The 2022 Belgian Grand Prix was by no means the most memorable race. Nevertheless, the first race after the summer break and yet another win for Max Verstappen has put him in prime position to retain his championship title.
The most chaotic segment of the race turned out to be the opening lap. First, Fernando Alonso, starting in a lofty P3 thanks to a raft of penalties for others, clashed with Lewis Hamilton. The move was a rather dicey one as Hamilton closed the door on Alonso into turn 5, leaving the Alpine driver nowhere to go. Hamilton, who retired on the same lap, admitted that he was completely to blame for the move and that he didn’t see Alonso in his blind spot.
Elsewhere, Nicholas Latifi’s woeful run in F1 continued with yet another incident. This time the Canadian driver ran wide and tagged the back of Valtteri Bottas, which sent the Finn into a gravel trap. With the Alfa Romeo beached and Hamilton’s stricken Merc on the side of the track the safety-car was deployed to clean up the chaos of lap 1.
The race resumed a few laps later with Sainz, who had inherited pole, maintaining the lead over Checo Perez. By lap eight of the race Verstappen swept into P3 and was now well in position to win the race. Although the Red Bull driver had started well down the grid he was still the bookies favourite to take the win, such was the pace of the Red Bull in Belgium. With fastest lap to boot, Verstappen never looked troubled in what was an utterly dominant weekend. Red Bull also increased their lead in the constructor’s standings with Checo Perez finishing a comfortable second. Carlos Sainz was third on the day in a Ferrari that punished its tyres from the opening laps of the race. George Russell salvaged a solid fourth place finish for Mercedes who have yet again been sent back to the drawing board in a quest to understand the W13.
Leclerc had been running in fifth before Ferrari decided on a late race pitstop and a bid on the point for fastest lap. Not only was Leclerc, on soft tyres, not fast enough to snap up the point, but he also incurred a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane. As such, Alonso was promoted to fifth ahead of Leclerc in sixth. Esteban Ocon made it double points scoring afternoon for Alpine in seventh while Seb Vettel somehow dragged his wretched Aston Martin to an eighth-place finish. Pierre Gasly recovered from a pitlane start to ninth while Alex Albon drove an impressive race to take the final point on offer in tenth.
Where exactly Ferrari’s pace has disappeared to no one seems to know. It could well be that the team simply followed the wrong path on setup and paid the price in terms of high tyre degradation. Whatever the cause, there is a monumental task ahead of them if they are to turn things around, which seems more and more unlikely.
Verstappen’s drive looked quite easy, but it should not be underestimated for its utter brilliance. To simply dismiss starting fourteenth as a mere formality, to run eighth by the end of the first lap, is a stunning performance that should be lauded and then some. Leclerc made steady progress too but a visor tear-off getting stuck in his brake duct forced into an early pitstop. But there simply was no peer on the Spa-Francorchamp racetrack for Max Verstappen. His pace, at times otherworldly, was not only enough to get him through the field but also to ultimately win the race by nearly twenty seconds. The fact is that in 2022 Verstappen has stepped up to a level not even he would’ve thought possible. That he is seemingly getting even better, even quicker is an ominous to ponder.
Part two of the Verstappen home-race double comes up this weekend as F1 heads to Zaandvoort for the fifteenth round of the season. The Dutch circuit is undoubtedly going to be packed to the rafters with Verstappen’s fanatical orange army. Their expectation will be for a tenth win of the season for Verstappen. Baring unreliability or a clash of some sort there really is nothing to suggest that the Red Bull driver won’t be standing on the top step of the podium again this weekend.
