Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Spa-Francorchamps, 2023

2023 Belgian Grand Prix sprint race result

2023 Belgian Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen has won the Belgian Grand Prix sprint race for Red Bull ahead of Oscar Piastri and Pierre Gasly.

PositionNumberDriverTeamCar
11Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda RBPTRB19
281Oscar PiastriMcLaren-MercedesMCL60
310Pierre GaslyAlpine-RenaultA523
455Carlos Sainz JnrFerrariSF-23
516Charles LeclercFerrariSF-23
64Lando NorrisMcLaren-MercedesMCL60
744Lewis HamiltonMercedesW14
863George RussellMercedesW14
931Esteban OconAlpine-RenaultA523
103Daniel RicciardoAlphaTauri-Honda RBPTAT04
1118Lance StrollAston Martin-MercedesAMR23
1223Alexander AlbonWilliams-MercedesFW45
1377Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo-FerrariC43
1420Kevin MagnussenHaas-FerrariVF-23
1524Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo-FerrariC43
162Logan SargeantWilliams-MercedesFW45
1727Nico HulkenbergHaas-FerrariVF-23
1822Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Honda RBPTAT04
1911Sergio PerezRed Bull-Honda RBPTRB19
2014Fernando AlonsoAston Martin-MercedesAMR23

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Keith Collantine
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25 comments on “2023 Belgian Grand Prix sprint race result”

  1. Max, as expected, retook the lead easily on the Kemmel straight as if he’d activated DRS, although the 5-second penalty for Lewis was BS.
    I don’t know how the stewards can realistically view such a racing incident as his fault.
    Nevertheless, Checo must’ve sustained some damage alongside losing grip, considering how easily he started losing positions shortly after.

    1. I’m guessing the damage caused the penalty. Probably followed by plenty of moaning from RedBull.

      If I’m honest it wasn’t a penalty at all. Hamilton was along side and the place was done. Good drivers know when the move is done and back out of it. Sadly Perez isn’t a good driver.

    2. Lewis’ signature move on a RedBull had eventually to be called out some day.

      1. True, that.

      2. Cause Checho drove into him? Maybe it would help if RBR drivers just dont drive into cars alongside of them.

        1. Classic understeer into a RB. It was not severe this time I agree. And in a sprint to be penalized is hardly harmful so all is well. Think it was more of a message given the repetitiveness.

        2. What sprint race did you see? When did Checo drive into Lewis? you can like / dislike any driver you want, but don’t tell lies, Checo did not drive into Hamilton, your hatred agenda is ridiculous. Even UK broadcasters admitted it was Lewis fault.
          Harsh Penalty and racing incident, that would be a realistic POV, but oh no, let’s put it on the driver not named Lewis Hamilton.

      3. Yes, if there’s anything that Sir is really good at, it is spearing the other guy’s car, ruining the other car’s race while avoiding self-damage, and make it look like a race incident.
        Anyway George has proved a good pupil, has done same to Checo several times.

    3. Watching the onboards, each driver sticks to their racing line, and – despite plenty of room – they just come together.

      They’re almost alongside at the apex, but Hamilton is at his slowest while Perez has already started accelerating. Perez pulls half a car ahead; each driver sticks to their own racing line; the lines intersect; they hit.

      I assume Hamilton thought at the apex “I’ll be in front soon: if I drift wide, Perez has to move out of my way”. While the stewards thought, at the point he moved into Perez he was half a car behind.

      So I understand the decision. I do think it was a soft one, though.

      1. Without Lewis’ understeer the lines would not have intersected though.

        1. I agree with you now I’ve seen the slow-mos on the live feed. On first viewing I thought Hamilton had steered left towards Perez on the (incorrect) assumptions they would be level and Perez would retreat. Now I realise Hamilton was fighting understeer and jerked his steering wheel left more or less automatically.

  2. Good work by Gasly to keep the others behind and secure 3rd. Not easy in those conditions with everyone pushing. Hopefully we can see him near the front more in the future

  3. Only wheel to wheel racing on track during wet got looked by stewards and ends up in a penalty

    1. Ikr, a BS call by the stewards.

      1. Haha the FIA don’t want racing! That’s far too dangerous! They want a precession and it has to be dry!

        1. It was quite a shocking performance by race control again. If they keep this up we’ll end up with indoor racing only in a few years time. I have no idea what we’ve been watching. Starting the sprint behind the Safety car was a new low.

          1. Jockey Ewing
            29th July 2023, 21:50

            Hm, recently this this indoor idea came to my mind as well :)

            Others: Let’s have car specs for rain, somehow disabling/reducing the diffuser performance, to reduce the spray, and fitting some much bigger, but quite simple wings to make up for that.

            If the tyre blankets are considered as wasting resources in this niche sport, meanwhile there is so much more money is being spent on various things, then what about the wet tyres, which are delivered to every races, and then I guess they are being scrapped as all of he other unused tyres. Meanwhile we have barely seen the blue full wet tyres in action in the recent quite many years.

          2. Jockey Ewing
            29th July 2023, 22:04

            Others have mentioned special engine modes for rain. I am not sure, maybe they already have such modes. At least in case of LMP3 I have seen some driver saying that they have such.

            Yes, it was so amazing to see those rainy races in the 1990s and 2000s. I would like to see some similar ones, although the water spray is worse by now I guess. I think the main problem is the spray. I would like to see an automated warning system, like an automated spotter to help in blind corners. Practically it would be a sound warning, providing information about the distance of a crashed, stopped or slow car, of yellow flags for eg. It could be created as a collective effort, maybe using speech synthesis, based on GPS data for example. In my fantasy practically it would operate as if the warning would come in the team radio channel. If it would have the same voice for all of the teams (or at least distinguishable), it would be obvious to the drivers that this voice used to report these kind of problems. Obviously not even this would be enough at fog-like spray, but it could make it a bit safer at tracks with many blind sections.

          3. Jockey Ewing
            29th July 2023, 22:24

            If someone does simracing, or is curious, there is an app called Crew Chief (https://thecrewchief.org/). It works in many sims. Practically it is providing an experience of having a spotter, or race engineer-like assistance in the radio based on data fetched from the various games supported. It warns you about flags, it informs you about temperatures, lockups, laptimes, gaps and many other things. It is very deeply configurable, and adds to the atmosphere of simracing.

            I have shown this, because I wanted to show how good an automated spotter could be. For me it is often strange that F1 or the teams do not have a bit better quality of spotter/warning system than what they actually have.

            Nowadays I have not used it, because now I play on poor hardware, so I try to have a bit more fps instead. Otherwise as a not so advanced player, by using it for a while, I have become much more aware and safe. It heleped me to build routines, to free up a bit of mental capacity, and to use that to improve my racing. And the nice thing is, even if I do not use it for now, the improvement and the nicer approach of having more awareness stayed with me.

  4. So a tiny contact is 5 seconds but Max can drive a car literally 30 meters off track and get nothing. The FIA aren’t even trying to hide it any more.

    They’ve officially lost the plot. Let’s run around for 5 laps on wet tyres for “safety” then create an extremely dangerous situation because it’s actually safe enough for inters. Absolutely stupid race control this week.

    1. at least better than 2021, when just gifting points for no race.

    2. I can’t recall Max being off track at any point during the Sprint, could you elaborate?

  5. Instead of watching who will win, it is more interesting to see how well the 2nd redbull struggles to slower cars every single race.

  6. That was the sprintiest Sprint Race ever, with the delay and safety car, just 11 laps.

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