Max Verstappen took a huge step towards winning a second straight world title with an emphatic victory in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, roaring through the field from 14th on the grid to win by almost 20 seconds.
The victory lifts Red Bull’s championship leader a massive 93 points clear of his nearest challenger, teammate Sergio Perez.
The Mexican finished runner-up in an incident-packed race which saw Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton labeled an “idiot” by Alpine’s Fernando Alonso after the two were involved in a first-lap collision.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who dropped a place to sixth post-race after a five-second penalty was imposed for speeding in the pitlane, is now third in the championship, 96 points behind Verstappen.
There was good news pre-race with the Belgian Grand Prix confirmed on the calendar for 2023 at least. But this year’s title race is now as good as over after a stunning demonstration of the speed advantage Red Bull appear to have carved out over the rest of the field since the summer break.
Verstappen was seven tenths faster than the Ferraris in Saturday qualifying and around two seconds faster than Mercedes. Even starting down in the 15th after taking a new engine, the bookmakers had the Dutchman favourite. And with good reason.
Verstappen’s task was made easier when both AlphaTauris – perhaps unsurprisingly given the team’s relationship with Red Bull – chose to start from the pitlane complaining of technical gremlins. That lifted him to 13th. He was leading the race by lap 12.
The first two laps were manic, with Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez getting away sluggishly from second, allowing Alonso and Hamilton, in third and fourth, to jump a place.
They then two collided as Hamilton tried to pass his former McLaren teammate around the outside of Les Combes, with Alonso branding Hamilton an “idiot” who “only knows how to drive and start in first”. The stewards took no action but Hamilton later took full responsibility for the collision.
A safety car came out on lap two after Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was sent spinning out of the race on his birthday. By then Verstappen was already up to eighth. And when the safety car was withdrawn, Verstappen wasted no time in picking his way through the field.
By lap six he was up to sixth, and by lap nine he was third, just 1.2sec behind teammate Perez and 1.5sec behind race leader Sainz who was reporting high tire degradation. The writing was on the wall.
Verstappen waited impatiently for Perez to pass Sainz on lap 11, telling his team:”We’re losing a silly amount of time now.”
But when Sainz pitted at the end of lap 11, there was no reason to wait any longer. Verstappen passed Perez on the Kemmel Straight on lap 12 and that was that. Not since Bruce McLaren in his Cooper-Climax won the final race of the 1959 season and the opening race of the 1960 season has a driver won consecutive races from 10th or lower.
Perez finished second, Sainz third and Mercedes’ George Russell fourth.
At this rate, Verstappen will win the title with four or five races to spare. If he can get 138pts clear of his nearest rival by the end of the Singapore Grand Prix, he will be crowned on October 2.
