Red Bull double at Spa-Francorchamps: tenth victory of the season for Max Verstappen (the third in a row in the Ardennes), 13th in a row for the Milton Keynes team which obscures the McLaren record in 1988 with the MP4-4 driven by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. And behind the alien comes Sergio Perez who is often spoiled by his team and consolidates second place in the drivers’ championship by putting Fernando Alonso 40 points behind, although he paid for a gap from the “captain” of 22 seconds.
Red Bull can go on holiday confirming the absolute superiority of a team that has no weaknesses: Max had to be attacked by Lewis Hamilton in the last lap for the fastest lap. The seven-times world champion mounted a medium train to shoot a 1’47″305 that swept away the 1’48″922 obtained at the start of the last stint, after engineer Lambiase had recalled the Dutch for having put too much stress on the tires on the lap back on track. And Verstappen “responded” in his own way, silencing him with a stunning performance.
Max fears no one: he saw pole removed for the replacement of the fifth transmission which cost him five places on the grid, but he dominated far and wide, passing his teammate with the DRS open as if Perez were stationary. He signed the start at the pole in the Qualy Shootout, then winning the competition. In short, he left only the dot of the fastest lap to Lewis Hamilton, but he had no tools to respond to the “provocation” from Mercedes.
Behind the world champion team which already has 504 points in its pocket in the Constructors’ championship, comes Ferrari which climbs back to the third step of the podium with Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque was able to keep Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes at a distance: on a track with many fast bends, the red came back as second force. The RB19s remain over half a minute away, a sign that the run-up to Verstappen is not a viable goal, especially since Leclerc had to slow down in the final stages to return to the consumption window.
For now, the Scuderia is content to stay ahead of everyone else and, after the bad luck at Silverstone and Budapest, an encouraging result has arrived. Too bad for Carlos Sainz who was forced to retire after the contact at the Source immediately after the start: the Spaniard found himself in a sandwich and the Australian who was inside was unable to avoid contact with the front left holed the belly of SF-23 and damaged the bottom.
The Scuderia takes a breather and moves within five points of Aston Martin for third place in the Constructors’ category, while the Star extends to the place of honor with Lewis Hamilton, fourth, and George Russell, sixth. Fred Vasseur can hope that the red has found its balance, showing what its value can be: Red Bull aside, the SF-23 has shown that it can maintain a good pace, also because the race was built on the information simulations since there was no long run data.
Mercedes, once again, has reaped its maximum with the two drivers who don’t miss a beat: today the W14 struggling with porpoising didn’t have the pace to put salt on Leclerc’s tail and they managed to harness the Aston Fernando Alonso’s Martin who celebrated his 42nd birthday with a fifth place: the “verdona” lacks speed and the Spaniard has to settle for what passes the convent. The Silverstone team also added Lance Stroll’s ninth place: the Canadian didn’t impress, ending up in the middle of less performing cars.
The big disappointment was McLaren: the Woking team gambled a weekend on the rain, setting up a heavily loaded MCL60 that flew into T2, but was terribly slow on the long straights. Yesterday’s Sprint race went well with Piastri second, while today the Woking team has to settle for seventh place by Lando Norris, after the premature stop of the young Australian.
The points zone is completed by the eighth place of Esteban Ocon eighth with the Alpine and the tenth of Yuki Tsunoda with the AlphaTauri: the Frenchman showed his nails, trying to attack with spectacular overtaking in the guided areas of the track, because the power unit by Viry Chatillon accuses a gap of about thirty horses from the top engines.
The Japanese was very brilliant with the AT04, taking back the leadership of the team, given that Daniel Ricciardo didn’t go beyond 16th place: the little point from the Japanese helps move the standings and gives the team from Faenza some morale.
The data that emerges from Spa-Francorchamps is that there are not lapped by Max Verstappen’s super Red Bull: a good sign for F1 which confirms an interesting level of competitiveness. Alien aside.
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