Max Verstappen wins Belgian Grand Prix after F1 star started from 14th position

Max Verstappen climbed his way from the bottom half of the grid to win the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, holding off Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz Jr. and George Russell.

Both Verstappen and Perez were with Red Bull Racing. Sainz drove for Scuderia Ferrari and Russell with Mercedes. It’s the second straight year Verstappen took home the top spot at the Belgian Grand Prix.

“Amazing Sunday day guys, car was a rocket ship all weekend,” the Dutch-born racer told his team as he crossed the finish line, via Formula1.com.

He added after the race: “It was quite a hectic first lap to try to stay out of trouble… but once we settled in after the safety car, the car was really on rails. Once we were in the lead, it was all about managing everything and this whole weekend has been incredible.

“It’s been a weekend I couldn’t imagine before, but we want more of them so we’ll keep on working hard.”

Verstappen, who started the race in 14th position, remained in firm control of the points standings. The win at the Belgian Grand Prix marks his third consecutive victory going back to France in July. It’s his ninth win of the season.

Perez came into the race third in the points standings. His second-place finish marked his seventh podium of the season and since he finished ahead of Charles LeClerc he will likely top him in the points standings going into the next race.

F1 CEO STEFANO DOMENICALI VOWS ‘NO MORE RACING IN RUSSIA’

“I really hoped for more today it was a good opportunity but Max was on another planet today, he was flying, he was untouchable,” Perez said, via Sky Sports. “Especially the first stint was quite poor in terms of degradation but it is a strong result for the team.

“We managed to get a lot of points today which is important looking forward. It was a bit of chaos on lap one, and I had a really poor start and lost key positions but managed to get them back into Turn 5.”

Sainz was fifth in the points standings. After finishing third on Sunday, he now has seven podiums on the season. It was his first podium since he won in Britain in early July.

LeClerc finished in sixth place behind Fernando Alonso and Russell. He managed to put on the final lap and had Alonso pass him to fall out of the top five.

Alonso got into a heated situation with Lewis Hamilton early in the race.

The two were jostling for position when Hamilton pulled on the outside of Alonso in a turn. He ran up on him and went airborne. He was forced to retire from the race.

After a bit of a heated moment, Hamilton later admitted he was in the wrong.

The next race is set for next weekend in the Netherlands.