Laurence Edmondson, F1 Scribbler
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Max Verstappen‘s march against a 3rd global championship endured on the Belgian Magnificent Prix along with his tenth win of the season, his 8th in a row and a 22.3-second victory margin over teammate Sergio Perez.
Verstappen, who began 6th at the grid Sunday as a result of a gearbox penalty, used to be as much as 3rd by way of Lap 6 at Spa-Francorchamps, in moment park by way of Lap 9 and took the top on lap 17 of 44.
He’s now one snip of Sebastian Vettel’s consecutive victory file from 2013 and may draw stage with a win at his house race on the Dutch Magnificent Prix in 4 weeks.
The one day through which the win took a peek hesitation got here on Lap 21 when a short lived mist bathe led to Verstappen shedding the rear of his Purple Bull automotive within the daunting Eau Rouge nook. He stuck the slide and the error slightly made a dent in his top.
“That’s probably the worst corner to have a moment,” Verstappen mentioned nearest the race. “It’s tricky in those laps when it’s raining a bit but not too much.
“I had just a little of a sideways day however happily not anything came about.”
After that it was plain sailing, with the 25-year-old joking with his engineer about making an extra tyre change simply to offer his mechanics some more pit stop practice. However, he lost out on the bonus point when Lewis Hamilton beat his time following a late pit stop.
Perez, who started behind Charles Leclerc on the front row of the grid, took the lead of the race on the first lap but simply didn’t have the pace to hold off Verstappen when his teammate appeared in his mirrors.
“Max got here via nice-looking fast,” Perez said. “There’s not anything I can have carried out there.”
The gap between the two Red Bull drivers at the top of the drivers’ championship now stands at 125 points in Verstappen’s favour, with the Dutchman on course to win the title with multiple races remaining.
Leclerc finished third, securing Ferrari’s third podium of the season, ahead of Hamilton in fourth and Fernando Alonso in 5th. George Russell took sixth for Mercedes.
After two podiums in a row at the past two races, Lando Norris slipped to seventh. His McLaren looked competitive in Saturday’s sprint race in wet conditions, but in the dry the car’s lack of straight-line speed was exposed.
Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri started fifth but was involved in a collision with Carlos Sainz on the apex of the first corner, which resulted in terminal damage to the McLaren and dropped Sainz down the order.
Esteban Ocon took eighth place for Alpine on a turbulent weekend for the French team, which announced the departure of team principal Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane on Friday.
Lance Stroll was ninth for Aston Martin ahead of another impressive performance by AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, who took his 3rd level of the season in tenth park.
