How Verstappen scored the best win of his F1 career and furthered Leclerc’s downfall

By:

Matt Kew

Aug 29, 2022, 8:10 AM

Nothing could deny Max Verstappen’s Spa surge as he charged to a ninth Formula 1 win of the season, while yet more bad luck and questionable calls mired Charles Leclerc. Here’s how the Red Bull driver dominated the Belgian Grand Prix

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Not only was Max Verstappen’s romp to the spoils of glory in the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend the very finest work of his Formula 1 career, but his weekend-long performance should surely rank somewhere among the all-time great displays. Of the 1071 world championship races now held, only 14 have been won by a driver starting further back than he did at Spa.

Adding to the case in favour, Verstappen’s mesmeric recovery came after he had absolutely dominated qualifying to top the order by six tenths, and despite needing to overcome a chunky grid penalty. Such was his command, despite having lined up down in 13th (after Pierre Gasly's late electrical system glitch caused a pitlane start), the defending champion was already contemplating the “good possibility” of seizing the victory on only lap eight of 44.

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Matt Kew

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Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.