Verstappen cruises to Belgian Grand Prix victory from P14 as Perez completes Red Bull 1-2

Max Verstappen took care of his matrix punishments to win the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix from P14 on the lattice in a Red Bull one-two upheld by Sergio Perez, while post sitter Carlos Sainz completed P3 for Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso tangled at Les Combes on Lap 1, avoiding the Mercedes driver with regard to the race before Valtteri Bottas turned out in evasion of Nicholas Latifi and drew out a Safety Car on Lap 2.

The restart saw Verstappen line up eighth while Sainz drove Perez – Leclerc having needed to pit for mediums with a detach in his brake conduit. Verstappen dealt with the vehicles ahead, clearing into P3 by Lap 8 with just Perez and Sainz to beat.

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Sainz pitted from softs to mediums on Lap 12, when Perez permitted Verstappen past and into the lead. The Dutchman expanded his lead until Lap 15 and pawed back the shortfall to Sainz, starting to lead the pack on Lap 19 – taking another free refueling break on Lap 31 – prior to proceeding to prevail upon Perez by north of 18 seconds in a predominant presentation, with quickest lap for sure.

Sainz finished the platform in front of Mercedes’ George Russell, who had recently passed Charles Leclerc yet missed out on the last platform place by a little more than two seconds.

Leclerc made a late refueling break for delicate tires with an end goal to take quickest lap, yet passed up the reward point and just barely clutched P5 in front of Fernando Alonso. In any case, in the wake of being gotten for speeding in the pit path, a five-second punishment dropped him to P6.

The double cross hero was re-passed by the Ferrari on the last lap however completed in front of colleague Esteban Ocon, who updated Sebastian Vettel (P8) and Pierre Gasly (P9) late in the race. Alex Albon balanced the main 10 for Williams, fighting off Lance Stroll for the last point.

Lando Norris got up to speed to an engaging Albon and Stroll toward the finish of the race yet the McLaren driver passed up a great opportunity and completed twelfth, in front of Yuki Tsunoda, who came out on top in a late-race fight against Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.

That left Daniel Ricciardo in P15 in front of the Haas pair – Kevin Magnussen sixteenth and Mick Schumacher seventeenth – while Nicholas Latifi completed eighteenth in the wake of taking three refueling breaks.