Max Verstappen Triumphs in Action-Packed Sprint Race, Piastri Impresses, and Perez's Misfortune
The Belgian GP has come and gone and what 2 races we have seen on Saturday and Sunday with both a Sprint Race and a Main Race. We look at some delays, wet racing, damage and some nice surprises.
On Saturday for the Sprint Race, we see the start delayed due to the heavy rain again which was a normal occurrence by now in Spa. It was announced by the FIA that there will be a safety car start which meant that all cars would need to go around the track behind the safety car on full wet tyres as per regulation. We start the formation lap and the FIA announce that there will be 4 laps behind the safety car and then there will be a rolling start instead of a standing start. In the end they end up doing 5 laps behind the safety car which meant that we will only see 11 laps of green flag racing on the Sprint Race.
As the safety car comes in, Max Verstappen becomes the pace setter and as they get to the bus stop chicane, we see half the grid pit for Inters straight away as the track had dried out a lot. Max Verstappen opts to stay out a lap before he pits as it would have been very risky to pit and potentially get held up in the pits. Oscar Piastri who started in 2nd, takes the opportunity to pit straight away and this gamble paid off as when at the end of lap 1 Max pits, Oscar takes the lead and Max comes out in 2nd place. Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez are another 2 drivers who hugely benefitted by pitting on the start as they made a lot of places.
On lap 3 we see Fernando Alonso crash at turn 11 and bring out the safety car again which was a bit of good news for Piastri as it meant that Verstappen would have less laps to make his move till the end of the race. However, on lap 5 when the safety car came in, we see Piastri go incredibly early on which allowed Verstappen to have a good run on Piastri and managed to overtake him by the end of the Camel Straight after the restart. Logan Sargeant picked up a 5 second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
On lap 7 of the Sprint Race, we see Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton touch as Hamilton attempts to overtake Perez and later that lap Perez loses a lot of places as he dropped from 4th to 16th. It was revealed that Perez picked up some damage from his earlier tangle with Hamilton and ended up having to retire due to severe damage on his sidepod and floor. Hamilton picked up a 5 second penalty for causing a collision which was a bit harsh in my opinion as it looked like a racing incident, but the stewards had a different view.
Max Verstappen manages to take another victory with a brilliant 2nd place from Piastri and Gasly in 3rd. For an 11-lap race there was more action than we have seen in some races this year which was entertaining to watch.
Belgian GP Main Race: Verstappen Reigns Supreme in Action-Packed Showdown, Piastri's Misfortune and Exciting Overtakes
We now jump to Sunday for the Main Race and the weather was much sunnier than it was on Saturday. On the start we see a clean getaway from Charles Leclerc but his teammate in the other Ferrari, Carlos Sainz wasn’t as lucky as he locks his front wheel into the first corner and as he goes to turn in he comes together with Piastri and they both get damage and Piastri has to stop on track to retire his car and Sainz pits on lap 25 to retire the car due to severe damage on his sidepod.
At the front despite his great start, Leclerc was immediately under attack from the Red Bull of Perez and by the end of the Camel Straight, Perez was in front and started to pull a gap. Max Verstappen from 6th took advantage of the Sainz/Piastri incident and managed to get in 4th straight away on the first lap. By lap 6 Max had made it into the podium positions as he passed Lewis Hamilton on the chicane following the camel straight.
On lap 13 we see Perez pit from the lead and Max takes the lead momentarily as he pits a lap later and comes out behind Perez one more time. However, by lap 17 Verstappen manages to go past Perez and that was the last anyone seen of Max Verstappen. Max later had a little moment up at Eau Rouge when the rain started coming down, but his quick reactions handled it like the pro he is.
Rain was reported to come in 4 mins at lap 18 and sure enough it started raining at lap 20, even though it started raining the track never got wet enough for any inters as everyone who was pitting when it was raining was taking the softs. By lap 24 the rain stops, and the track starts drying off as lap times start getting quicker again. On lap 32 Max pits for softs as well for the last time and we hear his engineer come on telling him that he had a very quick out lap which wasn’t very wise as he took too much out of his tyres but against his engineers advise Max goes for the fastest lap on lap 33 and he gets it. This was all in vain though as Lewis Hamilton pits on the penultimate lap and got the fastest lap off Max Verstappen.
Further on we see some great overtakes by a few drivers like Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon and George Russell pulling some impressive overtakes. Max Verstappen comes in first followed by Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, George Russell, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda form the top 10.
This was a good race to end on before the summer break as it was one of the most entertaining ones we had for a while. Who do you think was the biggest winners and the biggest losers of the Belgian GP? We now head into the Summer Break before we return to the track at the Dutch GP.
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