Max without rivals at Spa: 12 laps are enough for him to take the lead from the 14th place of the start and then make the void behind him. Red Bull celebrates the double with Perez 2nd, while Carlos saves the Ferrari honor. Yet another final mess cost Charles 5th place
Strong, very strong Max Verstappen. Irresistible. A sight to behold driving on the hardest and most complicated track in the world. A magical symphony, that of the Dutch Red Bull, the ninth of a season that Sunday after Sunday is consecrating him as one of the great talents in the history of Formula 1, on the way to the second consecutive World Championship. Verstappen started 14th after the penalty for changing the engine, but Super Max needed less than one to get into the points already (8th), before starting an exceptional comeback, which already on lap 8 after overtaking George Russell he saw him present himself in the podium area. Another 4, and also thanks to the simultaneous pit stop of Carlos Sainz, who with Ferrari had commanded the early stages of the race from pole position, here he bypasses his teammate Sergio Perez and takes the lead, the fastest comeback in the history of Formula 1.
sainza saves honor
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From that moment on, everything became easy for Verstappen, because even after a delayed pit stop, which saw him return to the track in second place just over 4 “from Sainz, the world champion only needed two laps to recover. fast laps the primacy of the race and fly away, making a void behind you. In the end, Verstappen will put 17 “8 between himself and Perez, with Sainz taking third place finishing at 26” 8. For Ferrari it was another very complicated day, and this time without the excuse of the low temperatures that the day before had sent the men of Maranello into crisis. Sainz tried to contain the damage, but in the end regardless of the type of compound mounted (soft at the beginning, then medium and finally hard) he never managed to find an acceptable pace, suffering in the final the return of Russell but succeeding however to resist a possible attack for the podium.
injury and insult
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As for Charles Leclerc, who started immediately behind Verstappen, for him it is another race to forget: immediately forced to make a very complicated comeback due to a tear-off (the film of the helmet visor) which at the beginning of the race slipped into the grip of the front right brake, forcing him to a pit stop as early as the 4th lap which forced him to recover from the bottom, in the final he is recalled to the pits to mount the soft tires and attempt the fastest lap. But the Monegasque not only has to regain the position after being overtaken by Fernando Alonso (who at the start of the race had touched with Lewis Hamilton at the braking point of Lecombe, with the Englishman then forced to retire), and in any case without taking the additional point , but then at the end of the race he was penalized by 5 ”for speeding in the pit lane, thus finishing 6th behind the Spaniard from Alpine. In addition to the damage, here is also the insult for a team that at the level of strategies continues to make heavy mistakes. Completing the top 10 are Esteban Ocon, Sebastian Vettel, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon.
Max nearly 100 points away
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In the general classification Leclerc thus slips even further, 98 points behind Verstappen (284 points), also author of the fastest lap, being overtaken in 2nd place by Perez, who with the 18 points forfeited finishing behind Max leads to 191, against Charles’s 186. In fourth position is Sainz who at an altitude of 171 surpasses Russell by 1 point. And on Sunday we race in Holland, in Zandvoort, Verstappen house. For the orange fans it will be an opportunity to celebrate again.
August 28, 2022 – 16:53
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