Max Verstappen got two wins for the price of one in Belgium after he won the sprint race on Saturday and moved from 6th to 1st in seventeen laps on Sunday.
This win made it 13 in a row for Red Bull and their 12th in a row in one season with only 12 races having been raced after the cancellation of the Emilia Romanga GP, it was also Verstappen’s 8th win in a row and his 10th this season.
Red Bull has truly shown their dominance and will be very happy going into the summer break with their 5th 1-2 win with Sergio Perez taking 2nd place above Charles Leclerc in 3rd.
Leclerc had started on pole after being upgraded from p2 when Verstappen’s 5-place grid penalty was put in place. Chaos ensued into the first corner which meant that Perez had to stop his pursuit of first place to hold off Lewis Hamilton, there was a collision between Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri which caused the McLaren to hit the wall. Both Piastri and Sainz picked up damage. Piastri made his way to the pitlane to DNF and Sainz moving slowly and losing places.
Perez was quickly able to overtake Leclerc and take the lead of the race showing the power and speed of this year’s Red Bull.
After a weekend where they were looking strong with Piastri finishing 2nd in the sprint race, McLaren didn’t have the best of races with one driver out of the race early on and Lando Norris struggling on his tyres, but the British driver was able to finish in 7th and pick up some much need points before the summer break.
Hamilton picked up an extra point after finishing 4th with the fastest lap after pitting for new medium tyres for the last lap of the race. His teammate, George Russell finished 6th making a two-stop strategy work while most of the field did 3 stoppers.
Aston Martin looked to be back on form with Fernando Alonso finishing 5th and Lance Stroll finishing 9th. Esteban Ocon finished in 8th giving Alpine another cause for celebration after Pierre Gasly’s sprint race 3rd place finish the day before. Unlike the last two races both Alpine drivers crossed the finish line.
Yuki Tsundo took the last points place giving himself and his team a much-needed point in their hunt to move up the championship standings.
All the teams are going into a much-needed summer break and will be back in the Netherlands at the end of August to continue the 2023 season. Will Red Bull continue their dominance on F1’s return or will another team be able to match their pace?
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