2023 Belgian Grand Prix | 7 talking points

1. Verstappen shows his hand at Spa – eventually

A five-place grid penalty for using too many gearbox parts was a hitch, but nothing more. Verstappen qualified on pole by 0.8sec and after winning the sprint race on Saturday, lined up sixth for the grand prix itself. At a circuit where overtaking is never a problem, especially with the DRS effect on Kemmel straight, the Red Bull ace took a sensibly composed approach to how he raced. He was up to fourth on the opening lap, but picked his moment before sweeping past first Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, waiting until laps four and nine respectively. Now there was just team-mate Sergio Perez ahead of him.

‘Checo’ pitted first on lap 13, Verstappen came in a lap later and emerged a couple of seconds off the lead. By lap 17 he had closed that gap down, drove around Perez on Kemmel long before the braking point for Les Combes and was gone. His winning margin of 22.305sec was a little humiliating for Perez, but the Mexican had hardly driven badly given that he was 10sec up the road from Charles Leclerc in third. Verstappen is now a gaping 125 points ahead of his team-mate as F1 heads into its annual summer break. When it returns for the Dutch GP at the end of August, Verstappen has the prospect of equalling yet another record in front of his rabid faithful: nine consecutive wins, achieved only by Alberto Ascari across 1952 and ’53, and Sebastian Vettel in 2013.

2. Spiky conversations on the radio

Verstappen remains a divisive figure because of his bullish attitude in and out of the cockpit. Even when he’s obliterating F1 he can’t help stoking some ire within his team. A number of spiky exchanges on the radio at Spa with engineer Gianpiero Lambiase sparked some humour but also exasperation in good measure. Petulance in qualifying over the execution of strategy to progress to the next stage seemed unnecessary, but Lambiase firmly pushed back and just about kept his patience. Verstappen sort of apologised later (but didn’t really).

There was more in the race, as Lambiase warned Verstappen to “use his head” on tyres and later rebuked him for his treatment of his third set after the final stops. Verstappen made an arrogant comment about having so much of a gap he could come in for “pitstop practice”, but Lambiase quickly shut that conversation down. Perhaps the spiky relationship is just what driver and team needs, to stop complacency creeping in. Whatever, it seems strange for such antagonism to exist when everything is going so amazingly well.

3. Positives for Leclerc and Hamilton at Spa

As usual this season, the race behind the Red Bulls was actually decent and much less easy to predict. This time Ferrari bounced back from recent disappointments as Leclerc proved best of the rest in third. He could do nothing about Perez ahead of him, but drove well to hold off Lewis Hamilton in fourth. Still, this was not a bad day for Hamilton who once again outperformed team-mate George Russell – and crucially held off Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin. Hamilton heads into the summer break just one point behind his old nemesis in their battle for third in the standings, which could become a diverting talking point as the season rolls into autumn.

4. Sainz and Piastri clash at La Source

In comparison to Leclerc, Carlos Sainz Jr remained in the doldrums in the other Ferrari. Contact with Oscar Piastri at La Source on lap one spelt early baths for both. Sainz cut across the McLaren’s nose and left the rookie Australian aiming for an ever-shrinking gap at the walled apex. Sainz with his experience should have given more room because the other car couldn’t just disappear. A frustrating day for both.

5. Decent recoveries from Russell and Norris

George Russell finished sixth for Mercedes, which wasn’t bad in light of the three places he lost at the start. But he’s been outscored and outperformed by Hamilton for much of this season, which is a trend that might pique him a little over the summer break. As for Lando Norris, his run of consecutive podiums ended in underwhelming fashion. A poor strategy call to fit the hard tyre at the first pitstop left him vulnerable, so to recover to finish seventh was decent. Still, McLaren might have hoped for more after the transformative upgrades that made the team so competitive at Silverstone and the Hungaroring. Not everything in F1 is predictable at the moment.

6. Ocon scores for troubled Alpine

Esteban Ocon put a few points on the board for Alpine in eighth, ahead of Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and Yuki Tsunoda’s Alpha Tauri – but these are strange times for the Anglo-French team which really should be more of a contender than it is. More management ructions played out as team principal Otmar Szafnauer became the latest key figure to head for the exit. But more alarming should be the departures of long-time engineers Pat Fry (to Williams) and Alan Permane. Both are veterans of the 1990s Benetton days, and Permane’s departure brings a sad end to an unbroken spell at the team that dates back to 1989. This was a one-team-for-life man – or so we thought. That exit is surely a sign of how badly things are broken at Team Enstone right now.

7. F1 breathes a sigh of relief

There was a sprinkling of rain mid-race, but not enough to justify a switch to intermediate tyres as the Belgian GP passed off without major incident and accident. That was a massive relief for everyone, on a weekend when bad weather on Friday and Saturday raised concerns over safety at the much-loved venue. The recent death of Dilano van ’t Hoff in a Formula Regional accident hung gloomily over the Belgian GP and added to anxieties. A dry race was just what everyone needed in such circumstances and there was a collective exhale as F1 rolled out of Spa once again fully intact. The summer break will be much welcome for everyone – except probably for Verstappen.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images