Sunny. Dry. Air +21…22С, Route +36С
The race in Spa was the scene of the last summer weekend of 2022, opening the second part of the season. The classic old school stage was run with fully filled grandstands and traditionally changeable weather.
The Belgian stage was chosen by most teams to replace power plants and gearboxes. Many have already reached the limit of the number of motorcycles allowed for the season, but expected to pay for themselves on the track, where it is easy to overtake.
Eight riders were penalized, Bottas was given a penalty with a loss of 15 positions at the start and Verstappen, Leclerc, Ocon, Norris, Zhou and Schumacher were penalized from last place from the start. The amazing system of penalties meant that Bottas’ starting position was already known before qualifying. Valtteri qualified last and was awarded a penalty with a 15-place loss. Valtteri would start the race in 14th – six places behind him were taken by drivers who were penalized by starting from last place and finished in 13th when Yuki Tsunode turned the power plant into a closed park and he started from the pit lane.
The joining of forces turned out to be remarkable. Over the weekend, the Red Bull cars dominated – in cold weather their tires worked perfectly. Ferrari admitted they couldn’t match the pace of the leaders on a fast lap, and Mercedes’ Toto Wolff called qualifying the worst in the past ten years – after pole in Hungary on the next stage at Spa, the team lost nearly two seconds.
Max Verstappen won qualifying, but fell back on a penalty. The front row of the grid was shared by Sainz and Perez, the second by Alonso and Hamilton, and championship leaders Verstappen and Leclerc started 14th and 15th, adding to the intrigue.
The day of the race was the hottest over the weekend, the asphalt was covered with a layer of used rubber, which affected the performance of the tires. Pirelli brought the “middle” trio of compositions on stage – C2, C3 and C4 marked as Hard, Medium and Soft. In the race Sainz, Bottas, Verstappen and Leclerc started on Soft, Tsunoda on Hard, the rest opted for Medium.
Before the start, Gasly pulled into the pits due to problems with the car on the forming circle and started from the pit lane.
Sainz held the lead at the start. Perez missed Alonso and both Mercedes cars. Hamilton attacked Alonso, Perez for Russell. Vettel left no room for his partner – Stroll went off the track and lost his position.
Hamilton and Alonso touched the wheels, Lewis’s car jumped and smoked after landing – the engineer asked him to stop on the track. The stewards allowed the incident to be without consequences, but Hamilton admitted the error.
Verstappen moved up to eighth, Leclerc to ninth.
Top ten in round 2: Sainz – Perez – Russell – Alonso – Vettel – Riccardo – Albon – Verstappen – Leclerc – Stroll.
Latifi spun into turn sixth, knocking out Bottas. The safety car drove away.
Leclerc switched tires and dropped back to 17th place. In the 4th round a restart was announced.
At the restart Sainz kept the lead. Alonso attacked Russell, but George regained the position. Verstappen overtook Albon and Ricciardo and moved up to sixth.
In lap 6, Leclerc and Latifi were ahead of Schumacher. Albon overtook Ricciardo for seventh.
On lap 7 Verstappen overtook Vettel and Alonso, on lap 8 Russell and climbed to third.
On lap 8, Leclerc overtook Gasly and on lap 9, Tsunoda moved up to 14th. Norris defeated Magnussen for 11th place.
Top ten in round 10: Sainz – Perez – Verstappen – Russell – Alonso – Vettel – Albon – Ricciardo – Stroll – Okon.
On lap 10, Leclerc moved ahead of Zhou and Magnussen to move up to 12th place.
On lap 11, Albon and Gasly switched tyres, on lap 12 Sainz, Alonso and Magnussen, who were leading the race, switched tyres.
On lap 12, Verstappen passed Pérez to lead the race. Sainz passed Ricciardo for fifth.
On lap 13 Ricciardo and Ocon pitted, on lap 14 Russell. Sainz was ahead of Vettel in the battle for third place.
On lap 14, Norris switched tires. Leclerc was ahead of Stroll and moved up to fifth.
On lap 15, Perez, Vettel, Zhou and Schumacher made a pit stop. Perez drove for Leclerc, Charles attacked, but Sergio kept his position.
On lap 16, Verstappen switched tires and returned to the track in second, five seconds behind Sainz. Russell beat Leclerc for fourth place.
On lap 17 Vettel overtook Elbon for eighth. Ocon caught up with Riccardo.
