The alien wins his fifth Sprint Race in the Belgian GP confirming his superiority also in the wet with the Red Bull RB19: the Dutchman earns another eight points in the drivers’ championship standings, given that his teammate, Sergio Perez, is was forced to retire after being contacted by Lewis Hamilton who damaged the side of the Mexican’s car with the front left wheel who tried to continue and the Milton Keynes team called him back to the pits after a long time.
The start of the competition was given with the group of single-seaters who were forced to line up with the full wet behind the Safety Car: after five laps behind the relay car, the race started and half of the group immediately returned to the pitlane to pass at the intermediates, which the rest of the field did in the following lap. In this situation, the two Ferrari drivers, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc paid for problems that cost them important positions due to a slow tire change on the rears.
A new face appears behind Verstappen: Oscar Piastri managed to lead the Sprint Race for a few laps. The McLaren Australian was able to take the lead at Max’s stop and led the group until the restart from the Safety Car which was necessary to take out the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, who went out at Pouhon after a skirmish with Nico Hulkenberg who has come under investigation with Haas.
Oscar has shown that he has no awe towards the two-time world champion, even if he had to surrender to the superiority of Red Bull: at the restart, Max fully covered the compression of Eau Rouge and Raidillon and ate himself on the outside the MCL60 at the Les Combes braking point.
Piastri didn’t lose his temper and took home the first podium of his short career, confirming his skills as a champion who wants to assert himself. Lando Norris with the other papaya car didn’t go beyond a sixth place: in the afternoon we saw what we observed in qualifying confirmed. The little boy is in a hurry to show off…
After the revolution in which the Alpine top management was decapitated with the sacking of Otmar Szafnauer, Alan Permane and Pat Fry, an unexpected third place arrived for Pierre Gasly who brought his A523 to the podium, ahead of the two Ferraris, while Esteban Ocon remained out of the points.
More could have been expected from Ferrari even if the pace wasn’t that great, but the double pit stop cost the Maranello team dearly. In the second phase of the race, Charles suffered from overheating of the tires and followed up with his teammate after suffering from a slow tire change at the rear.
Among the protagonists of the race, we cannot forget Lewis Hamilton: the Englishman was fourth when he was given a five-second penalty for the touch-down on Perez which forced Red Bull to stop early. There was no malice, but he simply widened his trajectory in the wet. In the end he managed to finish seventh by a few thousandths ahead of George Russell, last in the points.
Good performance by Daniel Ricciatrdo who brought AlphaTauri to tenth position, ahead of Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and Alexander Albon’s Williams.
#Verstappen #wins #Spa #Sprint #ahead #Piastri #Gasly