#BelgianGP: @Max33Verstappen cruises to dominant 45th-career victory. #F1

Verstappen Belgian GP victory – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen came from sixth on the grid to take a dominant victory at the Belgian GP ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez who was second and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who took the final podium place.

 

 

The Dutchman increased his World Driver’s Championship lead to 125 points over team-mate Perez as Red Bull also scored his 13^th-consecutive win in a row.

 

When the 44-lap Belgian GP began, pole-sitter Leclerc got a solid getaway into La Source from Perez, but the Mexican made his past the former down the Kemmel Straight to snatch the lead from the Ferrari driver heading into Les Combes.

 

Behind them McLaren’s Oscar Piastri got squeezed by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and tagged into the wall at La Source, damaging his front wing and suspension in a three wide tangle along with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

 

After the opening tour, Perez held a 1.020 second lead over Leclerc with Hamilton third, Verstappen up into fourth and Sainz completing the top five.

 

Piastri was forced to retire early on lap two and stopped between turns 13 and 14.

 

On lap four, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso passed his fellow Spanish-compatriot Sainz on the inside down the Kemmel Straight with DRS assistance and into Les Combes for fifth place.

 

Lap five, Perez increased his lead to 2.184 seconds over Leclerc with Hamilton third, Verstappen fourth and Alonso rounding out the top five.

 

Behind them AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda also found his way by the damaged Ferrari of Sainz to take sixth place.

 

On the sixth tour, Verstappen used DRS assistance down the Kemmel Straight and pounced on the inside of Hamilton’s F1 W14 to move into third place.

 

Behind them, Mercedes’ George Russell pushed his way ahead of Sainz into the Bus Stop Chicane to jump into ninth place.

 

On the ninth lap, Verstappen was 0.574 seconds behind Leclerc and with DRS assistance got into the slipstream of the SF-23, moved to the outside and made a late move into Les Combes to overtake the Monegasque driver into second place.

 

Lap 10, Race leader Perez was 2.671 seconds ahead of Red Bull team-mate Verstappen with Leclerc down in third, Hamilton fourth and Alonso completing the top five.

 

On lap 11, Alonso pitted from fifth to put on a fresh set of the C2 white side-walled harder compounds and came out in eighth place behind Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. However, Alonso fell behind Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg as the latter passed the AMR23 down the Kemmel Straight.

 

A lap later, Alonso got his way back passed Hulkenberg in the same place to reclaim eighth from the German.

 

On lap 13, Hamilton stopped for a fresh set of the C3 yellow-marked mediums and just in-front of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and managed to keep the Canadian behind him down the Kemmel Straight to remain in fourth.

 

A tour later, both Perez and Leclerc stopped, and both came out in the same positions of second and third respectively. Both drivers also on a fresh set of the medium rubber.

 

Verstappen pitted from the lead on lap 15 for a fresh set of mediums and emerged 2.493 seconds behind team-mate Perez.

 

Behind them Russell and Stroll were battling for fifth place with the latter keeping the Mercedes driver at bay heading into Les Combes.

 

Alonso got into the slipstream of Russell and dived down the inside of the F1 W14 to pass the Mercedes into the Bus Stop Chicane for sixth and also made his way by his team-mate Stroll to take fifth place.

 

On lap 16, Verstappen was tucked right behind the gearbox of his race-leading team-mate Perez.

 

A tour later, Verstappen was right into the slipstream of team-mate Perez and breezed his way on the outside to pass the Mexican and grab the lead. Behind them, Russell also made a late dive into Les Combes to overtake Stroll into sixth place.

 

On lap 18, Verstappen scored the fastest lap of a 1:50.108 and had a 1.792 second lead over team-mate Perez with Leclerc six seconds down in third, Hamilton fourth and Alonso completing the top five.

 

Ferrari reported to Sainz over the radio that “rain was expected in four minutes”.

 

On the 20^th lap, Verstappen increased the gap to 3.824 over team-mate Perez with Leclerc holding third, Hamilton fourth and Alonso fifth as the rain began to come in.

 

At half race distance, Verstappen was 4.153 seconds ahead of Perez, as Leclerc remained over six seconds adrift in third, Hamilton fourth and Alonso completing the top five.

 

On lap 23, Tsunoda overtook Gasly for sixth place.

 

A lap later, Gasly stopped from seventh for a set of mediums to emerge in 17^th place behind Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon.

 

Ferrari’s Sainz was forced to retire on lap 25 following his earlier side-pod damage on the opening tour in his three-wide tangle at La Source with Hamilton and Piastri.

