonso. This eventually cost him a position to Charles Leclerc who pitted the next lap and retained his position.
On lap 30, Sergio Perez came in for a quick pit stop to put on a fresh set of soft tires. However, it was not enough to get past Max Verstappen who came out of the pits in the next lap and still had a gap of 8 seconds to Perez.
Esteban Ocon surprises Yuki Tsunoda with an exceptional move
With things settling down in the front of the field, the battles for the final positions had just started. Yuki Tsunoda, who was running P9, had to defend against the Alpine of Esteban Ocon. On lap 39, Esteban Ocon performed a stunner of a move on the outside of Yuki’s AlphaTauri to take 9th place from him.
Esteban Ocon getting saucy!🕺🏻#F1 #BelgianGP 🇧🇪 pic.twitter.com/XxFB5E1tP8
— SSN Podcast (@SSNPodcast) July 30, 2023
Ocon’s teammate was not far behind Yuki. Pierre Gasly had already set his sights on taking the final points position for the Belgian Grand Prix. However, Yuki had the pace to stay in front of the second Alpine and scored his 3rd point of the season. AlphaTauri still sits at the bottom of the WCC table.
Max Verstappen makes it 8 in a row at the Belgian Grand Prix
After 44 laps of the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen took the chequered flag. The race marked the Dutch driver’s 8th win in a row. He is only 1 win away from Sebastian Vettel’s record of 9 wins in a row which was achieved in 2013 with Red Bull.
It is clear that Max is in a league on his own. Even his own teammate came nowhere near his pace. Sergio Perez finished 21 seconds behind Max Verstappen, despite starting 4 positions ahead of him.
Another stunning drive 💫@Max33Verstappen is your #F1DriverOfTheDay 💪#BelgianGP @salesforce pic.twitter.com/mVrPC5oOC2
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 30, 2023
Let’s see if Max Verstappen can go on and break the record set by another great Red Bull driver in the next couple of races. But it won’t be anytime soon.
After the Belgian Grand Prix, Formula 1 will break for a month before Max Verstappen’s home Grand Prix in Zandvoort. The teams should bring in some good upgrades after the summer break. We won’t see the cars out on track again until August 25.