SPA FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium –
Formula One World Champion Max Verstappen quickly made his way through the field from 14th place to win Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix and extend his lead in the title race.
Verstappen, who drove from 10th place in the last race before Formula One’s summer break to win the Hungarian Grand Prix, put in another impressive performance and moved closer to a second consecutive world title.
“It was a weekend that I could not have imagined before,” said Verstappen. “But I think we want more of them and we will keep working hard.”
His lead in the standings is now 93 points – but he sits ahead of Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez as Charles Leclerc dropped to third in another poor Ferrari performance.
“It was quite a hectic first lap trying to avoid trouble. So many things were happening in front of me, I was picking the right spots to overtake people and paying attention to our tyres,” said Verstappen. “When we were in the lead it was about managing everything but this whole weekend has been incredible.”
Verstappen led the race on lap 12 and earned a bonus point for fastest lap. His third straight win was his ninth of the season and 29th overall.
“Amazing Sunday folks haha!” Verstappen said on his radio after crossing the line.
“Max, you were brilliant all weekend, in a class of your own,” replied team boss Christian Horner.
Verstappen, 24 – the youngest driver to win a race at 18 – said it was probably the most complete ride of his career.
“If you look at the whole weekend, yes,” he said. “This track just seemed perfect for the car.”
Perez finished second to overtake Leclerc in the season standings.
“It’s a great team result,” said Perez.
Carlos Sainz Jr. started from pole for Ferrari and finished a disappointing third. Leclerc started 15th and finished fifth behind George Russell’s Mercedes, but Leclerc dropped to sixth after being handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
That pushed Alpine rider Fernando Alonso to fifth and Leclerc, now 98 points adrift of Verstappen in the standings, was shocked by the penalty and looked beaten in the championship race.
“I didn’t even know, nobody told me,” said a surprised Leclerc of the penalty. “Why did I get the punishment?”
As for his title race with Verstappen?
“I’m not so focused on the championship now. Red Bull was on another planet today,” added Leclerc. “We need to know why we are so far away.”
Lewis Hamilton’s bid for a sixth consecutive podium ended on the first lap when he clipped Alonso and briefly blew up.
Sainz started from pole because Verstappen and Leclerc were among several drivers who received starting penalties. Sainz got away at the start and Russell and Hamilton zoomed past Perez and behind Alonso.
Hamilton then passed Alonso on the outside but clipped the side of his Alpine and sent Hamilton’s Mercedes into the air. The race stewards checked and took no action, although Alonso clearly felt Hamilton hadn’t given him enough space as he tried to reclaim position.
“What an idiot who closes the door from the outside,” scolded Alonso. “We had a mega start but this guy can only drive and start first.”
Hamilton later interrupted an interviewer who was trying to relay Alonso’s comments to him.
“It doesn’t matter what he said,” said Hamilton, who added he didn’t see Alonso “in my blind spot.”
But in a separate interview, Hamilton accepted that he hadn’t left enough room for Alonso.
“It was my fault,” Hamilton said. “I paid the price, but I was ahead.”
For Hamilton, it was the fifth time he retired on Lap 1, with three retirements recorded at the seven-kilometre (4.3-mile) Spa-Francorchamps circuit – the longest in Formula 1 and one of the best for overtaking , as Verstappen showed.
Seconds after Hamilton pulled up, Nicholas Latifi slid across the track and pushed Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo into the gravel, causing the safety car to come out.
Hamilton stood by his car as smoke billowed, then slowly walked back to the team garage. He was later cautioned for refusing to go to the medical center.
Bottas, his former Mercedes teammate, was also out while Leclerc came in early as his team changed their tires and cleared some debris from another car that was stuck in Leclerc’s front right wing.
Later in that strange season of botched strategy decisions, Ferrari made yet another bizarre call when the team called Leclerc for new tires with one lap remaining to try and set the fastest lap, to no avail. Leclerc was passed by Alonso as he came out of the pits and then had to overtake the Spaniard back, failing to set the fastest lap.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was seventh, followed by Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Williams’ Alex Albon.
Next for Verstappen? His home race in the Netherlands, where he won comfortably in Zandvoort last year.
“I’m going to enjoy today and next week we’ll see what we can do,” said Verstappen, who is on course to break Vettel’s 2013 season record of 13 wins.