 

On lap 26, Verstappen increased his gap to Perez to over 6.758 seconds with Leclerc holding third, Hamilton fourth and Alonso rounding out the top five runners.

 

The 28^th tour saw Hamilton stop for a set of softs and returned to the circuit in fifth place behind Alonso.

 

A lap later, Ferrari reacted to Mercedes by pitting Leclerc, as the Monegasque driver put on a set of softs and remained in third whilst behind them Hamilton made short work of Alonso to grab fourth place back from the Spaniard.

 

On the 30^th lap, Perez also stopped for a fresh set of softs and behind the Mexican, Alonso pitted for softs and came out in fifth.

 

Verstappen followed suit a lap later and came in for a fresh of softs and emerging 9.275 clear of Red Bull team-mate Perez.

 

With 10 laps remaining Verstappen lead was up to 12.586 seconds over team-mate Perez as Leclerc held third with Hamilton 1.931 seconds off the Ferrari in fourth as Alonso was a further 24.776 off in fifth.

 

On the 39^th lap, Ocon passed Tsunoda to take ninth place from the AlphaTauri driver.

 

On the penultimate tour Hamilton, pitted for a fresh set of mediums to push for the bonus fastest lap point.

 

Verstappen crossed the line to clinch the Belgian GP and the 45^th victory of his career by 22.305 seconds over Red Bull team-mate Perez and Leclerc completed the top three.

 

Hamilton came home in fourth with the fastest lap bonus point and in-front of Aston Martin’s Alonso who was fifth and Mercedes team-mate Russell who took sixth.

 

McLaren’s Lando Norris finished the Grand Prix in seventh place and ahead of Alpine’s Ocon who ended the race eighth and Aston Martin’s Stroll who placed ninth as AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda scored the final points position.

 

Alpine’s Gasly was 11^th and in-front of Alfa Romeo pairing Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas who were 12^th and 13^th respectively.

 

Williams Racing’s Albon placed 14^th in the order and ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who was 15^th and AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo who finished 16^th in the classification.

 

The other Williams FW45 entry of Logan Sargeant and Hulkenberg brought up the rear.

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2023 Belgian GP – The Top Three

 

 

2023 Belgian GP Winner – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing – Honda-RBPT, RB19:

“It’s a new spot [to win from] P6! I knew we had a good car, it was just about surviving Turn 1, it all got very tight, and I just stayed out of that. This track is super hard on the tyres, so you don’t want to do unnecessary things. It was tricky with the laps that it was raining – I had a little sideways moment, definitely not a corner you want it to happen on!”

 

2^nd Place – Sergio Perez, #11, Oracle Red Bull Racing – Honda-RBPT, RB19, +22.305:

“It was a good race for the team, we had a great start to get through Charles which was one of the targets for today. I was doing my own race; Max came through pretty fast – nothing I could do there. Then it was just about bringing it home. I look forward to not leaving the podium again from now until the end of the year.”

 

3^rd Place – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-23, +32.259:

“We’ve had quite a positive weekend in terms of pace. A shame for Carlos as we had good pace, but if you look at Red Bull – they are quite far ahead still. The pace was there to keep Lewis behind, and then I knew he was pitting for fastest lap, so that made my life easier.”

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Formula 1 MSC Cruises Belgian Grand Prix 2023 Race Results Classification (44 Laps)

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	1	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	44	1:22:30.450	25
2	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	44	+22.305s	18
3	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	44	+32.259s	15
4	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	44	+49.671s	13
5	14	Fernando Alonso	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	44	+56.184s	10
6	63	George Russell	MERCEDES	44	+63.101s	8
7	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	44	+73.719s	6
8	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	44	+74.719s	4
9	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	44	+79.340s	2
10	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	44	+80.221s	1
11	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPINE RENAULT	44	+83.084s	0
12	77	Valtteri Bottas	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	44	+85.191s	0
13	24	Zhou Guanyu	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	44	+95.441s	0
14	23	Alexander Albon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	44	+96.184s	0
15	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	44	+101.754s	0
16	3	Daniel Ricciardo	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	44	+103.071s	0
17	2	Logan Sargeant	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	44	+104.476s	0
18	27	Nico Hulkenberg	HAAS FERRARI	44	+110.450s	0
NC	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	23	DNF	0
NC	81	Oscar Piastri	MCLAREN MERCEDES	0	DNF	0

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1216/belgium/race-result.html

 

Click here for the 2023 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings.

 

Round 14 of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship returns after the sport’s traditional summer break to the historic Circuit Zandvoort in Zandvoort, Netherlands for the Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2023 from Friday August 25-Sunday August 27.

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