Formula One: Belgian Grand Prix – live | Formula One

5/44 Sergio Perez is not making much of an impression, the suggestion being his battery is weakened. He’s in third.

4/44 Zhou Guanyu is back in the race. Hamilton, setting a fastest lap, flies away. The gap is only just over five seconds to Verstappen. Time to use all that open road.

Lewis Hamilton leads!

2/44 Verstappen overtakes Albon and is in eighth. Norris overtakes Sainz but immediately loses his spot. Verstappen is already on Norris’ tail. But which of the Red Bull or the McLaren has the pace?

Lights out at Spa, we are go!

Off they go on the formation lap. It’s a hot day in the Ardennes region after all that rain. The talk, as ever, is of soft and hard tyres.

Lots of winners this season – seven – it’s far from the procession we expected at the start of the campaign. Verstappen has never won from 11th on the grid.

Martin Brundle is on his pit walk. Mark Webber, former driver, has high hopes for his client, Oscar Piastri. Anze Kopitar, LA Kings hockey legend is there, too. McLaren seem confident. Merc’s Bono sets aside worries about water coming off the back of their cars on the parade lap a few minutes back. There’s cup of ice on Sergio Perez’s car. Why? We’re not told. Christian Horner “we’re going to do our darnedest” on a Verstappen charge. Perez? “Best thing he can do is overtake at the fifth turn and bugger off.” “Lando Norris says he is “excited”. And here comes the Belgian anthem. It sounds a bit like Lloyd Webber’s A Different Suitcase In A Different Hall.

From 2016, a short video to show why Spa is one of the quickest, most beloved racetracks of all.

Despite being 11th, the fear is that Max Verstappen’s Red Bull’s new engine will blast through the pack.

Lando Norris: “We are in a good spot but Red Bull are clearly the quickest. It will be tough. Max is going to come through pretty quickly and most likely [we will] be fighting him for the win, and I’m sure he’ll be a threat for us at some point.”

Last time out, there was a soap opera taking place among the McLaren team.

Driver Standings

• 1. Max Verstappen – 265 points

• 2. Lando Norris – 189 points

• 3. Charles Leclerc – 162 points

• 4. Carlos Sainz – 154 points

• 5. Oscar Piastri – 149 points

• 6. Lewis Hamilton – 125 points

• 7. Sergio Perez – 124 points

• 8. George Russell – 116 points

• 9. Fernando Alonso – 45 points

• 10. Lance Stroll – 24 points

• 11. Nico Hulkenberg – 22 points

• 12. Yuki Tsunoda – 22 points

• 13. Daniel Ricciardo – 11 points

• 14. Oliver Bearman – 6 points

• 15. Pierre Gasly – 6 points

• 16. Kevin Magnussen – 5 points

• 17. Alex Albon – 4 points

• 18. Esteban Ocon – 3 points

• 19. Zhou Guanyu – 0 points

• 20. Logan Sargeant – 0 points

• 21. Valtteri Bottas – 0 points

Giles Richards’ report on qualifying.

Preamble