Belgian Grand Prix: Max Verstappen Improves From Behind To Clinch Eighth Successive Race Win

 

Max Verstappen improved from behind starting in P6 on the grid to be the quickest to cross chequered flag first for his eighth successive race win and F1's second longest streak in a season at the Spa-Francorchamps in the Belgian Grand Prix final on Sunday. 

The Dutch driver was the quickest at the all-out shootout Sprint race on Saturday and had claimed the pole position during the qualifying session but he picked up a penalty and was dropped to sixth while Charles Leclerc moved up to start in pole. 

Just as the Sprint, the weather was not all dry as it drizzled earlier into the race and drivers pitted for soft tyres and later for medium. At this point, Verstappen improved to fourth behind Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton while Leclerc followed behind Sergio Perez in the lead. Earlier, the Red Bull driver, Perez in Turn 1, overtook the Ferrari as the contest for race got heated. 

As Verstappen gradually improved up the ranks on the track, he past Hamilton and Leclerc, and getting behind Perez who could not keep him at bay on Lap 17, he moved ahead down the straight to lead for the remainder of the laps. It was not the first time for the Dutch to improve from behind in Belgium, last year, in started in fourth and yet won the race on his superb car. 

Perez, in the end, finished second and Leclerc made podium finish in third whilst Hamilton was fourth. Unlike last weekend and Saturday's qualifiers, contenders like McLaren's Oscar Piastri could not cause a scare, and likewise, Alpine's Pierre Gasly who finished in 11th ahead of Alfa Romero's Romero's Valtteri Bottas.