Despite starting from fourteenth position, Max Verstappen had no rivals at the 2022 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix. The Dutch driver staged a great comeback and after only 18 laps out of a total 44, he overtook Carlos Sainz with the help of the DRS and placed himself as the real leader of the race, a position that he did not abandon until the checkered flag.
Sergio Pérez also managed to win the battle against the Spanish Ferrari driver after struggling to keep up his pace in the opening laps. The F1-75 suffered much more than expected from tire degradation and could do nothing to prevent Red Bull’s one-two finish.
In the closing laps, Sainz saw his third podium position threatened as his Ferrari slowed and George Russell moved just over a second behind, but eventually his tires fell off and the gap was over two seconds.
Behind, Charles Leclerc crossed the finish line fifth, but a five-second penalty for exceeding the speed limit in the pitlane gave that fifth place to Fernando Alonso, who led the group from the middle zone after having started third and after suffering a career-ending incident for Lewis Hamilton on the first lap of the race.
Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel threatened the Spanish Alpine driver’s track position, but neither could do anything and they crossed the checkered flag in seventh and eighth respectively.
Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon, at the wheel of a WIlliams that dazzled with its top speed, closed out the top ten points-awarding positions at Spa-Francorchamps, with both McLarens outside the top 10 after a race in which they fell by the wayside .
F1 Belgian GP 2022 Race Results at Spa
| P. | Pilot | Equipment | Engine | laps | diff | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
 |
Red Bull | Red Bull | 44 | |
| 2 |  |
 |
Red Bull | Red Bull | 44 | 17.841 |
| 3 |  |
 |
ferrari | ferrari | 44 | 26,886 |
| 4 |  |
 |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 44 | 29.140 |
| 5 |  |
|
Ferrari | Ferrari | 44 | 1’09.936 |
| 6 | |
 |
Alpine | Renault | 44 | 1’13.256 |
| 7 |  |
 |
Alpine | Renault | 44 | 1’15.640 |
| 8 |  |
 |
Aston Martin | Mercedes | 44 | 1’18.107 |
| 9 | |
 |
AlphaTauri | Red Bull | 44 | 1’32.181 |
| 10 |  |
 |
williams | mercedes | 44 | 1’41.900 |
| 11 |  |
 |
Aston Martin | Mercedes | 44 | 1’43.078 |
| 12 | |
 |
McLaren | Mercedes | 44 | 1’44.739 |
| 13 |  |
 |
AlphaTauri | Red Bull | 44 | 1’45.217 |
| 14 |  |
 |
Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 44 | 1’46.252 |
| 15 |  |
 |
McLaren | Mercedes | 44 | 1’47.163 |
| 16 |  |
 |
Haas | Ferrari | 43 | 1 lap |
| 17 | |
 |
Haas | Ferrari | 43 | 1 lap |
| 18 | |
 |
Williams | Mercedes | 43 | 1 lap |
 |
 |
Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 1 | ||
|
 |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 0 |
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Full F1 Hungarian GP 2022 Race Summary
With many drivers out of position due to the many different penalties for changing power unit elements, including Verstappen and Leclerc, the two main contenders for the title, the 2022 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix kicked off with Sainz, Pérez and Alonso in the first three places.
At the start, the Spanish driver was the only one of the top ten who had chosen the soft tyre, while the rest opted for the medium, and that helped him to make a great start and distance himself from a peloton led by Alonso and Hamilton, who Pérez’s wallet was stolen in the first meters before the two starred in an incident that returned second place to the Mexican Red Bull driver, although more than two seconds behind Sainz.
Due to the impact between Alonso and Hamilton, the Briton from Mercedes could not even return to the pits and parked his car in one of the loopholes on the track, while Latifi and Williams were involved in another incident in which the Alfa Romeo driver also left , causing the safety car to exit the track.
At that moment, Sainz was leading and losing his lead, followed by Pérez, Russell and Alonso. A little further behind, Verstappen and Leclerc, who started 14th and 15th respectively, had already started their comebacks and were eighth and ninth, behind Albon’s Williams.
The Monegasque driver had to enter the pits once the entire peloton had regrouped because from the Ferrari wall they detected that a tear off had lodged in his car and that could be fatal throughout the race, causing him to fall up to 17th place, losing all the ground gained in the first few laps, albeit with new means and a one-stop strategy.
On the restart, Sainz once again did a masterful job and in just one lap he managed to get Pérez out of the DRS zone. Russell and Alonso battled for third on the podium, but the Mercedes driver won the battle, with Verstappen looming in fifth place after just six laps.
Verstappen reaches the podium and the chances of victory are real
On lap eight of 44, the Dutch driver moved into podium positions after relatively easily overtaking Alonso and DRS, posting lap times up to a second quicker than Sainz, who was leading the race four seconds ahead of Verstappen, also with soft.
