By Matt Hardy
Max Verstappen inched closer to a third consecutive Formula 1 world championship yesterday with a dominant win at the Belgian Grand Prix, despite starting sixth.
The Dutchman claimed his eighth consecutive win and 10th in all this season after coming through the field and beating his teammate Sergio Perez to the top step of the podium – Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc claimed his third podium of the season.
The result puts Verstappen 125 points ahead of Perez in the Driver Standings going into the summer break.
The championship leader can go the remaining nine races on the calendar without a win and still claim a third world title.
Formula 1 is a Verstappen world
“[Winning from sixth] is a new spot, that’s for sure,” Verstappen said after the race. “I knew that we had a great car, it was just about surviving turn one. I could see that it was all getting tight, I have been in that position before so I wanted to stay out of that.
“From there onwards, I just got a little bit stuck but once that cleared I could do my own pace. It was really enjoyable.
“We all look at the tires and this track is hard on the tires so you don’t want to do any unnecessary things.
“It was tricky in the laps where it was raining because you could see it was raining but not how much.”
Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, ahead of former teammate Fernando Alonso while British duo George Russell and Lando Norris came home in sixth and seventh.
Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda completed the top 10.
Red Bull have 503 points in the 2023 Constructor Standings having won every race of the season thus far. Mercedes are best of the rest on 247 points with Aston Martin (196), Ferrari (191) and McLaren (103) making up the top five.
The Formula 1 season returns at the end of the month in the Netherlands.
