After a very long summer break, the Formula 1 family arrived at one of the most loved circuits on the calendar, mighty Spa-Francorchamps, which has done many improvements in several corners to improve racing and driver safety.

There was much news at Spa, the biggest one was Audi announcing it is entering F1 from 2026 onwards, the other one, Alfa Romeo announcing the end of their partnership with Sauber at the end of 2023.

FRIDAY

Weather was complicated as rain was forecasted for the day, although it was dry at the beginning of FP1.

Mercedes was running a special AMG logo and retro number on the sidepods to celebrate 55 years of AMG this weekend. And Liam Lawson was in Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri as part of the young driver’s program.

The FIA informed many drivers would be getting PU and RNC-related grid penalties: Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas, and Mick Schumacher, at the start of FP1.

The first red flag of the weekend came after Kevin Magnussen’s Haas VF22 stopped on track after La Source. Haas mechanics believed the stop was down to a High Voltage System issue.

After almost ten minutes, the track was cleared, and the session restarted. Then, with just four minutes to go, rain started falling and most drivers came back into the pits, and just like that, FP1 was over. In the end, it was Ferrari Carlos Sainz’s the fastest one, followed by teammate Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, George Russell, and Lance Stroll, the top five.

For Practice 2, the track was a bit more damped than expected, albeit a dry line was visible on the wet parts between turns 5 through 7. The temperature was 19°C ambient and cloudy skies.

Most of the practice had been running rather smoothly, but as had happened in FP1, it began to rain in the end of the session, practically ending it. Max Verstappen was the fastest, ahead of Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Lance Stroll, and Carlos Sainz.

SATURDAY

FP3

It was dry but cloudy, and a bit chilly. Most drivers came out almost immediately to do not only their respective installation laps but long runs as well. After 20 minutes only Magnussen and both Ferrari drivers had not set up a timed lap, and at the time, it was both Alfa Romeo at the top of the chart with Zhou Guanyu the fastest, a tenth ahead of Bottas.

As free practices go, this was a rather exciting one with many drivers setting fast laps and moving the charts around. There is no denying that these drivers give their all as Charles Leclerc get it wrong, taking his F1-75 off-track, and even though he was able to get back on track a red flag was deployed for a bit of gravel clean up.

QUALIFYING

It was an interesting situation as seven (yes, seven!) drivers had grid penalties for Sunday’s Grand Prix for exceeding component allowances. Hence the importance of a kind of second qualifying session as those with grid penalties tried to be as high on the grid as possible.

Q1

The start of qualifying was delayed as repairs were made to the track after a crash in one of the support series. It ended up starting 25 minutes past the hour.

Exciting Q1, with Alex Albon placing his Williams 6th and Mick Schumacher going through to the next round, albeit by the skin of his teeth, just 0.002 of a second from Sebastian Vettel in 16th. Out were Vettel, Latifi, Magnussen, Tsunoda, and Bottas.

Q2

Early on, it was Leclerc who went quickest of all with a blistering 1:44.551, from Verstappen and Perez. On the other end, Ricciardo, Gasly, Zhou, Stroll, and Mick Schumacher did not go through to the final stage of qualifying.

Q3

Max Verstappen dominated the first round in Q3, setting the fastest lap of the weekend (1:43.665) so far. Then came Sainz, Perez, and Leclerc. And contrary to what everyone supposed, the ones up front did not move in the final dash. In the end, it was Verstappen the fastest qualifier, ahead of Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Alex Albon, and Lando Norris.

SUNDAY

It was a beautiful day at Spa-Francorchamps, much warmer and sunnier than the days before, which benefited a few teams more than others as warming the tires would be easier than during previous practices.

Just before the race, it was confirmed that the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps will be on the 2023 calendar following an agreement to extend the partnership with F1.

About the grid, it was the first time in F1 history that Spanish-speaking drivers started in the top three positions for a Grand Prix.

Just a few minutes before the start, it was informed that AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was also starting from the pitlane.

The Grand Prix started with Checo Perez losing several places before turn 1, then, at the end of the Kemmel straight and going into Les Combes, Lewis Hamilton trying to complete an overtake, harshly close the door on Fernando Alonso, and the two cars collided, sending his Mercedes high into the air, and having to retire as his W13 was damaged from the vast impact when coming down. Then, at turn 7, Valtteri Bottas spun out avoiding Nicholas Latifi, who was sideways in the middle of the track after a spin on his own, unluckily, Bottas’ Alfa Romeo got stuck in the gravel trap, ending his race, and bringing out the Safety Car on Lap 2. Not the way we wanted Valtteri to celebrate his 33rd birthday.

The restart saw Verstappen line up eighth while Sainz led Perez, meanwhile, at the end of lap 3, Leclerc informed the team of white smoke coming out of the right front, and the team pitted him for fresh new mediums on lap 4. The smoke was because of a tear-off stuck in his brake duct. It was later known that Verstappen ripped off a visor tear-off because of dust on the first lap.

The race continued, and what an impressive pace from Max Verstappen, who was leading the Grand Prix by lap 12, after starting fourteenth. His sheer driving overshadows other worthy performances like those from Alex Albon in the Williams and Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin.

One of those incredible moments came late in the race when Vettel was battling with Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon for seventh place, as they went three wide down the Kemmel Straight. And while he was able to eventually make his way past the AlphaTauri racer, he could not catch up with Ocon, much to his disappointment.

There were some other good battles all around the track, except up-front were the two Red Bulls were dominating the race practically without much competition from anyone. Then, on lap 42 of 44, Ferrari having seen the opportunity for the Fastest Lap bonus point decided to pit Leclerc for a new set of softs (Red) tires, but it was going to be tight with Alonso who was not far enough to guarantee a fifth place.

Leclerc came out of the pits practically side by side with Alonso, who quickly passed the Monegasque. The Ferrari driver then rescued the situation by repassing the Spaniard to cross the line P5 but missed Verstappen’s fastest lap by almost 1/2 a second.

Red Bull, and especially Max Verstappen was in a league of their own. Verstappen crossed the finish line 17 seconds ahead of his teammate, Sergio Perez, in second, and 26 seconds ahead of pole-sitter and third-place finisher Carlos Sainz to secure his ninth victory in 14 races this season.

When it rains, it pours. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had a 5-second penalty for speeding on the pitlane, dropping him to sixth, behind Alpine’s Fernando Alonso. So instead of gaining a point ended up losing two.

Verstappen is now 93 points over Perez in the Drivers’ Championship, with Charles Leclerc, now demoted to third in the championship a further five points down (-98). As for the Constructors’ Championship, Red Bull now leads Ferrari by 118 points.

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