Red Bull won the Belgian Grand Prix with a one, two-finish from Max Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez, breaking their previous record of 12 victories straight.
Verstappen cruised past the field to become just the second driver to win eight consecutive Formula 1 races after being demoted from the pole position he claimed and assessed a five-place grid penalty for exceeding his gearbox limit.
To win just his third podium of the year for Ferrari, pole-sitter Charles Leclerc, who was passed by Perez on the opening lap, held off the attack of Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.
Aston Martin’s recent slide was stopped by Fernando Alonso, who moved up to sixth place ahead of Lando Norris of McLaren and George Russell of Mercedes.
Esteban Ocon of Alpine passed Lance Stroll of Alonso’s Aston Martin team late to gain an eighth place, and Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri finished 10th to earn the final and most important point.
After the first lap’s collision between Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, which resulted in the retirement of both cars, Verstappen moved up two positions before calmly passing Hamilton, Leclerc, and Perez to take the lead after 17 of the 44 laps.
Verstappen almost crashed out at the high-speed Eau Rouge, but the only thing standing in his way was a brief raindrop that wasn’t strong enough to force any of the race onto intermediate tires.
Verstappen ignored advice from his race engineer to drive more cautiously as he opened up a 22-second advantage to Perez by the time they approached the turn. With calamity averted.