- Max Verstappen easily won the Belgian Grand Prix despite a grid penalty that forced him to start 14th.
- Red Bull was dominant all weekend and seemingly broadened the gap to the rest of the field.
Eight races are left in the Formula One season, and Max Verstappen's performance at the Belgian Grand Prix suggests they will be an extended victory lap for his second consecutive championship.
Verstappen dominated at Spa, winning by 18 seconds over teammate Sergio Perez and 27 seconds ahead of any other driver. This came despite Verstappen starting the race in 14th after taking a grid penalty for new engine parts.
Red Bull was so dominant all weekend that it felt like the only question was how long it would take Verstappen to overtake the 13 drivers ahead of him on the starting grid.
The answer? Not long.
Verstappen passed six drivers on the opening lap to move up to eighth. By Lap 8, he was already up to third despite two of those laps occurring behind a safety car. After Carlos Sainz pitted for new tires, Verstappen zipped past Perez and took the lead on Lap 12.
It took Verstappen 24 minutes and 10 competitive laps to move from 14th to P1.
The "porpoising" fix may have actually helped Red Bull
Even before F1's summer break, there was little doubt that Verstappen would win his second title and Red Bull would cruise to their first constructors' championship since 2013. However, when other teams were expected to narrow the gap with upgrades, Verstappen and Red Bull were more dominant than ever.
While Mercedes seemingly blamed their step backward on the weather and the tires, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner noted that the technical directive given by F1 officials to reduce porpoising might be hurting other teams rather than narrowing the gap, as some had predicted, even joking that he would "probably have to thank" Mercedes boss Toto Wolff for the changes.
"A lot was made, and a lot of expectation was put on that [technical directive], so perhaps it's hurt others more than it's hurt ourselves," Horner said. "We haven't really changed the way we operate the car."
Everybody could see this coming in practice and qualifying
Verstappen's closest rival entering the race was Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who fell behind Sergio Perez in the standings with his sixth-place finish in Belgium. After the race, he seemed ready to concede the title to Verstappen.
"I'm not focusing so much on the championship now," Leclerc said. "Red Bull were on another planet today. We need to know why we're so far away."
Verstappen was so much better than the rest of the field that he set the fastest lap on old tires, and Leclerc could not surpass it despite taking on new tires for the final lap.
"Max was quite simply in a league of his own," Horner said. "Not just [on Sunday], but all weekend. He's excelled here in the past, and [on Sunday] he's basically smashed it out the park with a lap on the mediums that still stood as the fastest lap despite Charles having a go at the end on a set of softs."
In the second practice session, Verstappen was nearly a second faster than any other driver, with Leclerc 0.9 seconds back. Verstappen trailed Perez in Fp3 but was more than 0.6 seconds quicker than anybody else and again nearly a second clear of Leclerc.
Verstappen was just as dominant in qualifying, besting Carlos Sainz by more than 0.6 seconds and Leclerc by nearly 0.9 seconds. That was despite not taking his final run, when he conceivably could have gone even faster.
While Red Bull has clearly adjusted to the new F1 cars better than other teams, Horner says Verstappen is even better thanks to his title run last year.
"You're witnessing a driver that is completely at one with the car and is in an absolute purple patch of his career," said Horner. "Max, since winning that championship last year, has taken another step. It's in many ways released him, and he's driving at an incredible level."