Winners

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen enjoyed the best weekend of his F1 career to date, sh𒁏owing levels of invincibility.

Whether he started from 14th, 20th or the pit lane, everyone reckoned Verstappen was going to win with ease, and he 🥃did.

His qualifying lap was scintil𝓡lating, defeati⛎ng his nearest challenger - Carlos Sainz - by over 0.7s.

On race day, within just⛎ eight laps, Verstappen was in⛎to fourth and the win was therefore a near-certainty.

Verstappen is in the form of his life. 

Of course🌊, he has the quickest car but great champ𝓡ions before him had the same.

Like in the days of Sch𝓰umacher in the early 2000s, his rivals were just resigned to the fact that he was going to win - the same is the case with Verstappen

Esteban Ocon and Alpine

Alpine moved 20 points clear of McLaren in the constructors’ champi🉐onship with a 1🐠6-point points haul at Spa.

Fernando Alonso finished fifth, while Esteban Ocon rec༒overed from 16th on the grid to finish seventh.

The Frenchman out-qualified his teammate (without a tow) but 💎dropped to the back of the grid due to engine penalties.

💎No doubt, Ocon was the quicker of the two Alpines t𒁏his weekend and his recovery was exemplary.

Good timing co♐nsidering many are questioning whether Alpine will cope without Alonso in 2023.

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel is showing no signs of sl🍷owing down with another impressive race day performance for Aston Marti൩n.

Even though the four-time champion announced his retirement from F1 ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, th෴e German has been performing spectacularly this season.

He put a brave mov🎶e on his teammate on the opening lap b⛦efore pushing the Alpine of Alonso hard during the middle of the race.

Anot🃏her fine drive and we✤ll-deserved haul of points for Vettel at Spa.

Alex Albon

Alex Albon continues to flourish sincꦚ𝐆e taking over from George Russell at the start of 2021.

The low downforce track characteri𒆙stics of Spa played into Wil꧑liams’ hands but Albon made the most of it.

While Albon qualified inside the top 1🌱0 on merit, it clearly didn’t have the pace to remain there in the race.

Albon hung onto 10th, benefitting from Wil꧒liams’ straight-line speed advantage to finish in the points for just the third time this year.

Losers

Ferrari

It was another bad day for Feജrrari and this time it wasn’t just down to strategy.

Ferrari simply didn’t have the 🐷pace t൲o compete with Red Bull all weekend.

Ev🐠en though Sainz💟 started on pole (inherited thanks to Verstappen’s penalties), he lost the lead within 18 laps.

The Spaniard was even put under pressure by George Russ🍸ell in the latter stages, highlighting just how much Ferrari were struggling.

Charles Leclerc’s race 🧸w𝔉asn’t straightforward after being forced to stop under the Safety Car after a tear-off from Verstappen’s helmet got stuck in his front brake duct.

Leclerc then los𝕴t out on fiꦿfth-place following his failed attempt at the fastest lap for speeding in the pit lane.

Another disastrous day.

Lewis Hamilton

A rare misjudgement from Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap at Spa-Francorchamp✅s forced him into an🌞 early retirement.

Hamilton collided with former McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso at L🦩es Combes, with the contact sending his Mercedes W13 airborne.

Given that Russell nearlᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚy finished on the podium, there’s no doubt that Hamilton would have had a great chance of doing so had he made it through Lap 1 unschathed.&nbꦜsp;

McLaren

McLaren endured ♏an awf⭕ul weekend at Spa with both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo finishing outside of the points.

Norris’ engine penalties put him to the back of the grid, while on the other side of🌊 the garage, despite his good gri🌳d position, Ricciardo struggled for pace as he dropped behind Albon in the early phase of the race.

Ricciardo’s inability to re-pass Albon combined with a poor strategy from McLaren cost him a sho🙈t🌄 at the points.

With Alpine scoring points regularly now, it’s hard to see McLaren finishing fo🎃urth in the constructors’ chamཧpionship this year.

Alfa Romeo & Haas (again)

Once ✨again, Alᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚfa Romeo and Haas complete our winners and losers.

Think back to the early part of the season, Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas finished fifth and sixth respectively in the season-opening Bahrain Grand P♕rix.

Haas had the slowest car on race day, with Magnussen and Schumacher f✤inishing ahead of only Nicholas Latifi.

For Alfa Romeo, Bottas was caught out 🌜by a spinning Latifi, while Zhou Guanyu fouꦆght hard but couldn’t make much progress as he finished 13th.