Due to a grid penalty, Max Verstappen began from position eleven, giving Charles Leclerc the lead, although Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris knew the Dutchman would still pose a threat.
George Russell’s audacious tactical choice paid off as he held off teammate Lewis Hamilton’s attack to win the Belgian Grand Prix.
Russell called on the radio to visit the pit lane just once on a day when tyre degradation was at an extreme level. And it turned out to be a brilliant choice because he had enough rubber left in the end to prevent Hamilton, his teammate at Mercedes, from attacking and win his second race of the year.
Max Verstappen was expected to fight for the win after starting from position 11 on the grid, according to Russell. Lando Norris was beaten by him when he moved up to fifth place, but that was the best he could achieve as Mercedes won the race with Oscar Piastri finishing third.
Despite starting on pole, Charles Leclerc was repeatedly outmaneuvered and ultimately lost the tactics duel. However, his day was not nearly as awful as Sergio Perez’s, who started the race on the front row alongside the Monegasque but never gained any speed, eventually dropping to seventh place when he collected the chequered flag.
Leclerc was concerned he might be swept away on the opening lap, during the lengthy run along the Kemmel Straight and up Eau Rouge following the first circuit.
However, Perez, who started at second, was far too preoccupied defending against Hamilton to consider an attack for the lead. He also failed to get the launch off the line he desired.
In fact, the Mercedes overtook the Red Bull after a few seconds of wheel-to-wheel racing, and Hamilton was the first to reach the summit of Eau Rouge, ahead of just leader Leclerc. Piastri, who began well after them, wasn’t able to repeat that performance with his McLaren teammate.
By the end of the first lap, Norris had dropped from fourth place to seventh. On the next lap, he nearly collided with fellow Briton George Russell but managed to avoid collision by diving off the circuit.
Mercedes were quite happy with what had transpired at the front and relieved that he did. Because Hamilton was not wasting any time and overtook Leclerc on the third lap by using DRS down Kemmel to seize the lead.
After saying the Silver Arrows would not be able to contend for the win in dry circumstances, he followed it up with the fastest lap of the race in an attempt to break the tow to the Ferrari and prove his doubts.
With his spot on the F1 grid under threat, Perez would have preferred to be pushing those in front of him. Zhou Guanyu became the first retiree after hobbling back to the pits on lap six due to a mechanical issue.
However, he was now out of Leclerc’s DRS range and had to worry about the McLaren of Piastri behind him instead. By then, Verstappen had moved up to ninth, but he was having trouble since Norris was the next car ahead. And despite the Briton’s poor start, he was driving a McLaren that could keep up with the Red Bull, even at this particular Spa track where the Dutchman usually seems to be so infatuated.
In order to remove him from the DRS train and fit him with new hard tires, Red Bull hauled him into the pits. Mercedes followed suit with Russell. Although the British driver breezed by Yuki Tsunoda and Kevin Magnussen, Verstappen took a bit longer to overtake the Japanese, but he eventually caught up to the British driver.
