Verstappen leads Piastri, Gasly for Belgian GP Sprint

The Belgian F1 Sprint Race was a rain-impacted affair with the lap count reduced from 15 to 11 after a few formation laps behind the Safety Car for a rolling start procedure. Despite that, it did provide a fun and eventful race with Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri and Pierre Gasly on the podium.

As the cars started the race, half the field dove into he pits for Intermediate tires while the others stayed out for a single lap on the full wet weather tires to avoid chaos and double-stacking in the pit boxes with all the team personnel in harms way.

Max lost the lead to Oscar Piastri, who stopped before him but eventually passed the rookie Australian for the lead and when. Piastri had a great race and you could forgive him for chewing gum his inters too much because he was trying desperately to keep Verstappen, in a. Much quicker car, behind him.

Pierre Gasly gave Alpine a podium finish at a track that means a lot to him as the location he lost his friend and fellow driver Antoine Hubert. Alpine announced its major senior level management shakeup on Friday and this is a team that desperately needed the result.

It was also a potential sign that Ferrari might have decent pace in Belgium this weekend for the race with a 4th and 5th place finish for Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc respectively. For Sunday’s race, Leclerc will start from pole so Ferrari fans are crossing fingers for a good result.

A tougher Sprint race for Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton really looked good for a P2 or P3 result as his Merc was managing its Inters very well but a clash with Sergio Perez begat a 5s penalty for the 7-time champ and dropped him to 7th place.

Belgian Sprint Race Results: