Formula 1

Verstappen overcomes grid penalty to win Belgian GP

by Matt Beer
8 min read

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Red Bull heads into Formula 1’s 2023 summer break unbeaten and having secured its first 1-2 in three months thanks to Max Verstappen coming from sixth on the grid to win the Belgian Grand Prix ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez.

Throughout the weekend Verstappen never gave the impression that his five-place grid penalty for taking additional gearbox components was going to be any particular impediment to him taking an eighth-straight GP win, and his confidence was unsurprisingly well-founded.

Up to fourth on lap one, he went down the inside of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes to take third into Les Combes on lap five and then soon claimed second from Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari at the same corner.

Motor Racing Formula One World Championship Belgian Grand Prix Race Day Spa Francorchamps, Belgium

Perez was 3.5 seconds clear at that point, having taken the lead from polesitter Leclerc on the Kemmel Straight on lap one, and the gap initially came down quite slowly.

But in the middle sector of Verstappen’s out-lap from his first pitstop alone he tore a second from his team-mate’s advantage as he easily demolished Perez’s lead then cruised past using DRS.

Verstappen continued to pull away for the rest of the race, through a brief rain shower that was surviveable on slicks, to win by 22s.

Motor Racing Formula One World Championship Belgian Grand Prix Race Day Spa Francorchamps, Belgium

Polesitter Leclerc kept Hamilton at a safe distance to complete the podium. The gap between them was extended by Hamilton making a last-minute pitstop in a successful bid for fastest lap.

Fernando Alonso ended Aston Martin’s messy weekend on a high with fifth, team-mate Lance Stroll taking ninth.

George Russell ran long on his first set of tyres to guard against the rain threat and it set him up for sixth on a one-stop strategy.

Motor Racing Formula One World Championship Belgian Grand Prix Race Day Spa Francorchamps, Belgium

Seventh for Lando Norris was a comedown for McLaren after recent podiums but far better than its race looked like it might be early on.

His team-mate Oscar Piastri was out almost immediately due to first corner contact with Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, which limped around with a damaged sidepod for half the race before being retired having fallen to last.

Norris was also going backwards down the order at first, with reports of steering problems, before rallying after a mid-race switch to soft tyres and strong pace in the damp laps that got him back into points contention.

Esteban Ocon mounted a late-race charge past Alex Albon, Yuki Tsunoda and Stroll to take eighth for Alpine ahead of Stroll.

Albon got as high as seventh with a great first stint for Williams but it was the only team that needed to three-stop and he ended up 14th.

Motor Racing Formula One World Championship Belgian Grand Prix Race Day Spa Francorchamps, Belgium

AlphaTauri looked like it might achieve more than Tsunoda’s sole point as he spent a spell in sixth in a very strong initial performance before losing ground later on.

Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo also made great progress from his 19th-place start, leaping up the midfield with an undercut from a very early first pitstop, but couldn’t maintain it and finished 16th, 23s behind Tsunoda.

Race Results

Pos Name Car Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 44 0 1h22m30.45s 1m48.922s 2 33
2 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 44 0 +22.305s 1m50.308s 2 18
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 44 0 +32.259s 1m50.436s 2 19
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 44 0 +49.671s 1m47.305s 3 15
5 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Mercedes 44 0 +56.184s 1m50.938s 2 10
6 George Russell Mercedes 44 0 +1m03.101s 1m50.603s 1 9
7 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 44 0 +1m13.719s 1m51.682s 2 9
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault 44 0 +1m14.719s 1m50.439s 2 4
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes 44 0 +1m19.34s 1m51.297s 1 2
10 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT 44 0 +1m20.221s 1m51.394s 2 1
11 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Renault 44 0 +1m23.084s 1m50.911s 1 6
12 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 44 0 +1m25.191s 1m50.515s 2 0
13 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 44 0 +1m35.441s 1m50.188s 2 0
14 Alex Albon Williams-Mercedes 44 0 +1m36.184s 1m49.841s 3 0
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 44 0 +1m41.754s 1m50.993s 2 0
16 Daniel Ricciardo AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT 44 0 +1m43.071s 1m50.994s 2 0
17 Logan Sargeant Williams-Mercedes 44 0 +1m44.476s 1m50.486s 3 0
18 Nico Hülkenberg Haas-Ferrari 44 0 +1m50.45s 1m49.907s 2 0
Carlos Sainz Ferrari 23 0 DNF 0s 2 5
Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 0 0 DNF 0s 0 7

Driver Standings

Pos Driver Team Points R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10 R11 R12 R13 R14 R15 R16 R17 R18 R19 R20 R21 R22 R23
1 Max Verstappen Oracle Red Bull Racing 364 25 19 25 24 26 0 25 26 25 34 26 26 33 25 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 Sergio Pérez Oracle Red Bull Racing 219 18 25 11 33 18 0 0 12 9 22 8 15 18 12 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team 170 15 15 15 15 15 0 18 6 18 14 6 2 10 19 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team 164 10 10 18 10 8 0 13 18 15 4 15 12 15 8 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 Carlos Sainz Scuderia Ferrari 117 12 8 0 14 10 0 4 10 10 14 1 4 5 10 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
6 Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari 111 0 6 0 22 6 0 8 0 12 18 2 6 19 0 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
7 George Russell Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team 109 6 12 0 10 12 0 10 15 0 7 10 8 9 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
8 Lando Norris McLaren Formula 1 Team 79 0 0 8 2 0 0 2 0 0 12 18 18 9 6 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team 47 8 0 12 7 0 0 0 8 2 7 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 Pierre Gasly BWT Alpine F1 Team 37 2 2 0 0 4 0 6 1 0 1 0 0 6 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
11 Oscar Piastri McLaren Formula 1 Team 36 0 0 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 12 10 7 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
12 Esteban Ocon BWT Alpine F1 Team 36 0 4 0 0 2 0 15 4 4 2 0 0 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
13 Alex Albon Williams Racing 21 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 4 0 0 4 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
14 Nico Hülkenberg MoneyGram Haas F1 Team 9 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
15 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen 6 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
16 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen 4 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
17 Yuki Tsunoda Scuderia AlphaTauri 3 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
18 Kevin Magnussen MoneyGram Haas F1 Team 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
19 Logan Sargeant Williams Racing 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
20 Nyck de Vries Scuderia AlphaTauri 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
21 Daniel Ricciardo Scuderia AlphaTauri 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
22 Liam Lawson Scuderia AlphaTauri 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Team Standings

Pos Team Points R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10 R11 R12 R13 R14 R15 R16 R17 R18 R19 R20 R21 R22 R23
1 Red Bull 583 43 44 36 57 44 0 25 38 34 56 34 41 51 37 43 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 Mercedes 273 16 22 18 20 20 0 23 33 15 11 25 20 24 8 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 Ferrari 228 12 14 0 36 16 0 12 10 22 32 3 10 24 10 27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 Aston Martin 217 23 15 27 22 15 0 18 14 20 21 6 3 12 19 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 McLaren 115 0 0 12 2 0 0 3 0 0 12 30 28 16 8 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
6 Alpine 73 2 6 0 0 6 0 21 5 4 3 0 0 10 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
7 Williams 21 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 4 0 0 4 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
8 Haas 11 0 1 6 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
9 Alfa Romeo 10 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 AlphaTauri 3 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
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