Belgian F1 Grand Prix: Max Verstappen wins sprint race ahead of Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri has extended his lead at the top of the F1 standings but had to settle for second behind Max Verstappen in the Belgium sprint race.

In a year where every single point counts, Oscar Piastri adopted a pragmatic approach to his world title quest as he secured a second-placed finish in the Belgian Grand Prix sprint race behind Red Bull’s reigning world champion Max Verstappen.

Careful not to put a foot wrong after the drama of Silverstone, polesitter Piastri settled for the runner-up finish behind Verstappen in a result which extended his world title lead to nine points ahead of teammate Lando Norris who finished in third.

It was a risk-free run from the sensible Australian, knowing it was better to pocket seven points than push the limits and risk not taking home any rewards.

Oscar Piastri during sprint qualifying. Picture: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

“I tried my best to snake my way through the straights and not give too much of a tow (off the start) but I just did not have enough straight line speed and then obviously did not have enough straight line speed for the next 15 laps either,” Piastri said.

“It is still a good result, still got points. This is only the sprint, the main points are tomorrow. Pretty happy with it but just a bit frustrated that we couldn’t get past.

“The weather is looking pretty bad for tomorrow … but I don’t really want to repeat the sprint we’ve just had.

“We will have a look and see what we can do. But there are a lot of things to look into for tomorrow.”

Verstappen’s race win capped a remarkable turnaround for the Red Bull outfit, after they sacked team principal Christian Horner in the break after Silverstone.

Proving he is the ultimate racer, Verstappen cast aside all the team distractions to pilot his Red Bull to a 12th sprint victory in his F1 career and now sits 68 points behind Piastri in the world title battle.

Piastri had started on pole position for the 15-lap Saturday race after smashing the lap record during qualifying by a remarkable seven tenths of a second, four tenths clear of Verstappen.

But the one-lap speed meant little at the race start as Verstappen’s flatline speed advantage proved decisive, as the Red Bull champ used the slip stream down the back straight to execute an overtake heading into turn five.

Mario Isola, Director of Pirelli F1 presents Sprint Pole qualifier Oscar Piastri with his Pirelli Sprint Pole award. Picture: Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images

“It worked out really well, that is the only real opportunity you’re going to get against them around here,” Verstappen said.

“I knew it would be tough to keep them behind, it was cat and mouse.

“I couldn’t afford any mistakes.

“For us a great result to keep them behind … it’s a sprint win but still it counts.”

Piastri had feared that exact sequence would play out prior to the race, telling Sky Sports he was wary of Verstappen’s speed advantage off the start.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc did the exact same manoeuvre on Norris to take third place on the opening lap, but the Briton managed to use DRS three laps later to reclaim third place.

Even with the benefit of DRS, Piastri could never challenge Verstappen’s Red Bull and pull alongside or make a dive with late braking.

The big question facing McLaren now is how can they compete with Verstappen’s superior straight line speed in the race on Sunday - where wet weather is predicted.

“The Red Bull is just too quick in the straight for us to catch up,” Norris said.

“I’m not too fussed about sprint races, main races I prefer to win.

“I am still confident we can have a good result later.”

Ferrari’s Leclerc finished fourth in the sprint, ahead of Esteban Ocon of Haas, with Carlos Sainz (Williams), Oliver Bearman (Haas) and Izack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) completing the top eight to collect points.

Originally published as Belgian F1 Grand Prix: Max Verstappen wins sprint race ahead of Oscar Piastri