Max Verstappen on another level in 2022 Belgian Grand Prix win: race report

Formula 1 isn’t easy, and shouldn’t ever be considered it, but every now and then a driver and team combination make it look like a stroll in the park.

That Max Verstappen and Red Bull were able to do that from 14th on the grid in Belgium was quite remarkable given the season that had gone before, even if the defending champion won from 10th in the final race before the summer break.

It was a weekend that had been dominated by driver market developments – with a sprinkle of Audi’s arrival – before track action kicked off and power unit penalties became the focus. In many ways, what went before the race itself was of little value, as long runs took place in grey and cold conditions and the fastest car started on the seventh row.

But it was the scale of the advantage the fastest car had that was worth reading into, as Verstappen started 14th but was legitimately seen as the favourite for victory by many before the lights went out.

What nobody had predicted, was contact between two of the most experienced drivers on the grid.

Carlos Sainz got a strong start from pole position but Sergio Perez slipped back to fifth place, with Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell getting ahead of him.

Hamilton picked up a good tow from Alonso and tried to overtake around the outside of Les Combes but then cut too close towards the apex of the right-hander, squeezing Alonso who could go no further across before contact was made. The Mercedes was pitched into the air and landed heavily, and although Hamilton tried to limp on he was told to stop before the lap was complete.

“What an idiot!” Alonso fumed. “Closing the door from the outside. We had a mega start but this guy only knows how to drive and start in first.”

Although the Spaniard was able to continue, the contact had opened the door for Perez to retake second place after clearing Russell, demoting Alonso to fourth behind the other Mercedes.

“I had a really good tow on Fernando and did a move down the outside,” Hamilton said. “I got up alongside him and a little bit ahead of him, thought I left enough room for him and I didn’t, and I paid the price for it. So it’s my fault, and just sorry to my team really.

“You always want to see it through to the end of the race, so to lose a race through something that happened so quickly and also unintentionally – this sort of stuff happens, it’s motor racing, when you’re traveling at these speeds. But it’s painful as always.”

With Hamilton on the side of the road, the safety car was likely to be needed anyway but that was cemented at Les Combes on the second lap when Nicholas Latifi ran wide and spun, forcing Valtteri Bottas into evasive action. While Latifi could return to the track, Bottas was beached and joined his former team mate in retirement.

The upshot was that Verstappen was already running in eighth place by the time the safety car was deployed to recover both cars, having made up four positions on his own and benefitted from Pierre Gasly starting from the pit lane as well as Hamilton’s early exit. Any threat from behind was also reduced as Charles Leclerc – up to ninth – was forced to pit as a tear-off from Verstappen had got stuck in his brake duct.

Things went from good to even better for the Dutchman when the race restarted on lap 5, as he cleared both Alex Albon and Daniel Ricciardo before he’d exited the chicane to start the next lap, and his chances of victory were rapidly increasing.

Sebastian Vettel and Alonso were next to be dispatched, and as he started his eighth lap – and only fifth racing lap – Verstappen overtook Russell using DRS to run third. Even at such an early stage, the race felt like a foregone conclusion.

At the end of lap 11, Sainz came into the pits to get rid of his soft tyres, leaving only Verstappen on them as he swept past his team-mate to take the lead. The raw pace was clear to see as the Dutchman could extend his stint by a further four laps.