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Max Verstappen dominated the 2022 F1 Belgian Grand Prix this weekend to secure his ninth race win of the season and extend his lead in the championship standings. The Dutchman now holds a whopping 93-point advantage over his team-mate Sergio Perez and 98 points over Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
Despite starting the race in P14, Verstappen made it to the front of the grid to take the lead in the race from pole-sitter Carlos Sainz within the first 12 laps. The Spaniard simply did not have the pace to match the Red Bulls this afternoon and only managed to secure a P3 finish behind Verstappen and Perez.
Perez's gap to his teammate over the course of the race was a clear indication of just how fast the reigning F1 world champion was this weekend, who made it through the pack with complete ease.
Charles Leclerc, who was hoping to turn his fortunes at the start of the second half of the season, had yet another underwhelming day at Spa and finished the race in fifth after starting the race just a single position behind Verstappen. He was, however, given a five-second penalty for crossing the pit lane speed limit and ended up with a P6 result. With this, the Monegasque has lost his second-place position in the drivers' standings to Sergio Perez, with only 15 points separating him from his teammate Carlos Sainz, who is closing in.
George Russell had quite an interesting race today and had the potential to take yet another podium in Belgium. After a rough start to the season, Mercedes were hoping to kick off the second half of the year with a bang and finally secure the win that they have been chasing all season.
Lewis Hamilton, however, had a nightmare of a race, having retired at the start following contact with Fernando Alonso's Alpine. The Spaniard still managed to make it to the top five and moved up to ninth in the championship standings. This places him ahead of Valtteri Bottas, who was forced to retire from the race after colliding with Nicholas Latifi on the opening laps of the race. With an eighth-place finish, Sebastian Vettel has moved up to 12th in the F1 drivers' standings, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who had yet another disappointing outing in Spa.
Here are the 2022 F1 Driver Standings after the Belgian GP
