F1 Belgian GP: Verstappen wins shortened sprint race from Piastri, Gasly

After spots of rain had fallen sporadically as the cars initially lined up on the grid 20 minutes ahead of the scheduled start time – already pushed back by 35 minutes thanks to the similar delay to the start of sprint shootout qualifying – it began coming down heavily 10 minutes later. 

This led the FIA to officially delay the start before it announced the formation lap would begin at 17.12 – a postponement of just seven minutes - but continuing rainfall resulted in an indefinite extension to the pre-race pause. 

As it had eased by 5:20pm and the marshals and track vehicles working to clear as much standing water as possible, it was again announced the formation lap would be attempted at 5:35pm. 

This was then clarified as being run behind the safety car, which mandated that all the cars started the race on full wet tyres. 

They were sent around for five formation tours, which was originally announced as four before one more was added in a bid to clear more water by the cars running at reduced speed. 

This meant when the action did get going the distance was reduced from 15 to 11 laps, with several drivers including polesitter Verstappen reporting conditions were already good enough for intermediate tyres early in the initial formational lap procession. 

When the safety car finally peeled in, nearly 20 minutes after the race should have finished per the timetable before the sprint shootout qualifying delay was enacted, plenty of drivers opted to pit. 

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL60, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23 (Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images)

This included Piastri from just behind Verstappen and the Australian driver was joined in making the final formation lap call by Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton – with the Alpine racer emerging behind Piastri as several teams had to hold their cars as others pitted around them. 

Verstappen did not complete lap one on the track as he too came in for inters, joined by Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris behind – two drivers that could not stop on the final formation lap as they were running behind their team-mates and facing a potentially very long double-stack stop. 

Leclerc got a long hold anyway as Ferrari had to wait for several cars to come by in the pitlane, with Verstappen slightly delayed waiting for Norris to come past. 

When he re-emerged from the pits, Piastri had already swept away from La Source and was in the lead with a 1.5s advantage early in lap two. 

Verstappen had halved that one lap later, but then the race was suspended by a safety car period after Fernando Alonso spun off while running behind Nico Hulkenberg.

A separate incident involving that pair was investigated after the race, with Alonso receiving a warning for drifting across Hulkenberg's path and causing the German to take avoiding action, as the Aston exited the pits following Alonso's lap one stop, which was initially labelled as an impeding incident by race control."

The race resumed at the start of lap six, with Verstappen sticking right with Piastri as they powered back up to speed and then immediately blasting ahead on the first time they ran back onto the Kemmel Straight having shot through the Eau Rouge/Raidillon sequence with the McLaren fractionally ahead. 

Verstappen then ran clear to an easy win, ending up with a 6.6s final margin of victory over Piastri. 

Gasly had come out of his final formation lap stop for inters ahead of Perez and Hamilton, with Sainz also behind the pair. 

Pierre Gasly, Alpine A523 (Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images)

This became their order behind Verstappen under the safety car, with Leclerc’s long stop meaning he was running adrift of Sainz at that point with Norris one place further back. 

Upon the restart, Gasly dropped Perez with the Mexican's attention on Hamilton behind.

After getting great drive out of the first part of the Stavelot sequence, Turn 14, Hamilton drew alongside Perez as they went through the next part, another fast right. 

When making his move, Hamilton appeared to drift slightly left and his left front made contact with Perez’s right-side sidepod – punching a hole in the Red Bull - forcing the seven-time champion to drop back.

At the start of lap seven, Hamilton powered around Perez’s outside at La Source, with Sainz then out-dragging him to Eau Rouge and thrillingly getting ahead at the left-hand kink at the foot of the hill. 

Leclerc then closed in on Perez and drew alongside on the outside line running down the Kemmel straight, with a tow from Sainz’s aiding the second Ferrari to pull ahead of the Red Bull at Les Combes. 

Perez then slid into the gravel when the pack reached Stavelot, with Norris by then close behind, and at the end of lap seven, he retired in the pits. 

Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB19, Esteban Ocon, Alpine A523 (Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images)

The incident with Hamilton was swiftly placed under investigation and the Mercedes driver was given a five-second penalty for causing it in the eyes of the stewards. 

As Hamilton could not find a way by Gasly by the end and with the short sprint distance offering little chance for gaps to form, he fell to seventh behind Sainz, Leclerc and Norris in the final order at the flag. 

George Russell sealed the final point on lap 10 when he outdragged Daniel Ricciardo on the outside run to La Source having seen off the close attentions of Esteban Ocon after the restart.

F1 Belgian Grand sprint race result: 

cla	driver	chassis	engine	laps	time	gap	pits	pts
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	Red Bull	11	24'58.433		1	8
2	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	Mercedes	11	25'05.110	6.677	1	7
3	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	Renault	11	25'09.166	10.733	1	6
4	Carlos Sainz Jr	Ferrari	Ferrari	11	25'11.081	12.648	1	5
5	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	Ferrari	11	25'13.449	15.016	1	4
6	Lando Norris	McLaren	Mercedes	11	25'14.485	16.052	1	3
7	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	11	25'15.190	16.757	1	2
8	George Russell	Mercedes	Mercedes	11	25'15.255	16.822	1	1
9	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	Renault	11	25'20.843	22.410	1
10	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri	Red Bull	11	25'21.239	22.806	1
11	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	Mercedes	11	25'23.440	25.007	1
12	Alexander Albon	Williams	Mercedes	11	25'24.736	26.303	1
13	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	11	25'25.439	27.006	1
14	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	11	25'31.419	32.986	1
15	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	11	25'34.775	36.342	1
16	Logan Sargeant	Williams	Mercedes	11	25'36.004	37.571	1
17	Nicolas Hülkenberg	Haas	Ferrari	11	25'36.260	37.827	1
18	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	Red Bull	11	25'37.700	39.267	1
	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	Red Bull	8			2
	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	Mercedes	2			1