The 2023 Belgian Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 MSC Cruises Belgian Grand Prix 2023) was a Formula One motor race that was held on 30 July 2023 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Belgium. It was the twelfth round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship and the third Grand Prix weekend of the season to utilise the sprint format.
While Charles Leclerc took pole position for the Grand Prix, Max Verstappen took pole in the sprint shootout and won both the sprint and the Grand Prix itself.
Background The event was held across the weekend of 28–30 July. The announcement of this date in September 2022 had initially sparked some controversy, as it directly conflicted with the Spa 24 Hours endurance race, hosted by GT World Challenge Europe, which had already been scheduled to run that exact weekend. Eventually the GT race was forced to reschedule, with the 2023 24 Hours of Spa being run in the 29 June to 2 July weekend instead. The Grand Prix was the twelfth round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship and the 79th running of the Belgian Grand Prix. The weekend was the third of six in the season to follow the sprint format.
This was the last race for Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer and their sporting director Alan Permane, both of whom left after the race.
Championship standings before the race Coming into the weekend, Max Verstappen led the Drivers' Championship by 110 points from teammate Sergio Pérez, with Fernando Alonso third, a further 32 points behind. Red Bull Racing led the Constructors' Championship, leading Mercedes by 229 points and Aston Martin by a further 39 points.
Entrants
The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with the exception of Daniel Ricciardo, who replaced Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri starting from the preceding Hungarian Grand Prix. However this was the last race for Ricciardo until the United States Grand Prix due to him breaking a metacarpal bone during the second free practice session for the Dutch Grand Prix. Liam Lawson replaced Ricciardo for the interim five Grands Prix.
Tyre choices
Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C2, C3 and C4 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.
Practice The single free practice session was held on 28 July 2023, at 13:30 local time (UTC+2). The session, which was affected by heavy rain, was temporarily red-flagged after Logan Sargeant lost control of his car and crashed into the barriers. The session ended with Carlos Sainz Jr. topping the session behind the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon and Max Verstappen did not set times before the session ended.
Qualifying Qualifying was held on 28 July 2023, and was scheduled at 17:00 local time (UTC+2), but was delayed by ten minutes due to rain. The session determined the starting order for the main race.
Qualifying report For the first segment (Q1), Lando Norris damaged his floor after he corrected a small loss of control and drove through the gravel. Teammate Oscar Piastri saw better fortunes by setting the fastest lap momentarily. Max Verstappen allegedly impeded Alexander Albon with no action taken, before going on to take Piastri's spot at the top of the timing sheets. Albon, Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sargeant, Daniel Ricciardo, and Nico Hülkenberg were all knocked out. Hülkenberg suffered hydraulic leaks during the session. Repairs meant he could not set an additional lap.
Intermediates continued to be the chosen rubber of the second session (Q2) before Norris substituted them for soft tyres. Meanwhile, Esteban Ocon ripped the right side of his front wing and ended up joining Yuki Tsunoda, teammate Pierre Gasly, Kevin Magnussen, who would also be given a grid penalty for impeding Charles Leclerc, and the other Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas out of the session, which Piastri momentarily topped with Verstappen in tenth.
The drag reduction system (DRS) was made available to all drivers for the final session (Q3). Verstappen was fastest but carried a five-place grid penalty for new engine components, which meant Charles Leclerc achieved the second pole position of the season for Ferrari ahead of Sergio Pérez and Lewis Hamilton.
Qualifying classification DriverConstructorQ1Q2Q311 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda RBPT1:58.5151:52.7841:46.1686216 Charles LeclercFerrari1:58.3001:52.0171:46.9881311 Sergio PérezRed Bull Racing-Honda RBPT1:58.8991:52.3531:47.0452444 Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:58.5631:52.3451:47.0873555 Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari1:58.6881:51.7111:47.1524681 Oscar PiastriMcLaren-Mercedes1:58.8721:51.5341:47.365574 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1:59.9811:52.2521:47.6697863 George RussellMercedes1:59.0351:52.6051:47.8058914 Fernando Alonso1:58.8341:52.7511:47.84391018 Lance StrollAston Martin Aramco-Mercedes1:59.6631:52.1931:48.841101122 Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Honda RBPT1:59.0441:53.148N/A111210 Pierre GaslyAlpine-Renault1:59.5111:53.671N/A121320Haas-Ferrari2:00.0201:54.160N/A161477 Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1:59.4841:54.694N/A131531 Esteban OconAlpine-Renault1:59.6341:56.372N/A141623 Alexander AlbonWilliams-Mercedes2:00.314N/AN/A151724 Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo-Ferrari2:00.832N/AN/A17182 Logan SargeantWilliams-Mercedes2:01.535N/AN/A18193 Daniel RicciardoAlphaTauri-Honda RBPT2:02.159N/AN/A192027Haas-Ferrari2:03.166N/AN/A107% time: 2:06.581Source: Notes – Max Verstappen received a five-place grid penalty for a new gearbox driveline. – Kevin Magnussen received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Charles Leclerc in Q2. – Nico Hülkenberg qualified 20th, but he was required to start the race from the pit lane as the new elements were changed without the approval of the technical delegate during the parc fermé.
Sprint shootout The sprint shootout was held on 29 July 2023, and was scheduled at 12:00 local time (UTC+2), but was delayed by 35 minutes due to rain. The session determined the starting order for the sprint race.
