Brilliant Russell defends against Hamilton to win the Belgian Grand Prix

Mercedes let their two drivers race for the victory. Russell's had the older tyres compared to Hamilton, but the seven-time couldn't make the overtake work. During this time, Piastri closed drastically but couldn't do enough to get involved in the battle. Pole-sitter Charles Leclerc finished fourth.

Sergio Perez endured a disaster Grand Prix. He didn't get the result he would've wanted from the front row on the grid. The Mexican dropped backwards immediately at the start and never recovered. He quickly dropped behind his teammate Verstappen [who started from P11] and could only finish P8, last of the front runners. Verstappen ended up make a quick start, but struggled to make progress like previous years. He finished in fifth, ahead of Norris. 

What happened in the Belgian Grand Prix?

Verstappen dominated qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix but did not start from pole position due to a hefty engine penalty. Instead, Leclerc secured pole position by finishing with the second-fastest time. He was joined by Sergio Perez on the front row of the grid. Verstappen was relegated to P11, with the McLaren drivers in P4 and P5. Lewis Hamilton started from third. All drivers used the medium tyres from the start, apart from Sainz [Hard], Ricciardo [Soft] and Zhou [Hard]. 

Leclerc maintained the lead at the start, but Hamilton got off the line very quickly and battled Perez. Hamilton got ahead and managed to keep the lead down the long straight. Verstappen was already in P9 at the end of the opening lap, and he made easy work on Alonso to put Norris in his sights almost immediately. Hamilton put Leclerc under pressure and the Brit took the lead on lap three. He broke the DRS range to Leclerc on lap six as the Dutchman's progress was halted.

On lap ten, Hamilton opened his lead to 2 seconds but reported that the rear tyres were starting to drop off. Red Bull pulled the trigger and pitted Verstappen on lap 11 as the Dutchman tried to undercut Norris. Russell also pitted at this time. Yuki Tsunoda hindered Verstappen's progress as Hamilton and Perez followed one lap later. Leclerc sensed an undercut and asked his team to go long, but Ferrari pitted him anyway. Ferrari made the right call as he stayed ahead of Perez, who then dropped behind Piastri. 

McLaren extended Norris' stint until the end of lap 15. He ended up more than six seconds behind Verstappen but did have clear air to nurse in the tyres. More bad news came for Perez. Russell overtook the Mexican on lap 21, which put Verstappen right behind his teammate. Red Bull then called in the Mexican for a new set of hard tyres at the halfway point of the race. Ferrari switched Sainz to a one-stop, which put Hamilton back into the lead with a 1.8-second advantage over Leclerc.

Second pit window opens

At the end of lap 25, Ferrari pulled the trigger and pitted Leclerc with an eye on the undercut. Ferrari's stop was slightly slow (3.4 seconds). Mercedes decided to cover off Leclerc immediately, and Hamilton's stop was one full second quicker, so he stayed ahead. As a result of the stops, Piastri was given clean air and started to set purple lap times. It looked like Sainz was about to hold up Hamilton to help Leclerc, but the Italian team pitted the Spanish driver. Verstappen also pitted to start lap 29. Norris reacted and had a 2-second gap to Verstappen, who was in P6. Verstappen got ahead of Perez, but the Mexican couldn't keep Norris behind for long.

Piastri then made his move on lap 36. The Australian attacked Leclerc for P3 and then pursued the race leader's Mercedes. He had a five-second gap to Hamilton, who was almost four seconds behind Russell.