00:00Sainz on pole, Perez alongside him, it's lights out and away we go, Sainz reacts
00:05quickest, Perez comes across to cover off Fernando Alonso, who's almost on the
00:08grass, but he's ahead of Sergio Perez, Sainz goes into the first corner, then
00:12comes Alonso, Lewis Hamilton round the outside of George Russell, Perez has lost
00:16places, right at the start, as on the run down to Eau Rouge we go now, and you can
00:21see a brilliant start from Sebastian Vettel, who's already alongside Daniel
00:24Ricciardo, into Eau Rouge, Ricciardo just ahead of the Aston Martin, over Radion we
00:28go, and onto the Camel Street, where Carlos Sainz is a long way clear, behind him
00:32comes Fernando Alonso, and there's the two Aston Martin squabbling, and behind
00:36Fernando Alonso, it's his old teammate Lewis Hamilton, here comes Hamilton into
00:40the Lacombe chicane, and they make contact, Hamilton rises up into the air, he's made
00:45contact with Fernando Alonso, George Russell goes through, there's the Aston Martin
00:49of Lance Stroll, onto the gravel, and that was Alonso and Hamilton getting too close
00:53together, tangling, but they both managed to carry on.
00:56It looks to me as if Lewis comes in and pinches him a little bit.
01:01Yeah, that's not Fernando's fault, he was on the curb, under control, wasn't understeering
01:07across the road.
01:08What an idiot, closing the door from the outside, we had a mega start, but this guy only knows
01:15how to drive starting first.
01:17So, they've seen something they don't quite like on Charles Leclerc's Ferrari.
01:24There was a tear-off inside the front-right brake cooling, we removed it, everything should
01:31be okay now.
01:32There's a couple of car lengths between Ricciardo and Verstappen, that is getting overhauled quite
01:39substantially, into the bus stop chicane we go, Max Verstappen started 14th, is now up into
01:416th place.
01:42So, we saw what Max Verstappen did to Daniel Ricciardo on the last lap, here's Sebastian Vettel
01:49now on the outside, and Max Verstappen on the inside, and Vettel, you get the feeling it
01:54was using his years ago.
01:55was using his years of experience not to fight that one for too much longer.
02:00Up the climb to Radion we go, with the Alpine ahead of the Red Bull, and look how Max Verstappen,
02:06now we get to the DRS point, starts to close up.
02:08Eight and a half miles away, and the third half miles away, and the third half miles away,
02:12is now up into six place.
02:15So, we saw what Max Verstappen did to Daniel Ricciardo on the last lap, here's Sebastian Vettel
02:18now on the outside, and Max Verstappen on the inside, and Vettel, you get the feeling it was using
02:23starts to close up. Eight and a half miles an hour, extra pace,
02:26Fernando Alonso moves aside, lets Max Verstappen go through, because he knows
02:29there's no point fighting it, he just hasn't got the tools to do it.
02:33Verstappen's got to pass a car, at least one car, every lap.
02:36What, like that?
02:37Yeah, exactly like that.
02:38Max Verstappen just proving your point, as you were even delivering the line.
02:42He is now up into the podium places.
02:46Now, this is what Max is saying, we're losing time there, and now they're in for the undercut situation, aren't they?
02:52Ferrari puts on new tyres, and Red Bull, this is where Max needs to be pumping in his best stuff.
02:56As along the Camel Straight, Max Verstappen gets past his teammate Sergio Perez,
03:01and Carlos Sainz comes back out onto the track, our race leader behind Daniel Ricciardo, and ahead of Lance Stroll.
03:09Leclerc stopping earlier, of course, didn't he, with the safety car, with a cheap stop, not a good time to have to do it,
03:15but you lose less time when everybody else is being slow behind the safety car on lap four, if you remember.
03:22Verstappen was 22 seconds at the end of the last lap, ahead of Charles Leclerc.
03:27Crofty held a little bit there, but on he goes, you'll just hear him come by me now.
03:31Where is he going to join the track?
03:33But Thermal Dig will be the big key, and there's obviously Sainz come by now.
03:37Now has that Mercedes got any pace? Down the back straight, the Camel Straight, with DRS, to make a move here on Charles Leclerc.
03:45This is going to be really tight, going into the Lacombe chicane, because look, George Russell's gaining, he's gaining, he's gaining,
03:51and he's just ahead, under braking, George Russell puts his Mercedes ahead of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc,
03:58and up into fourth place.
04:00Guess what? The DRS has been powerful, guess what?
04:03I rather think Max Verstappen is about to retake the lead, and this time not because of any pit stop for the Ferrari,
04:08but because of the pace of the Red Bull.
04:11Here it comes, Max Verstappen into the Lacombe chicane, leads.
04:15The Belgian Grand Prix once more, and they rather like that, those that have dressed in orange.
04:21Camera angle there does not do justice to the climb from Eau Rouge up to the top of the hill at Radion,
04:27but it is a great way to see how Sergio Perez is closing in on Carlos Sainz,
04:32and Sainz, I think, knew long before Perez got alongside him.
04:36He wasn't going to be able to fight that for much longer.
04:38It's Verstappen 1, Perez 2, Red Bull out in front.
04:42Lovely work from Sebastian Vettel into Turn 1, allowed Pierre Gasly to go a little bit deeper,
04:50and then got him with the old switcheroo on the return.
04:54No good getting older if you don't get wiser, and yeah, very, very nice move there from Seb,
05:00but look at this.
05:01He's got two queuing up behind him here. There's three abreast as the Alfa Tauri of Gasly retakes the advantage over Sebastian Vettel,
05:08and the Alpine of Ocon goes round the outside and says,
05:12thank you very much indeed, I'll have that.
05:14That's the second time in this race Ocon's taken two cars in one corner, isn't it?
05:18Yeah. Vettel is going to go into the right-hander now and retake that position on Pierre Gasly going through Rivage.
05:27As in comes Charles Leclerc for Ferrari to put on a set of soft tyres to go for the fastest lap of the race.
05:34Alonso makes his way out of the first corner, and he's only a couple of car lengths behind Charles Leclerc,
05:41and he's got the momentum going down the hill, and now he's got a slipstream and DRS right behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.
05:49They've gone for the fastest lap gamble here.
05:52On the last lap, Fernando Alonso is going to make that a little bit tough by getting past Charles Leclerc
05:58and taking fifth place in this race.
06:01Charles Leclerc pulls out from behind the Alpine, does snatch back that fifth place from Fernando Alonso,
06:08so it's all well that ends well for Charles Leclerc.
06:11It's all well that ends well for Max Verstappen, who's sliding his way out of the final corner and taking the line,
06:18winning the Belgium Grand Prix for a second year in a row.
06:23It's a ninth victory in Formula One in 2022 for the reigning world champion Charles Leclerc, by the way, has been noted for speeding in the pit lane.
06:33He has been given a five second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
06:38He will finish the race sixth because of that pit stop behind Fernando Alonso.
06:42As champion, he's gone away for a rest in the summer.
06:46He's come back and he's looked better than ever.
06:48This was a class performance from Max Verstappen, who wins for the second year in a row, the Belgian Grand Prix.
