Max Verstappen earned some extra points at a typically rainy Belgium weekend at Spa Francorchamps.
The Sprint Race in Formula One no longer sets the qualifying lineup for Sunday’s race, instead just conferring some bonus points to just the top eight drivers.
Red Bull’s Verstappen started from the pole, but the weather made strategy complicated. With the start of the race delayed by thirty minutes for a heavy downpour, choosing when to pit for intermediate tires proved the deciding strategy decision.
Verstappen, and a host of drivers including Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, chose to stay out and take the green flag in a rolling start behind the safety car, while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, and the other Ferrari driver of Carlos Sainz all dove down pit road to change tires before the race even started.
The pace advantage those drivers got on the quickly drying track was enough for Piastri to get past Verstappen and take the lead.
“I think [staying out on wets at the start] was just a safer call,” Verstappen said. “I could come in first, but then I might be blocked by other cars. There might be a Safety Car and then you lose out massively.”
“I didn’t want to stay out, we lost one position, but we know that we are quick,” he added. “I think you could see that when we put the inter tyres on we were flying, so it was okay!”
Verstappen cut into Piastri’s lead as the two reemerged on track, and a safety car restart gave Verstappen his chance and he pounced, passing Piastri and never looking back, eventually taking the checkered flag with a 6.677-second margin.
“I led a few laps, tried my best but we were no match for Max,” Piastri said.
“Apart from Max our pace was really strong… we’ve still got a little bit of work to do to get it right to the top but it’s a little nicer to be up there.”
Pierre Gasly finished third for Alpine, followed by both Ferraris rounding out the top five.
Piasti’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris finished sixth.
Max Verstappen’s teammate Perez suffered damage after making contact with Lewis Hamilton battling for fourth, and he was forced to withdraw from the race. It continues a series of poor results for Perez as his Red Bull team just let go of Nyck de Vries from junior team Alpha Tauri.
The contact earned Lewis Hamilton a penalty that demoted him from his fourth place position to seventh. His Mercedes teammate George Russell was the final points scorer in eighth.
| POS | DRIVER | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 24:58.433 | 8 | |
| 2 | +6.677s | 7 | |
| 3 | +10.733s | 6 | |
| 4 | +12.648s | 5 | |
| 5 | +15.016s | 4 | |
| 6 | +16.052s | 3 | |
| 7 | +16.757s | 2 | |
| 8 | +16.822s | 1 | |
| 9 | +22.410s | 0 | |
| 10 | +22.806s | 0 | |
| 11 | +25.007s | 0 | |
| 12 | +26.303s | 0 | |
| 13 | +27.006s | 0 | |
| 14 | +32.986s | 0 | |
| 15 | +36.342s | 0 | |
| 16 | +37.571s | 0 | |
| 17 | +37.827s | 0 | |
| 18 | +39.267s | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 |
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