Even starting 15th on the grid, Max Verstappen won the Belgian GP on Sunday. With his second place, Sergio Perez offers a double to Red Bull. Charles Leclerc finishes 5th. Lewis Hamilton retired on the first lap.

At the wheel of his Red Bull, the reigning World Champion has once again demonstrated that the inverted grids do not even scare him. Winner at the end of July in Hungary after starting from 10th place on the grid, Max Verstappen did it again a month later on the Spa-Francorchamps track. And so far, only the New Zealander Bruce McLaren had achieved such a performance, during the 1959-60 season, winning two consecutive races starting from the middle of the grid, at the wheel of his Cooper Car.

Fourteenthon the starting grid due to multiple penalties, the Dutchman made an excellent start on his soft tires and had no trouble getting rid of each of his competitors, until he overtook poleman Carlos Sainzwhen he he went through the pits for the first time on the 12th lap. The Spaniard then took control when "Mad Max" also stopped to change his tyres, three laps later, but he could only delude himself in the face of the frantic pace of the Dutchman, again first on the 18th lap. . Thegap widened in the lead and the Red Bull driver rode alone to the checkered flag to glean 26 more points in the title chase thanks to the fastest lap bonus point.

Leclercdisappoints, Hamilton gives up
The Dutchman's main rival in the Championship, Charles Leclerc has never found the right pace. By starting 15th on the grid, the Monegasque had a lot of trouble getting his Ferrari up the hierarchy, in particular because of a first forced stop for a brake problem. He thought he could save the day by finishing in the Top 5, but a 5 second penalty for speedingin the pits finally relegated him to 6th place behind Fernando Alonso. Charles Leclerc sees the Mexican Sergio Perez pass him in the drivers' classification thanks to his second place.

The big loserof this Grand Prix of Belgium is Lewis Hamilton who was harpooned at the level of the right rear tire by the Alpine of Fernando Alonso from the first lap in the series of turns of Combes. At fault on the action, the seven-time world champion had to give up due to too much damage to his Mercedes and attend the very good race of the Spanish veteran, concluded in 5th place.

On the French side, Esteban Ocon took advantage of an improving Alpine to achieve the best performance by completing the 44 laps of this Grand Prix in 7th place, less than a second behind Charles Leclerc. The Ébroïcien had yet started from 17th place on the grid. Starting from the pits at the last moment, Pierre Gasly had the merit of bringing his Alpha Tauri to 9th position, just ahead of Alex Albon (10th), who held up well at the wheel of his Williams.