Max Verstappen has taken everything from Belgium: the victory on Sunday (10th of the year, 8th in a row), the pole position on Friday, the pole position of the Sprint Race and the 8 points of the short race. He only lacked the best lap of the race with his extra point, which Lewis Hamilton swiped from him on the last lap.
Ambitious and devastating, the Dutchman does not leave even the crumbs to his rivals. He already leads his immediate pursuer, Checo Pérez, by 125 points. Not even starting 6th is an impediment to ending up sweeping (he left the Mexican 22 seconds behind). Such is his superiority that he even allows himself to be sarcastic and defy the orders and advice of his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, setting a lap for the showcase even at the risk of wearing out his tires.
For the second time this season, a non-Red Bull car started from pole position. But it was of little use to Leclerc to start at the top because Checo Pérez did not let him lead even one lap. He easily passed him on the Kemmel straight imposing the superiority of his Red Bull.
The start was lively. A brave Sainz overtook Piastri for fourth but it cost him a touch from the McLaren that left the damaged Ferrari with a hole in the sidepod and slowed it down.
The one who jumped the most was Fernando Alonso, who went from 9th to 6th in the first lap. The Spaniard moved up to fifth place after passing Sainz on lap 5, with the man from Madrid having serious problems, who saw how Tsunoda and Albon also passed him (gv. 6/44).
The question was how long it would take for Verstappen to reach the top positions, from 6th position on the grid (due to the 5-place penalty for replacing the gearbox). The Dutchman took advantage of Sainz's weakness and Piastri's breakdown to take fourth, behind Hamilton.
The resistance of the Mercedes did not last long, because Verstappen bit into it on the sixth lap to get on the podium (3rd). He had the leader, his teammate, by 4 seconds. No one in Spa doubted that he would catch it sooner rather than later.
He had to get past Leclerc first, second. He ate it on lap 9 with astonishing ease on the straight opening the DRS. His Red Bull went by at 339 km/h; the Ferrari 'only' reached 315 km/h. Second place belonged to Verstappen. He had Checo just 2.7 seconds behind.
The first challenge between the Red Bulls came at the first pit-stop. The energetic team respected Pérez's race lead to allow him to stop earlier (v. 14), which made it easier for the Mexican to maintain first place when Verstappen stopped (v. 15). He was not amused by the Dutchman, who continued second, but by less than a second (3 tenths on lap 16/44).
Would Red Bull allow them to compete? Of course. Verstappen, insatiable, ate his partner on the Kemmel straight on the outside. By lap 17 he was already leading the race, shooting for his 10th win... if the rain didn't stop him.
On lap 19/44 the rain that was announced on the radar began to appear. All the teams waited until the track was wetter to change the medium tires – already very worn out – for the scratched ones.
"It's raining a lot," Verstappen informed his team on lap 21, when he nearly lost control of his car on the Eau Rouge climb. He could have said goodbye to the race with that scare, when he took more than 5 seconds from Pérez and 12 from Leclerc.
While the riders waited for the rain to get worse to change tires, Sainz ended up retiring. The Spaniard, who was running last with the damaged car, suffered his first retirement of the season.
The heavy rain dribbled the Spa circuit, the sun came out and Verstappen stepped on the accelerator again to get away from Pérez for good. On lap 28/44 he was already putting almost 9 seconds behind his partner.
The Mexican, in turn, had controlled second place with 6.3 seconds over Leclerc, who saw the podium threatened by Hamilton. After their respective stops to put on the soft one for the final stretch (16 laps), the Monegasque and the Englishman were separated by just 2 seconds.
Alonso, who was running fifth after a good medium-medium-soft strategy, saved his position at the second stop from the harassment of George Russell, with 14 laps to go.
In that final stretch nothing changed, not a single attack to gain positions: Leclerc kept Hamilton at bay, the Englishman was not worried by Alonso, far away, and the Asturian was not threatened by Russell either, who stayed sixth. McLaren lowered the level of the last GP with Norris's seventh place.
The only entertainment was provided by Verstappen with marital discussions with his track engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, who recommended that he use his head more because he had degraded the tires too much with an unnecessary fast lap. The Dutchman sarcastically told him that he could also push a little more to test another pit-stop...
