Red Bull's Max Verstappen took a comfortable victory in a wet sprint race at Spa-Francorchamps, with Oscar Piastri picking up second for McLaren after opting for a rapid change from wet tyres to intermediates at the start.
The delayed race had got underway with five laps behind the safety car due to heavy rain, with half the field including Piastri opting to change tyres before the race got fully underway but Verstappen among those to wait a lap.
An early safety car for Fernando Alonso spinning out made it easy for Verstappen to take the lead back from Piastri after the restart, with Pierre Gasly third and Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez clashing while battling over fourth, leading to a penalty for the Mercedes and retirement for the Red Bull.
The line-up for Saturday's 15-lap sprint race had been set by Saturday's rain delayed morning Showdown, which had started on a wet track with lap times quickly improving as the Spa-Francorchamps circuit dried out in the emerging sunshine. That had played into the hands of Max Verstappen, with the Red Bull driver pipping McLaren's Oscar Piastri to pole by 0.011s. On the second row it was Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc ahead of Lando Norris, Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton, with Sergio Perez just eighth.
The hold-up to the Showdown had a knock-on effect to the overall schedule for the day, holding up the start of the Sprint race. And the rain wasn't done with sowing confusion, with the heavens opening as if on cue just as the teams made final preparations to their cars on the grid. That forced a further delay to the sprint start, as the rain turned torrential and even the track drains proved unable to cope. When the rain finally eased after half an hour and the skies cleared to allow sunshine to burst through, race control gave the order to get things underway on full wet weather tyres. There would be five laps behind the safety car to help clear the standing water from the racing line before a rolling start, reducing the overall race distance to 11 laps.
Even before they got fully underway, drivers were busy conferring with their pit walls about when they would pit for intermediates tyres. When the safety car came in, Verstappen stayed out - but behind him, half the field piled down pit lane for inters including Piastri, Gasly, Perez, Hamilton and Sainz.
Those staying out behind Verstappen included Leclerc and Norris, followed by Esteban Ocon, George Russell, Logan Sargeant and Fernando Alonso, with Norris in eighth ahead of AlphaTauri's Daniel Ricciardo. Verstappen was already convinced of the need to pit on the next lap along with Leclerc and Norris, but it was chaos on pit lane as cars tripped over each other in the congestion.
The staggered stops handed the lead to Piastri whose inters were already up to temperature, and he ended up a second ahead of Verstappen, Gasly, Perez, Hamilton, Sainz and Leclerc. No one had dared gamble on a switch to slicks this early in the race with the threat of more rain still hanging in the air. Even with the inters the track was still proving tricky, as birthday boy Fernando Alonso found to his cost when he got onto the web kerb, spun around multiple times and went into the gravel at turn 11 to trigger a brief return appearance from the safety car to neutralise the race.
Red Bull's engineers were already telling Verstappen that Piastri was struggling with tyre wear - "I'm not surprised, he's drifting everywhere," was Verstappen's analysis. Elsewhere Kevin Magnussen was informing the Haas pit wall that it was close to dry conditions, although the amount of spray sent up into the air when the safety car pulled in and the race resumed rather argued to the contrary and no one braved a change to slicks. Piastri kept the lead at the restart but Verstappen pounced just moments later to take charge down the Kemmel Straight, and there was simply nothing the rookie could do to resist.
Further back there was wheel-to-wheel action between Hamilton and Perez with the Mexican taking fourth into turn 14 with slight contact between the pair, the two Ferraris lurking close behind. Hamilton successfully counter-attacked a few corners later, and that gave Sainz the chance to give past as well through Eau Rouge with Leclerc working the same trick into Les Combes. Compounding his misery, then Perez ran off then ran off into the gravel dropping him to the back by the time he got back on track. Clearly suffering with damage to his sidepod from his contact with Hamilton, Perez retired the Red Bull shortly afterward while Hamilton was given a five second penalty for Hamilton for causing the collision.
Verstappen's lead over Piastri was more than five seconds by lap 10 as he claimed eight points for victory, with Gasly third and being attacked by Hamilton despite the Mercedes driver facing a post-race drop to seventh that would be to the advantage of Sainz, Leclerc and Norris. Russell picked up the final championship point, leaving Ricciardo just missing out in ninth ahead of Ocon. The Aussie's team mate Yuki Tsunoda was the final man on track in 18th.
It might have been late in starting, but this had been a fast moving, action-packed sprint race more than living up to its name and a fine curtain raiser for tomorrow's full Belgian Grand Prix. Whatever the weather proves to be on Sunday afternoon.
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