Round 13/23: Review of the Belgian Grand Prix Race

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Max Verstappen won his 8th consecutive grand prix, 10th of the season, Red Bull’s 13th straight grand prix victory to conclude an absolute dominant first half of the 2023 season, winning all 12 concluded races so far. Red Bull go into a perfect summer break as Sergio Perez is back in P2, ahead of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. Lewis Hamilton finished P4 denying the fastest lap point to Max by pitting on the penultimate lap onto new mediums ahead of Fernando Alonso in P5.

The race started in dry conditions with most of the top drivers going on softs and the McLarens and the Aston Martins opting for mediums instead. Heading into turn 1, Carlos Sainz locked up and turned into the path of Oscar Piastri damaging both the cars. Oscar pitted after falling to the back of the pack but had to retire his car the very next lap. Carlos lost places gradually and retired his car eventually in lap 24.

Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda were the top gainers in the first lap on a fresh set of mediums settling into P5 and P6 for a long time. Fernando eventually finished in P5 but Yuki was outdone by George Russell, Lando Norris, and Lance Stroll on strategy and Esteban Ocon on pace. Yuki finished in P10, easily his best drive of the year so far, beating his new teammate Daniel Ricciardo who finished in P16.

Alex Albon had a really great start on the softs as he overtook Lance, Carlos and Lando in a single lap. The straight line speed of the Williams was about 20 kmph higher than their competitors and this made passes very easy for Alex. However, this advantage also hindered them with lesser grip in the corners which Lando and the Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban and the Alphataur of Yuki took full advantage of, while overtaking Alex in incredible fashion. As the laps progressed, Alex lost considerable pace due to significant tire wear which was evident from his 3 pit stops. In the end, Alex only finished P14, while the Alpines of Esteban and Gasly finished P8 and P11.

Charles Leclerc, starting from the pole position, lost his lead in the very first lap to Sergio Perez. After that, Charles and Lewis ran their own races & were involved in an undercut battle during the first round of pitstops in lap 13. Lewis pitted in lap 13 with a deficit of over 3 seconds but pulled back the times on his outlap to nearly overtaking Charles after his pitstop in lap 14, only to be saved by Fernando who ended up between them briefly having not pit. Once Charles warmed his tires, he could manage his own race and finished P3 ahead of Lewis in P4.

Elsewhere, the favourite Max moved into P4, starting from P6, as Carlos and Oscar had an incident. He had good pace right from the start but with Lewis hanging onto DRS from Charles, it took Max 5 laps to overtake Lewis. He took another 4 laps to clear Charles in P2 but Sergio maintained a lead of about 3 seconds till the first round of pitstops. Sergio pitted first as the lead Red Bull car in lap 13 followed by Max in lap 14 onto mediums. Once on mediums, Max passed Sergio easily as there was a clear pace difference between the two Red Bull drivers. It was on lap 17 that Max took the lead of the race and he built a 22 second lead by the end of the race.

The only unpredictability in the race was through a passing shower of rain that came in in lap 18. The intensity was not very high and this allowed Lance, George and Pierre to stay out for longer and they could pull a one stopper. Others played it safely waiting and watching whether inters were required but McLaren and Lando pitted for softs immediately, taking a chance which ultimately gave them P7 in the race. The McLaren was awful in straightline speed due to excess downforce and this made them susceptible to overtaking by others. Playing it smartly and taking their chance in the rain, McLaren finished higher than they were expected to in the race.

Q3 Position Driver Name Constructor Name Q1 Time
1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 25
2 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 18
3 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 15
4 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 13
5 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 10
6 George Russell MERCEDES 8
7 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 6
8 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 4
9 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 2
10 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 1
11 Pierre Gasly ALPINE RENAULT 0
12 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 0
13 Zhou Guanyu ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 0
14 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES 0
15 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 0
16 Daniel Ricciardo ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 0
17 Logan Sargeant WILLIAMS MERCEDES 0
18 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 0
NC Carlos Sainz FERRARI 0