Red Bull picked up points but no podium or win from the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa in the last F1 race before the summer break.
Max Verstappen initially finished 5th on the road after starting 11th due to an engine grid penalty, while Sergio Perez finished 8th despite starting on the front row, although he was able to set the fastest lap on the final lap of the race to get one bonus point.
Both drivers were then bumped up a place 2 hours after the race finished, with original race-winner George Russell seeing his Mercedes disqualified after a post-race inspection revealed the car failed the minimum weight rules.
But with both cars failing to finish on the podium, it meant Red Bull have now failed to win the last four races, which is Red Bull’s longest win drought since the 2020 season.
Verstappen finished one place ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, meaning that after the revised classification was published, the Dutch driver extended his lead in the Driver’s Championship. The Dutchman has 277 points after 14 races, with Norris in second 78 points behind and third place Charles Leclerc a further 22 points behind Norris.
Meanwhile, Perez had initially been jumped in the standings by Russell but the disqualification of the Mercedes driver would see the Mexican driver remain 7th. He now has 131 points, with the Red Bull driver now 144 points behind Verstappen. He is 19 points behind Lewis Hamilton, who has been promoted to race winner, and 15 points ahead of Russell.
In the Constructor’s Championship, Red Bull remain out in front with 408 points, but again saw their lead cut, with second place McLaren reducing the Milton Keynes based team’s advantage to 42 points.
A sunny race day would be the third Belgian Grand Prix in a row where Verstappen had set pole but would be using Spa to take a grid penalty for a new engine after exceeding his allocation.
Verstappen’s ten place grid penalty meant he would start from 11th, while Perez would start second after being promoted from third.
In the opening phase, Perez lost track position to Hamilton, who got past him off the line and maintained second at the end of the first lap, while Verstappen was able to avoid early trouble before making an early run past other cars to get up to 8th place.
This then saw things enter a holding pattern, with the top 4 teams closely matched on pace and little track position changes happening.
Verstappen was able to stop earlier than Norris and Carlos Sainz, allowing him to gain positions when the McLaren and Ferrari respectively made later pit stops.
Perez, meanwhile, was overtaken on track by Oscar Piastri after the first round of stops and when Verstappen gained on the Mexican, Perez was called in for an early second stop.
Verstappen had initially been trying to chase down Russell, but with the Mercedes pivoting to a surprise one-stop, the Dutchman’s race shifted to one with Norris, who had been in Verstappen’s DRS without passing since making his first stop.
This pattern continued when they stopped again, as an earlier stop again allowed Verstappen to maintain track position to Norris and despite the McLaren getting DRS, he couldn’t make a move to get through.
The same situation, however, afflicted Verstappen, who got up to Leclerc’s Ferrari and got DRS but couldn’t get enough of a speed advantage to take the place. This meant Leclerc lead home Verstappen by less than a second at the line, with Norris under a second behind, with Leclerc duly inheriting third and a podium when Russell was disqualified.
Meanwhile, Perez would lose a further track position to Sainz, and he finished 8th on track, with Red Bull making an extra pit-stop to allow him to set the fastest lap on the final lap. This would become 7th after Russell’s disqualification.