BELGIAN GP – Max Verstappen takes victory by eighteen seconds after coming through from fourteenth

Testing & Race Reports
Jack
28-08-2022

Max Verstappen has taken victory in the Belgian Grand Prix from fourteenth on the grid beating teammate Sergio Perez by nearly eighteen seconds. The Belgian-Dutch driver who started from fifteenth on the grid found himself cutting through the field to get back towards the front by his first stop on lap fourteen.

Verstappen went into the race confident of challenging for victory, keeping himself out of the drama on the opening lap which saw Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton retire from the race. The Dutchman made better progress than his championship rival Charles Leclerc who could only recover to sixth.

Verstappen extends his lead to ninety-three points following his drive through the field and was released by teammate Perez on lap twelve from where he controlled the remainder of the race and will be the favourite for Zandvoort next weekend. Carlos Sainz finished third eight seconds behind Perez.

Verstappen became just the second driver in F1 history to win consecutive races from 10th or lower on the grid, following Bruce McLaren achieving the feat in the final race of 1959 and the first of 1960. Verstappen said, “It was quite a hectic first lap to try to stay out of trouble…but once we settled in after the safety car, the car was really on rails.”

George Russell brought his Mercedes home fourth, the Englishman showing that Mercedes were quicker on race pace. That looked clear from the start as Lewis Hamilton made a excellent start, but the seven-time champions race would end at La Source on the opening lap after making contact with Fernando Alonso.

Both were forced to retire following the contact, with the two-time champion accusing the seven time champion of being an “idiot,” saying he “only knows how to drive and start in first.” Hamilton was the first retirement and after dropping towards the back the Spaniard showed pace in the Alpine to finish fifth, forty-four seconds behind Russell.

The race stewards opted to take no action, but Hamilton later took responsibility for the incident, saying Alonso had been in his “blind spot”, and insisted it “doesn’t really matter” what the Spaniard said about him.

The second first-lap incident was between Valtteri Bottas and Nicolas Latifi, as the Alfa Romeo driver tried to avoid the spinning Williams he went into the gravel and beached the car leading to his retirement.

Ferrari needed a good start to the second half of the season, but Charles Leclerc could only recover to sixth, a decent result from sixteenth but compared to rival Verstappen not good enough. The Monacan made great progress early on running as high as third before Ferrari decided to try to cover off Russell, but his stop was slower bringing him out in fourth, but Russell was able to split the Ferrari’s for the remainder of the race.

Leclerc’s race unravelled early on when a visor tear-off became stuck in his brake duct, dropping him to the back. He then pitted on the penultimate lap in a bid to claim fastest lap, but it was complicated by the fact that he came out only just ahead of Alonso’s Alpine and overtook into fifth place going up the hill into Les Combes.

But Alonso retook the position on the final lap, adding insult to injury Leclerc was given  a five-second penalty and dropped back behind Alonso in the results. Alonso, after a strong drive from third on the grid, was rewarded with sixth on the road and fifth in the results.

Leclerc would have been hoping for a reset following the summer break, however, the soul searching and reset Ferrari would have been hoping for has not started well, with Verstappen now eighty points ahead in the drivers. It would require a miracle now for Ferrari to win this championship.

Esteban Ocon stole seventh in the closing stages of the race, the Frenchman pulling off a brave move to pass both Pierre Gasly and Sebastian Vettel at Les Combe. Ocon went three wide before out braking his rivals to take seventh, he had gained a powerful tow from Vettel and Gasly.

Alex Albon scored a point for Williams, the British-Thai driver acting as a wall holding up several midfield cars. Albon managing to finish two seconds ahead of Lance Stroll, Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda, Guanyu Zhou and Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo’s pace faded throughout the race dropping him to thirteen after being dropped by McLaren for 2023.

Kevin Magnussen led team-mate, Mick Schumacher, for sixteenth and seventeenth as Latifi eventually finished in eighteenth.

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