Max Verstappen kept the faster Oscar Piastri to take the victory in the Belgian Grand Prix Sprint after squeezing the lead in the first round.
Piastri got a good start and seemed to get a launch of La-Bron clean enough to open an opening on the long flat-out explosion by Eau Rouge and the Kemmel straight ahead, but the Red Bull Racing Car van Verstappen was cut for top speed, where the Dutchman reached the Remzone for Les.
Piastri covered the inner line, but Verstappen was too fast and easily wiped around the Australians outside to rob him from the lead.
The title leader clung to the Dutchman’s gearbox by the rest of the round to ensure that he had Drs available to him in Kemmel in the second round, but even with the drag dumping device, his car was not a party for the smooth Red Bull Racing machine, so that no significant inner road is the long straightforward.
Verstappen brought his linear benefit in the beginning well to use. Ryan Piersse/Getty images
It was the frustrating story of the Piastri race, where Verstappen only had to nail his exit from La -Bron to ensure that the Australian could not pose a threat in Les Combes, the best catch -up place of the circuit. The Dutchman has supplied properly over all 15 laps to claim a defensive victory with 0.753S.
“It worked very well,” he said. “That is the only real chance you will get against them, and we got it. At that time I knew of course that it would be very difficult to keep them behind, so it’s just a cat and mouse playing – drs, battery use. In principle, the entire race was within 0.7 seconds, so I couldn’t afford to make big mistakes.
“It was a great result for us to keep them behind and to win here in Spa. Of course it is a sprint win, but it still counts.
Piastri regretted his lack of linear speed, but was satisfied enough with his performance.
“I did my best to make my way through the straight pieces and not to give too much of a drag, but I just didn’t have enough linear speed, and I didn’t have enough linear speed for the next 14 laps,” he said. “Still a good result, still good points. It’s just the sprint. The most important points are tomorrow. I am pretty happy with it, but just a bit frustrating that I couldn’t pass by.”
Lando Norris finished third and only 0.661s behind Piastri despite being hired by Charles Leclerc in the first round.
Leclerc pulled the same move on Norris as Verstappen Norris and had relegated the Brit to fourth place, but the McLaren was a much better match for the Ferrari than it was the Red Bull Racing car and he passed the Monegasque with a simple Drs -Mait to Les Combes on Rap 4.
After five laps have supplemented his battery and his power unit cooled, Norris closed his teammate and gained access to DRS in round 9, but Piaastri got the same advantage of Verstappen, the effect that the effect was gene.
He kept bottled behind the top two to the flag, cost him one point to Piastri and expanded his champion shortage to nine points.
“Not much going on,” said Norris. “Of course a bit of fun in the beginning, with trying to catch up with Charles. Maybe I could have positioned myself a little better, but otherwise it was a bit too difficult to pass Max.
“I wouldn’t pass anyone unless Oscar passed Max. They drove good races. Not much we could do one day like today, so look forward to tomorrow.”
Leclerc finished fourth, 8,762s behind the leaders, but comfortable for Haas driver Esteban Ocon in the fifth.
Carlos Sainz scored three points for Williams in Sixth for Oliver Bearman in the Second Haas machine.
Isack Hadjar scored the last point of the sprint for Racing Bulls, the Frenchman who challenged All Race, but shoots with 0.509s.
Gabriel Bortoleto finished the ninth for Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda, George Russell and Lance Stroll. Stroll was one of only four drivers who come up with a place in the race – the others are Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Andrea Kimi Antonelli – after he won one place by teammate Fernando Alonso along the inside of La -Sourage.
Alonso finished 14th for Lewis Hamilton, Alex Albon and Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Nico Hulkenberg was relegated to the 18th by both Hamilton and Antonelli.
Franco Colapinto finished 19th after starting the race from Pit Lane after Alpine Parc Ferme circumstances broke.
Pierre Gasly withdrew from the race after 12 laps on a difficult start on Saturday for the Frenchman, after he had pulled a water leak off the schedule and joined the race, two laps down before he called it a day.
Result
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