Max Verstappen has taken his eighth consecutive race win in Formula 1 with a dominant performance at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The reigning champion was joined on the podium by teammate Sergio Perez and polesitter Charles Leclerc.
Oscar Piastri’s race was over at the first corner when he got squeezed against the wall by Carlos Sainz, who also picked up damage.
Perez made a strong start, powering ahead of Leclerc on the Kemmel Straight on the opening lap of the race, while Verstappen was up to fourth by the end of the first lap after starting down the order because of a penalty.
Sainz’s damage left him vulnerable to those behind, with Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon soon moving ahead of the Ferrari, before the Spaniard dropped out of the points places a few laps later, but Ferrari kept the car in the race.
After Piastri’s retirement, McLaren’s woes continued as Lando Norris struggled for pace on the soft tyres, forcing him to make a pitstop after just six laps.
Verstappen continued to make his way through the order, and after the first pitstops didn’t take long to get ahead of his teammate and take over at the front of the field.
20 laps in, a few drops of rain started to fall at Spa, but it wasn’t heavy enough for anyone to switch onto inters.
With the rain threat having past, Ferrari retired Sainz’s car at just over half race distance, while several drivers started to come in for their second pitstops.
With the field well spread out in the closing stages, Lewis Hamilton made a late pitstop from fourth to put on new tyres for the final lap, and it was enough to give him the bonus point for setting the fastest lap of the race.
Provisional classification:
1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
5. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
6. George Russell (Mercedes)
7. Lando Norris (McLaren)
8. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
9. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
10. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
11. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
12. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
13. Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo)
14. Alex Albon (Williams)
15. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
16. Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri)
17. Logan Sargeant (Williams)
18. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
DNF:
Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
Oscar Piastri (McLaren)