Verstappen dominates DRAMATIC sprint race after Piastri takes first EVER lead

Max Verstappen took all eight points from Saturday's sprint race, but not without some drama at Spa-Francorchamps.

The race start was delayed by more than half an hour thanks to some more heavy rainfall around the track, with a few laps cut off as drivers trundled around behind the safety car to clear some of the water.

Half the grid jumped into the pits immediately at the restart to change from full wets to intermediate tyres, including Oscar Piastri, who jumped Verstappen in the one extra lap the Dutchman stayed out.

The safety car was put to work once again after just a couple of laps when Fernando Alonso spun out into the gravel and had to have his Aston Martin removed – with Verstappen taking the lead back at the restart.

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Piastri drove a strong race to move away from Pierre Gasly behind him, cementing a relatively comfortable second place ahead of the squabbling pair of Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton, however, was given a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Sergio Perez, who ended up pulling into the pits and retiring from the event with sidepod damage.

The Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had an uneventful afternoon after a promising shootout session, running fifth and sixth on the road before being promoted by one position each thanks to Hamilton's penalty.

Daniel Ricciardo was cruelly denied the first point of his F1 comeback by George Russell, who passed him with a couple of laps to go and relegate him to ninth – eventually finishing 10th.

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