Red Bull's Max Verstappen won a tough Belgian Grand Prix sprint race on Saturday, held under sunny skies at the season's longest and second-fastest track.
Verstappen managed to stay ahead of McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
Piastri, who is currently the top driver in the championship standings for McLaren, secured second place in the sprint race by taking a dominant pole position for the 100km race.
By finishing ahead of his teammate Norris, he extended his lead over Norris in the championship standings by nine points.
While, Norris finished in third place which was the same position he started in.
Meanwhile, Ferrari's driver Charles Leclerc came in fourth, Haas' driver Esteban Ocon finished fifth and Carlos Sainz, now racing for Williams ended up in sixth place.
The win was Verstappen's first, in either sprint or grand prix, since Imola in May.
After winning the race, the 27-year-old player expressed, "It worked out really well. That is the only real opportunity you are going to get against them, and we got it," as per BBC Sports.
"Then I knew it was going to be tough to keep them behind, and then it's cat and mouse, playing with DRS and battery usage. The whole race was within 0.7secs. It's a great result for us," he further added.
Verstappen's victory was also notable because it was Red Bull's first race under their new team leader, Laurent Mekies after Christian Horner was dismissed from his role.