Behind, Leclerc saw how his comeback was complicated after the mishap he suffered that forced him to pit in one of the worst moments of the race, returning to 12th position on the tenth lap.
The Spanish Ferrari driver entered the pits on lap 12 due to the high degradation of his soft tires and went out on the track again with medium ones, which left Pérez very defenseless and caused Verstappen to climb to first position after overtaking relatively simple.
Alonso, fighting for fourth place, also changed tires on that lap and rode his second set of mediums, while Russell stayed on track and pitted several laps later, maintaining track position.
On lap 15, Pérez was the first of the Red Bulls to stop and started third, ahead of Leclerc, with whom he had a great battle, and behind a Sainz who was 13 seconds behind Verstappen.
Verstappen is placed real leader and the middle zone is tightened to the maximum
Four laps after Sainz’s stop, Red Bull called Verstappen to the pits and mounted a new game of means, starting in second position just over four seconds behind the Ferrari driver, although with a much higher speed.
Leclerc lost fourth position in favor of a Russell who had ten laps less worn tires and began to suffer with the degradation of his medium compounds.
Behind, the fight for the points zone was very even, with Albon, Vettel, Ocon and Ricciardo occupying the last points positions separated by less than three seconds, all of them on hard compounds.
On lap 18, Verstappen got into the DRS zone with Sainz and it didn’t take him long to overtake the Ferrari driver with a really overwhelming difference in pace, in fact, at the end of said lap, the difference between the Dutch and the Spanish was greater than two seconds.
At the back of the points, Vettel moved to the front of the pack and opened a three-second gap on his pursuers, setting his sights on Alonso, who was sixth, consistently running slower than the German Aston Martin driver.
Just three laps after Verstappen overtook Sainz, the Mexican Red Bull driver did the same and demoted the Madrid-based Ferrari driver to third place, thus achieving a double that reflected the clear superiority of the Austrian team.
Verstappen escapes and the first positions stabilize
At the halfway point of the race, the current Formula 1 world champion was leading with an advantage of more than seven seconds over his teammate who, in turn, was also gradually distancing himself from Sainz, with Leclerc fifth starting to fall with a medium 20 spin tire.
The fight was focused at that moment of the race on the last five points positions, with an Alonso who saw how Vettel was placed in the DRS zone in the fight for sixth place, while Ocon stayed in no man’s land and Albon He took advantage of the great top speed of his Williams to defend ninth position against Ricciardo’s McLaren, who in turn saw Stroll stick to his rear.
On lap 26, Ferrari made a double stop and both returned to the track with hard, in fourth and seventh position respectively. With this move, Sainz defended his third podium position against a Russell who had cut him a lot of time. In turn, Alonso made the same movement and returned to the track 13th.
After the stop of the young Briton from Mercedes, Sainz returned to third place, with a lead of about nine seconds, although with tires four laps older.
On lap 30, Verstappen pitted for another set of midfielders and held the lead with a difference of eight seconds over Pérez.
Russell threatens Sainz’s podium position
With just over 10 laps to go before the checkered flag, Russell cut Sainz by a second per lap and was closing in on third place on the podium against a Ferrari that seemed to be less competitive in the long run than in the short run.
Behind, Alonso recovered sixth place after the stops of all the drivers from the back of the points, although with the disadvantage of wearing hard tires, against the medium ones of Vettel, Gasly, Ocon, Albon, Stroll and Norris.
The German from Aston Martin and the French from Alpine, with new means, cut one second per lap and gradually approached the Asturian driver, threatening his sixth position.
In turn, Russell lowers the barrier of two seconds with respect to Sainz’s third position on lap 39 of 44. Further back, Albon defended tooth and nail thanks to the brutal top speed of the continuous attacks of Stroll, Norris and Zhou, fighting for the last point of the Belgian GP.
In the last four laps of the race, the British Mercedes driver’s pace suddenly dropped and that allowed Sainz to catch some air, pushing the gap back up to over two seconds, securing third place on the podium.
Something similar happened with Alonso’s situation, since Ocon and Vettel began to suffer with the degradation of their medium tires and that allowed the Spaniard to slow down.
Verstappen triumphs in Belgium and deals a critical blow to the World Cup
Finally, Max Verstappen crossed the checkered flag in first position, with an advantage of 17.8 seconds over Sergio Pérez. Carlos Sainz completed the podium, 2.2 seconds ahead of George Russell.
Behind him, Charles Leclerc received a five-second penalty for exceeding the speed limit in the pitlane during his last pit stop to try to find a fast lap that he did not achieve and that the Dutch Red Bull driver also finally took, which It led to losing a position with Fernando Alonso, who climbed to fifth place and left the Monegasque sixth.
