SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Max Verstappen’s march in direction of a 3rd world championship continued on the Belgian Grand Prix along with his tenth win of the season, his eighth in a row and a 22.3-second victory margin over teammate Sergio Perez.

Verstappen, who began sixth on the grid Sunday due to a gearbox penalty, was as much as third by Lap 6 at Spa-Francorchamps, in second place by Lap 9 and took the lead on lap 17 of 44.

He’s now one in need of Sebastian Vettel’s consecutive victory document from 2013 and will draw stage with a win at his dwelling race on the Dutch Grand Prix in 4 weeks.

The one second through which the win regarded doubtful got here on Lap 21 when a short rain bathe resulted in Verstappen shedding the rear of his Pink Bull automotive within the daunting Eau Rouge nook. He caught the slide and the error barely made a dent in his lead.

“That is in all probability the worst nook to have a second,” Verstappen stated after the race. “It is difficult in these laps when it is raining a bit however not an excessive amount of.

“I had a little bit of a sideways second however fortunately nothing occurred.”

After that it was plain crusing, with the 25-year-old joking along with his engineer about making an additional tyre change merely to supply his mechanics some extra pit cease observe. Nevertheless, he misplaced out on the bonus level when Lewis Hamilton beat his time following a late pit cease.

Perez, who began behind Charles Leclerc on the entrance row of the grid, took the lead of the race on the primary lap however merely did not have the tempo to carry off Verstappen when his teammate appeared in his mirrors.

“Max got here by means of fairly fast,” Perez stated. “There’s nothing I may have carried out there.”

The hole between the 2 Pink Bull drivers on the high of the drivers’ championship now stands at 125 factors in Verstappen’s favour, with the Dutchman on the right track to win the title with a number of races remaining.

Leclerc completed third, securing Ferrari’s third podium of the season, forward of Hamilton in fourth and Fernando Alonso in fifth. George Russell took sixth for Mercedes.

After two podiums in a row on the previous two races, Lando Norris slipped to seventh. His McLaren regarded aggressive in Saturday’s dash race in moist situations, however within the dry the automotive’s lack of straight-line pace was uncovered.

Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri began fifth however was concerned in a collision with Carlos Sainz on the apex of the primary nook, which resulted in terminal injury to the McLaren and dropped Sainz down the order.

Esteban Ocon took eighth place for Alpine on a turbulent weekend for the French group, which introduced the departure of group principal Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane on Friday.

Lance Stroll was ninth for Aston Martin forward of one other spectacular efficiency by AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, who took his third level of the season in tenth place.