Red Bull's Max Verstappen was in a class all his own on Sunday at the Belgian GP - rocketing through the field from the 14th starting spot and finishing a full 17 seconds ahead of teammate, Sergio Perez.

"This was our biggest ever achievement to date. We have never won a race from as far back as P14 and to take a 1 - 2 with [Perez], along with fastest lap, is an outstanding achievement," said Red Bull's Christian Horner.

Verstappen took the lead decisively at Lap 18 of the 44 lap Grand Prix at Spa.

Pole sitter Carlos Sainz of Ferrari held off Mercedes' George Russell to take third.

Russell's teammate, Lewis Hamilton, had arguably his worst Grand Prix of 2022, making contact with BWT Alpine's Fernando Alonso on Lap 1. The damage was severe enough that the seven time World Champion had to retire his Silver Arrow after the incident - Hamilton's first DNF of the season.

"Looking back at the footage, Fernando was in my blind spot and I thought I left more room than I did, so it was my fault and I paid the price. I'm just sorry for the team, we had a chance of P3 and P4 today," said Hamilton, who started fourth on the grid, one position behind Alonso.

Alonso finished the day at P5, two positions behind his starting spot.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, finished fifth but was demoted to sixth by a penalty for speeding in the pit lane on the second last lap of the race. The late pit was designed to give Montaguese driver a shot at a point for fastest lap.

Leclerc was also hampered by an early pit stop caused by a visor tear-off.

Due to a power unit grid penalty, common at Spa this weekend, Leclerc started 15th but at one point made his way up to fifth.

"We started well, then on lap 3 we unfortunately had a tear-off in the brake duct that meant I had to pit when I was in P9. That set us back quite a bit. From that moment on, I knew that it was going to be a difficult race," said Leclerc.

"The feeling in the car was quite ok, but compared to our competitors we were lacking pace. They made a huge step leading up to this weekend and we have to work on closing the gap," added Leclerc, who dropped to third place in driver points on Sunday.

Esteban Ocon gave BWT Alpine double points for the day, finishing seventh.

Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel, AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Alex Albon rounded out the top 10.

*********************
RESULTS
*********************


Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Verstappen	Red Bull	44	1h 25:52.894
2	Perez		Red Bull	44	+ 0:17.841
3	Sainz		Ferrari		44	+ 0:26.886
4	Russell		Mercedes	44	+ 0:29.140
5	Alonso		Alpine		44	+ 1:13.256
6	Leclerc		Ferrari		44	+ 1:14.936
7	Ocon		Alpine		44	+ 1:15.640
8	Vettel		Aston Martin	44	+ 1:18.107
9	Gasly		AlphaTauri	44	+ 1:32.181
10	Albon		Williams	44	+ 1:41.900
11	Stroll		Aston Martin	44	+ 1:43.078
12	Norris		McLaren		44	+ 1:44.739
13	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	44	+ 1:45.217
14	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	44	+ 1:46.252
15	Ricciardo	McLaren		44	+ 1:47.163
16	Magnussen	Haas		43	+ 1 Lap
17	Schumacher	Haas		43	+ 1 Lap
18	Latifi		Williams	43	+ 1 Lap
19	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1	Spun Off
20	Hamilton	Mercedes	0	Accident Damage


Fastest Lap: Verstappen (Red Bull) 1:49.354 (Lap 32)

 (image courtesy of Aston Martin)