Verstappen wins Sprint Race in Belgium ahead of Piastri

Max Verstappen did lose the lead to Oscar Piastri for a couple of laps thanks to the Australian pitting during the first rolling start, but on the second restart, the defending champion did well to quickly overtake McLaren's rookie. Pierre Gasly did well to finish in P3, after two consecutive DNFs in the last two races.

After Lewis Hamilton's five-second was applied, Carlos Sainz claimed fourth place from the Briton, Charles Leclerc finished fifth, and Lando Norris finished in P6. Hamilton dropped to P7, and his teammate George Russell completed the Top 8 on Saturday. Daniel Ricciardo was close to getting his first point in 2023, but was overtaken by Russell earlier.

As it happened

After another lengthy delay, the Sprint Race got underway on a wet track behind the safety car. The drivers completed four laps as 'formation laps', and then the Sprint began with a rolling start with 11 laps to go.

Many drivers wanted to put on the intermediate tyres immediately, with exactly half of the grid staying out on wets. Verstappen could not build a gap enough on a single lap on wet tyres to stay ahead of Oscar Piastri, who opted for the intermediates. The Dutchman rejoined on track in second place ahead of Gasly and Perez. The two Ferraris lost the most with the early pit stops, going from third and fourth to sixth and seventh thanks to their slower stops, while Charles Leclerc was also unsafely released.

On Lap 3, the safety car came out once again, after Fernando Alonso ended up in the gravel trap in Pouhon on his birthday. This time, Piastri set the rhythm of the restart, with Verstappen staying alert and he could overtake the rookie on the Kemmel Straight. Later on the lap, Hamilton was eager to get past Sergio Perez, with the two drivers making contact. The Mexican's car was damaged, and started to drop places quickly and eventually had to retire. Later the stewards decided to give Hamilton a five-second penalty.