Max Verstappen finishes fourth in the Belgian Grand Prix
Max Verstappen finished in fourth place on Sunday at the Belgian Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver finished behind Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, and Charles Leclerc at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
The race start was delayed by over an hour due to the wet track in Stavelot, and the first four laps were driven behind a safety car, followed by a rolling start.
Verstappen was coming off a mixed day of driving on Saturday. The reigning champion had won the sprint race but then finished fourth in qualifying, which proved to be costly as he struggled to pass Leclerc in his Ferrari.
It was the first drive for Verstappen since the departure of Christian Horner as the team principal. And the new team principle, Laurent Mekies, experienced his first Verstappen outburst related to the 27-year-old’s struggles with the car. “The clipping in the main straight is fucking so shit, it’s so bad,” he said in the 17th lap.
Verstappen, after a short burst at the start of the race in which it seemed he was going to catch Leclerc, was unable to get close to the Ferrari until the final few laps of the race.
Verstappen remains third in the season rankings with 185 points. Behind the two McLaren drivers, Piastri and Norris, who have 266 and 250 points, respectively.
The next race is the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday, August 3.