Sprint shootout report The first segment, SQ1, would get underway with all cars on the intermediate compound. The wet track offered wildly differing fortunes for the teams. The Aston Martin team, which had shown success previously in the season, struggled early on before Fernando Alonso became the second-fastest driver by the session's end. Lance Stroll looked to be at threat of being knocked out, but would scrape through into SQ2. The McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri also found themselves lacking pace, with Norris only thirteenth fastest. Yuki Tsunoda, Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen, Zhou Guanyu and Nico Hülkenberg – the latter failing to take advantage of the changing conditions and being inconvenienced due to an issue with the Haas pit crew's front jack – were all out in SQ1. Max Verstappen topped timing chart of the session.
The second segment, SQ2, was red-flagged after Stroll crashed. He was unable to set a time. He had switched to medium tyres on a wet track and was suffering from a lack of grip. While Daniel Ricciardo was able to set a lap, the red flag greatly inconvenienced Stroll's teammate Alonso, Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant, who were all knocked out – this being the first time Alonso's first time did not progress to the third segment of a qualification this season.
Confusion arose after the FIA was revealed to have not declared the track to have been wet during SQ2, which led to Stroll switching to mediums despite the wet track and subsequently crashing and destroying the front section of his car during his outlap. As per sprint shootout regulations, teams must use a specific tyre compound during each segment; mediums in SQ1 and SQ2, and softs in SQ3. The track was wet during the session and as such the regulation did not apply. Fifteen minutes before the session began, FIA sporting director Steve Nielsen announced that the track would not be declared wet. A previous instance of such changing conditions was displayed in the Austrian Grand Prix earlier in the year.
The third segment, SQ3, saw everyone put on the softs as the track dried out. Verstappen was second behind Lewis Hamilton, but improved his time and achieved the pole position for the sprint race, with his teammate Sergio Pérez in eighth. Piastri bettered his British Grand Prix qualifying result by qualifying second, 0.011 seconds off of polesitter Verstappen.
Sprint shootout classification DriverConstructorSprintgridSQ1SQ2SQ311 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda RBPT1:58.1351:55.2001:49.0561281 Oscar PiastriMcLaren-Mercedes2:00.0561:56.3921:49.0672355 Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari1:59.4141:56.5571:49.0813416 Charles LeclercFerrari1:59.5751:56.2651:49.251454 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes2:00.4361:56.8281:49.3895610 Pierre GaslyAlpine-Renault2:00.0321:56.1371:49.7006744 Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:58.9391:55.8231:49.9007811 Sergio PérezRed Bull Racing-Honda RBPT1:59.3621:55.8781:49.9618931 Esteban OconAlpine-Renault1:59.8841:57.0511:50.49491063 George RussellMercedes2:00.4751:57.3931:55.74210113 Daniel RicciardoAlphaTauri-Honda RBPT2:00.1771:57.687N/A111223 Alexander AlbonWilliams-Mercedes1:59.198No timeN/A12132 Logan SargeantWilliams-Mercedes2:00.031No timeN/A131418 Lance StrollAston Martin Aramco-Mercedes2:00.460No timeN/A141514 Fernando Alonso1:59.038No timeN/A151622 Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Honda RBPT2:00.568N/AN/A161777 Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo-Ferrari2:00.951N/AN/A171820Haas-Ferrari2:01.079N/AN/A181924 Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo-Ferrari2:01.430N/AN/A19107% time: 2:06.404—27 Nico HülkenbergHaas-FerrariNo timeN/AN/A20Source: Notes – Nico Hülkenberg failed to set a time during the sprint shootout, but he was permitted to race in the sprint at the stewards' discretion.
Sprint The sprint was held on 29 July 2023. It was scheduled at 16:30 local time (UTC+2), but was delayed by one hour and five minutes due to the delay of the sprint shootout and rain.
Sprint report The sprint began with all cars on full wet tyres after four formation laps behind the safety car. When the safety car went into the pits, with the race distance reduced to 11 laps after the extra formation laps, Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz Jr., Pierre Gasly, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Pérez, Daniel Ricciardo, Alexander Albon, Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas, and Nico Hülkenberg pitted to switch to intermediate tires. Max Verstappen led until the second lap, when he and the rest of the field switched to intermediates.
On lap 3, Fernando Alonso lost control of his car on the kerb of turn 12 and spun into the gravel. He could not recover the car, prompting his first retirement of the season and a safety car period to recover Alonso's car. It went in at the end of lap 5, and Verstappen passed Piastri down the Kemmel Straight. Verstappen would keep the lead, which he extended to six seconds as he crossed the line.
Hamilton and Pérez banged wheels through turn 17 while fighting for fourth position, leaving Hamilton ahead after Pérez suffered damage to his right-hand sidepod. After Pérez was overtaken by Sainz and Charles Leclerc, he ran into the gravel on the next lap at turn 15 and tumbled down the order before eventually retiring.
Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri, and Pierre Gasly were the top three. This is Gasly's first top-three finish since the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and Piastri's first top-three finish in his Formula One career. Lewis Hamilton crossed the line in fourth but dropped to seventh after receiving a five-second time penalty for causing the collision with Pérez. This promoted Sainz to fourth, Leclerc to fifth, and Norris to sixth. Russell grabbed the final points-scoring position.
Sprint classification