Verstappen takes dominant F1 Spa Sprint victory

F1 Grand Prix, GP Belgium, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Championship runaway leader Max Verstappen took a dominant victory in the F1 Spa Sprint with McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and Alpine racer Esteban Ocon completing the podium in the third sprint race of the season. F1Technical's senior writer Balázs Szabó reports on the 100km dash in Spa.

As heavy rain arrived for the start of the F1 Sprint in Spa, the start was delayed by 30 minutes. The field was released for multiple formation laps behind the safety car.

On the fifth Formation Lap, the Safety Car peeled into the pits with the length of the F1 Sprint having been shortened by four tours to just 11 laps.

Many drivers decided to pit for intermediate tyres at the end of the last formation lap with Verstappen and Leclerc staying out. With the chaos in the pits, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz lost out while Pierre Gasly, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton gained multiple positions.

Verstappen peeled into the pits for the green-walled tyres at the end of the first racing lap, but he got held to traffic in the pit lane. As a result of the delay, he rejoined the track in second place behind Piastri.

Leclerc was also forced to wait for rivals in the pit lane, and lost a huge amount of time. The Monegasque rejoined the action in P7 behind his team-mate Sainz.

On lap 3, the Safety Car was deployed as Fernando Alonso lost control of his Aston Martin after touching the wet a kerb at Turn 11. The Spaniard stopped fractions before the barrier, but was beached in the gravel.

During the Safety Car period, Verstappen was told that Piastri was struggling with one of his tyres. "I'm not surprised, he's drifting everywhere," retorted the Dutchman.

In the meantime, Williams’ American driver Logan Sargeant received a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

On Lap 6, Verstappen pulled alongside Piastri, having got the slipstream onto the Kemmel straight and passed the Australian into Les Combes to take the lead.

In the meantime, Perez and Hamilton were fighting for fourth. They touched briefly into Turn 14, as Hamilton continued to try and find a way past. However, the Mexican clang on to his position for the moment.

As the pair approached Turn 1, Hamilton managed to find more grip on corner exit and accelerated ahead. Ferrari’s Sainz used the slipstream through Eau Rouge to pick off Perez as well.

At Turn 14, Perez went off into the gravel, dropping back to P16. The six-time race winner was told moments later to box and retire the car as his RB19 sustained a hole in the right hand sidepod from his coming together with Hamilton.

On the penultimate lap, George Russell, who started from P10 on the grid and lost several positions with his pit stop, picked off F1 returnee Daniel Ricciardo down the start-finish straight to take P8.

In the meantime, Verstappen built up a significant advantage to win the sprint race by over six seconds from Piastri with Gasly taking third place on a weekend when his team Alpine announced unusually big changes to the team structure.

Sainz took fourth once Hamilton's five-second penalty, which he received for his collision with Perez, played out, ahead of Leclerc and Lando Norris. Hamilton and Russell rounded out the points.

Commenting on his second Sprint win in 2023, Verstappen added: “It was a safer call [not to come in] so I didn't mind to stay out. We lost one position but we knew we were quick, when we put the inters on we were flying. I need to pass a few cars [tomorrow] and the biggest risk is lap one, Turn 1. As long as we stay out of trouble we'll be okay.”