It didn’t take him more than ten laps to take the lead of the peloton. Starting 14th at Spa, penalized like Charles Leclerc for multiple changes of elements on his single-seater, Max Verstappen made short work of the Belgian Grand Prix. Better, he pushes the Monegasque to 98 points in the world championship, an abyss. Faced with the frantic pace of the RedBull rocket, his opponents had only one word on arrival: “he’s on another planet”.
After a great start, avoiding the dangers in the heart of the peloton, “Mad Max” gradually swallowed up all his competitors. From the 12th lap, the Dutchman took the lead for the first time. Carlos Sainz, who started from pole position, then stopped in the pits. The Spaniard then took control when Verstappen also stopped to change his tyres, three laps later. But he could only delude himself in the face of the frantic pace of the Dutchman, again first in the 18th lap. Nothing could stop him.
Hamilton retires in the first lap
The first lap was chaotic, however, even without rain, between the (literal) flight of Lewis Hamilton and the ramming of Valteri Bottas by Nicolas Latifi, who started across on a straight line. The seven-time world champion, overly optimistic after passing Fernando Alonso, climbed the Spaniard’s Alpine and had to retire. “What an idiot, closing the door like that from the outside… We had a great start, but this guy only knows how to drive from first place! “, raged the future Aston Martin driver.
Charles Leclerc made a premature first stop, an undesirable element stuck in his brakes, and lost his 5th place on a new questionable strategic decision by Ferrari: returning one lap from the end to put on soft tyres, the Monegasque rushed into the pits to hope to emerge in front of… Alonso. Well ironed in front of the Alpine, he was penalized by 5 seconds.
The two French in the points
The Alpine drivers definitely raced, Esteban Ocon rewarding the spectators with daring overtaking, twice eliminating two opponents in the same maneuver. The Norman finished 7th, ahead of the other Frenchman Pierre Gasly, 9th at the finish having started from the pits. The two Frenchmen therefore score important points for their teams.
In front of his public who came en masse, as often in Europe, Max Verstappen, born in Belgium to a Belgian mother, therefore won 3rd victory in a row, a ninth success this season and the 29th of his career. Only 24 years old. F1 moves to the Netherlands next week. And it is an understatement to say that the horizon is clear for the national Grand Prix of Verstappen.