After five seconds into two laps, Verstappen overtook Sainz on lap 18 and led the race – and was two seconds behind by the end of the lap.
On lap 19, Tsunoda switched tires.
On lap 20, Norris overtook Zhou for 13th and Okon overtook Albon for eighth.
On lap 21, Pérez overtook Sainz for second.
Top ten in round 21: Verstappen – Perez – Sainz – Russell – Leclerc – Alonso – Vettel – Ocon – Albon – Ricciardo.
On lap 22 Gasly made a pit stop, on lap 26 Sainz, Leclerc and Alonso. Tsunoda defeated Magnussen for 14th place.
On lap 27, Albon and Stroll switched tires, on lap 28 Perez and Magnussen. Alonso overtook Zhou for 10th place.
Zhou pitted on lap 29 and Russell on lap 30. Leclerc was ahead of Ocon and Alonso was ahead of Riccardo.
On lap 30 Norris switched tires, on lap 31 Verstappen kept the lead in the race.
On lap 31, Tsunoda made a pit stop. Leclerc was ahead of Vettel in the battle for fifth place.
On lap 33 Ocon and Ricciardo switched tires, on lap 34 Vettel.
Top ten in round 35: Verstappen – Perez – Sainz – Russell – Leclerc – Alonso – Gasly – Vettel – Ocon – Elbon.
Vettel was ahead of Gasly, Okon overtook them both.
On lap 42, Tsunoda overtook Zhou for 13th and on lap 43, Guanyu re-took the position.
On lap 43 Charles Leclerc got soft tires to reserve the best lap, but when he got back on track he missed Alonso, had to counterattack and take the lead but didn’t have time to show the best lap. After the pit stop, Charles exceeded the speed in the pit lane, was given a five-second penalty by the stewards and lost the position to Alonso.
—
Max Verstappen won the Belgian Grand Prix with his ninth win of the season and 29th of his career. Sergio Perez finished second and led Leclerc in the individual standings. For the fourth time this season and the 21st in Red Bull Racing history, it won the winning double.
Carlos Sainz climbed to the third step of the podium.
Next week we are waiting for the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort.
Race results
| pilot | Team | Time | Speed | Piet |
| 1. Mr Verstappen | Red Bull | – | 2 | |
| 2. C.Perez | Red Bull | +17.841 | 2 | |
| 3. K. Sainz | Ferrari | +26,886 | 2 | |
| 4. D. Russell | Mercedes | +29.140 | 2 | |
| 5. F. Alonso | alpine | +69,936 | 3 | |
| 6. Sh.Lecler | Ferrari | +74,936 | 2 | |
| 7. E. Okon | alpine | +75.640 | 2 | |
| 8. S. Vettel | Aston Martin | +78.107 | 2 | |
| 9. P. Gasly | AlphaTauri | +92,181 | 2 | |
| 10. A. Albon | Williams | +102.304 | 2 | |
| 11. L. Walk | Aston Martin | +103.184 | 2 | |
| 12. L. Norris | McLaren | +104,887 | 2 | |
| 13. Y. Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | +105,429 | 2 | |
| 14. G. Zhou’ | Alfa Romeo | +106,463 | 2 | |
| 15. D. Riccardo | McLaren | +106.829 | 2 | |
| 16. K. Magnussen | hare | +1 circle | 2 | |
| 17. M. Schumacher | hare | +1 circle | 2 | |
| 18. N. Latifi | Williams | +1 circle | 3 |
best lap: Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) – 1:49.354 (lap 32)
Reasons for leaving
| pilot | Team | circles | Cause |
| L. Hamilton | Mercedes | 0 | accident |
| V.Bottas | Alfa Romeo | a | accident |
Championship position : Individual
Championship position : Constructors’ Championship
| Team | Engine | Glasses | |
| = | 1 Red Bull Racing | Red Bull powertrains | 475 |
| = | 2 Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari | 357 |
| = | 3. Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team | Mercedes | 316 |
| = | 4 Alpine F1 Team | Renault | 115 |
| = | 5 McLaren Racing | Mercedes | 95 |
| = | 6. Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN | Ferrari | 51 |
| = | 7 Haas F1 Team | Ferrari | 34 |
| = | 8 Scuderia Alpha Tauri | Red Bull powertrains | 29 |
| = | 9. Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team | Mercedes | 24 |
| = | 10 Williams Racing | Mercedes | four |
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
