F1
Max Verstappen pushed through from 11th on the grid after a penalty to extend his points advantage, while Sergio Pérez played his part in adding to Oracle Red Bull Racing's championship tally.
1. Belgium in exactly 75 words*
Oracle Red Bull Racing’s reigning world champion Max Verstappen extended his Formula One series lead to 78 points after finishing fourth in the Belgian Grand Prix. The Dutchman overcame a 10-place grid penalty to finish 9.226s behind race-winner George Russell of Mercedes, who was later disqualified for an 1.5kg underweight car, promoting his team-mate Lewis Hamilton to the top step of the podium. Team-mate Sergio Pérez finished in seventh place after starting on the front row of the grid and set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap to score an extra championship point.
* 2024 is the 75th season of the F1 world championship
2. The Belgian GP in six pics
3. Small but significant gain for Verstappen
After finishing fifth in Hungary a week earlier, Verstappen had his work cut out in Belgium, when new engine components introduced to his RB20 for the weekend came with the punishment of a 10-place grid penalty, but with confidence that he'd overcome setbacks at Spa in the past.
The Dutchman qualified fastest in Belgium in 2022 and 2023, and took grid penalties both years, winning from 14th two years ago and sixth last season. Starting 11th after qualifying fastest again, he was up to eighth within 10 laps and, crucially, was ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris, his closest rival in the Drivers' Standings.
The pair pushed forward late to finish right in the wheeltracks of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with Verstappen denying Norris by half a second after 44 laps and taking two more points than the British driver into the mid-season break.
Pérez’s early-season form had tapered of late, but the Mexican qualified third in tricky, wet weather for his best Saturday showing since round five in China – a welcome return to form that was rewarded with a front-row start when Verstappen was pushed back to the sixth row.
Pérez was passed by a rapid Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) from third on the grid at the first corner and with a gap behind him in the latter stages, pitted to set a fastest race lap of 1m 44.701s on the last lap of the race to add another point to the team’s Constructors' Championship tally, with the advantage over McLaren sitting at 42 points after 14 of 24 rounds.
4. Ricciardo into the points
Visa CashApp RB stayed in sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship after a fighting drive by Daniel Ricciardo saw his 11th place finish turned into 10th and a points-scoring day after Russell's DQ.
Ricciardo started from 13th and an aggressive strategy to use the soft tyre for the start of the race – he was the only driver to do so – looked to have backfired when he lost a place on the first lap, but he fought back to spend eight laps in 10th, before losing out late on.
Belgium was a race of short-term pain for hopefully longer-term gains for team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who started from the back of the grid after engine component changes came with a 20-place penalty. From there, the Japanese driver advanced as far as 17th.
5. The number you need to know
3: Max Verstappen's margin over the best of the rest in qualifying – 0.595s – was the third year in a row he’s been over half a second faster than anyone else on Saturday at Spa.
6. The word from the paddock
The race itself was not too bad, but the cars were all very similar in pace, so from P11, we did a good job. Looking at the championship, it was a positive day for me.
7. The stats that matter
Drivers' Championship top 5
Constructors' Championship top 5
8. Away from the track
The (Un)Serious Race Series has been a hit ever since it kicked-off last season, where Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez took on Visa Cash App RB teammates Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo in a series of challenges on land, sea, beaches and just about everywhere else around the world where they could race in some sort of non-F1 machinery.
One of those places in the 'everywhere else' category? How about the Nevada desert ahead of last year’s inaugural visit by Formula One to Las Vegas, where hovercrafts were the vehicle of choice?
It looked like a scene from a sci-fi movie, with the cracked dirt of the Nevada wasteland, a pair of two-seater Renegade hovercrafts decked out in team livery and even a crashed UFO lodged in the dry lake bed. There were some typically questionable tactics and plenty of laughter – watch the video below to discover who won and who went home with the most dust.
9. Where next and what do I need to know?
Round 15 (Netherlands), August 23-25
Circuit name/location: Circuit Zandvoort, Zandvoort
Length/laps: 4.259km, 72 laps
Grands Prix held/debut: 33, 1952
Most successful driver: Jim Clark (four wins)
Most successful team: Ferrari (eight wins)
2023 race recap: 1st: Max Verstappen (Oracle Red Bull Racing), 2nd: Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), 3rd: Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
10. Inside the wide world of Red Bull Motorsports
While Oracle Red Bull Racing were revealing the world’s most advanced track car, the RB17, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, festival legend 'Mad' Mike Whiddett was lifting the lid on a hypercar of his own: the crazy MADMAC drifting McLaren P1.
Wrestling the car spectacularly through the wet and getting all four tyres smoking in the dry, the MADMAC thrilled the thousands of fans gathered at the world's biggest festival of motorsport.
A decade ago, the New Zealander unleashed drifting on an unsuspecting Goodwood crowd, making himself one of the festival's biggest stars overnight.
This year? Same Mad Mike, same star power.
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