Despite Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez lining up on the front row for the Belgian GP, all eyes are on Max Verstappen who starts 11th due to a ten-place grid penalty for exceeding the permitted number of engine components.
And it’s lights out and away we go!
Leclerc has a great start, maintaining first position, whilst Perez and Hamilton fought hard throughout the first corner. Hamilton steals P2 from Perez, with the Red Bull struggling to maintain pace.
Verstappen is up into 8th already from P11, moving past Albon, Ocon and Alonso in the first few laps.
Ricciardo is the only driver on softs, whilst Sainz and Zhou opt for hards, and the other drivers are on the medium compound.
Hamilton takes the lead from Leclerc on lap 3 on the run-up to turn 5, and with a helping hand from DRS, takes the new fastest lap of the race, a 1:49.109. He is out of DRS range from Leclerc behind him.
The top 5 reads: Hamilton, Leclerc, Perez, Piastri, and Russell.
Zhou, who started in P19 comes onto the radio claiming he’s lost power and is moving slowly on track, but manages to get the car going again without needing to pit. He lost around a minute of race time.
Ultimately, Zhou comes into the pits due to a hydraulic issue and is the first retiree of the race.
Hamilton and Perez are reporting issues, with the Mercedes driver claiming “something is moving down by my legs”, and the Red Bull driver making note of a battery issue.
Hulkenberg is the first driver to come into the pits, swapping his mediums for the hard compound tyres.
Ricciardo, Albon, and Sargeant come into the pit on lap 9, all changing for medium tyres, possibly attempting an undercut, whilst Hamilton in P1 claims that his tyres are starting to degrade.
Most drivers will have been expecting a safety car by lap 10, but the lack of issues on track means the teams are reconsidering their tyre strategy. Russell and Verstappen pit on lap 11 for hards, coming out 13th and 14th, with Russell quickly overtaking Tsunoda.
Hamilton, Perez, and Piastri pit on the next lap, starting a wave of pit stops from the teams. This makes Sainz the new race leader, with Norris behind him. The pair are still yet to pit.
Verstappen takes the fastest lap on lap 13 in P9, making up time whilst his teammate is overtaken by Piastri, and moves down into P7. Piastri quickly steals this off him on the next lap.
Norris makes his first stop on lap 16, with a decent stop of 2.3 seconds. He rejoins the track in 8th, whilst RB finally pit Tsunoda who comes out last, in P19.
Sainz causes a short-lived yellow flag after he dips into Stavelot, but there doesn’t appear to be damage to the car, and he rejoins, maintaining his place as the race leader.
Verstappen pops on the radio, behind Russell he says, “I think we should try to get them, mate. What do you think?”, he’s told to “Have a go!” But the drivers seem to be stuck in a bit of a DRS train.
Russell finally overtakes Perez on lap 21 and moves up into P4. It looks likely that Red Bull will want Verstappen to overtake his teammate ASAP. Perez is called into the pits, meaning that Verstappen takes his spot.
Sister team RB pit Ricciardo for a second time for hards, he comes out behind teammate Tsunoda but quickly overtakes him. Albon follows Ricciardo 2 laps later, ditching his mediums for a set of hards.
We’re at the midway point at lap 22. The top ten reads: Hamilton, Leclerc, Piastri, Russell, Verstappen, Norris, Sainz, Perez, Albon, and Ocon.
Norris has DRS on Verstappen, whilst Hamilton has a lead out front of around 2.5 seconds. After Leclerc comes in to pit, he comes out in P7, and Hamilton now has a gap of just under 5 seconds ahead of Piastri.
Mercedes react to Leclerc’s pitstop and call Hamilton in, giving Piastri the lead, who then takes the fastest lap of the race. Hamilton comes out in P6. At this point, Russell asks the team to think about a one-stop.
Verstappen changes to fresh mediums, Sainz comes out behind him in 8th on hards, and Norris sandwiches himself between them after his stop, in P7.
Perez then plays the team game as he lets Verstappen through; the champion leader moves up into P5. Perez will hopefully hold Norris off for his teammate.
Piastri has a long pitstop of 4.4 seconds after hitting the front jack with speed.
Norris takes the fastest lap of the race as he chases down Verstappen for P5. Verstappen then takes to the radio to confirm if he can push on his tyres as he sees the McLaren driver in his mirror. He frees up some space between himself and the McLaren.
On lap 35, Piastri tries to pass Leclerc but fails, whilst Hamilton is on the radio, asking how much quicker he needs to be to fend off Leclerc and Piastri and overtake his teammate.
A lap later, Piastri gets past the Ferrari, with a gap of five seconds to Hamilton.
Bottas pits from P10, encouraging a DRS battle between Stroll, Ricciardo, and Ocon for his spot. Ricciardo moves into the points and takes P10 on fresher tyres.
Sainz snatches P7 from Perez, who has 17-lap-old tyres and appears to be struggling with his speed.
Lap 40 and Hamilton is in DRS of Russell who is leading the race whilst Piastri makes up the final podium place. The Mercedes drivers are told to “make sure you give each other plenty of space.”
Piastri is just over 2 seconds behind the drivers, gaining some time as they battle, but still, Russell maintains the lead.
Perez has a free pit stop ahead of Alonso and moves onto the softs in an attempt to steal the fastest lap of the race.
Final lap of the race and Hamilton still can’t get past his teammate into P1, with Russell getting great exits out of turn 1. With Russell leading it’s a Mercedes 1-2, and Piastri finishes less than a second behind them. The Brit did 33 laps on his set of hard tyres in a tyre management masterclass.
The final top five are Russell, Hamilton, Piastri, Leclerc and Verstappen. Norris, Sainz, Perez, Alonso and Ocon completed the points scorers.
