Every world championship in Formula 1 is won through the combined efforts of the many races held during a season, each one equal in the points it contributes to the final total.
But while all wins are worth 25 points, not every victory is the same. For almost every championship-worthy campaign, there is always one outstanding win that sticks out in the memory, defining the brilliance that eventual champion has shown in the cockpit over the many months of the season.
Max Verstappen will surely finish his 2022 season as world champion for the second successive year. But his otherworldly performance during the Belgian Grand Prix may well prove to be the iconic drive that second title will always be remembered by.
As Formula 1 returned to Spa-Francorchamps, a spate of power unit grid penalties throughout the field promised fans would be treated to an intriguing grand prix to restart the season. They were taken by Verstappen and his closest championship rival Charles Leclerc, plus Esteban Ocon, Lando Norris, Zhou Guanyu, Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda. They were all relegated to the rear, while Valtteri Bottas changed a smaller number of parts which enabled him to sit ahead of them on the grid.
Verstappen had been in a league of his own on Saturday, taking pole by six tenths of a second before handing it over to Carlos Sainz Jnr, the fastest of those unburdened by grid penalties for the weekend. Sergio Perez, who would start from the front row alongside the Ferrari, had no hesitation about giving away exactly what his tactics would be for the start of the race.
“I think certainly you don’t want to be leading into Eau Rouge if there’s a car behind, really close by,” he said after qualifying. “Hopefully we can make the most out of it, get a good start and get the lead from Carlos early on.”
With the Red Bull driver having made his plans for the start crystal clear, Ferrari decided the best form of defence was attack. When the tyre blankets were removed on the grid minutes from the formation lap, Sainz was the only driver starting from the top 10 to reveal red-marked soft tyres on his car – clearly intended to give him the best possible traction out of La Source for the 25-second full-throttle run to the braking zone of Les Combes.
When the lights went out, Perez had to immediately abandon all hopes of getting past Sainz and worry instead about being double-teamed by Fernando Alonso and Lewis…
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