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Max Takes Fourth as Spa Stays DryRead the full race report below.

MaxtookabattlingfourthplaceatSpa,whileYukidroppedfromP7to13thattheflagafterbeingdisadvantagedduringthefirstpitstopcycle,astheanticipatedraindramainBelgiumfailedtofullymaterialise.

Ahead of Sunday’s race, all forecasts had been for an afternoon of wet weather chaos and the opportunities that might provide. But while the downpours did arrive and race officials were forced to call a halt on the formation lap, the subsequent long delay meant that when the race eventually got underway it was in rapidly drying conditions. The result was a largely processional race defined by tyre strategy and, in the case of the Bulls, a downforce hike for the rain that ultimately proved to be futile following the delay.

When that one-hour and 20-minute delay ended and the Safety Car peeled away to allow a rolling start, polesitter Lando Norris took off into the lead. However, the McLaren driver suffered a small slide at the exit of La Source and that was all teammate Oscar Piastri needed.

The Australian tucked in behind the Briton on the Kemmel straight and as they ran towards Les Combes he moved left and then breezed past his teammate to take the lead.

Makin' Turns Like The Weather© Getty Images

Behind them, Max, in fourth place, was shadowing Charles Leclerc and on lap six the Ferrari driver almost lost it when he had a momentary slide. The Dutchman tried to pounce but the Monegasque racer was able to position his car well enough to hold on. He got another opportunity on lap 11 when Charles again went wide at the exit of Turn 1 but once again, he had enough power in reserve to keep Max behind as they roared towards Les Combes.

Further back, Yuki also took the rolling start well and he settled into P7 just behind Williams’ Alex Albon, who had been passed by Mercedes’ George Russell in the opening laps.

On lap 12, Lewis Hamilton, who had climbed to 14th on intermediate tyres, was the first to make the move to slick tyres. A lap later, the leaders reacted, and Max joined Oscar and Charles as they pulled into the pits for fresh medium tyres. Lando, too close to his McLaren teammate, was forced to carry on and the delay would cost the Briton dearly.

Losing time, Lando was offered an alternative strategy and a one-stop race, and he made his stop on lap 14 for hard tyres, planning for a long stint to the end of the race. He emerged in second again, behind Oscar, while Leclerc held third ahead of Max, with Russell still fifth ahead of Albon and earlier stopper Hamilton.

Makin' Turns Like The Weather© Getty Images

Later stops for both Yuki and VCARB’s Isack Hadjar cost them significant time, with Yuki slipping from seventh to 13th and Isack finishing 16th.

With Piastri attempting to manage his medium tyres, Lando began to push on his C1 hards and he began to gradually eat into the Australian’s nine-second lead. Oscar was soon reporting that he was also feeling some degradation and that it would be “tough to get to the end” on the C3 but despite the tyre wear, he continued on.

Behind them, Max was still attempting to chase down Charles, but though he could match the Monegasque for pace, the gap stubbornly hovered around the two-second mark. Yuki, too, was bottled up in a DRS train behind Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who was cleverly using his battery power to keep the Japanese driver at bay and under pressure from the following Haas of Ollie Bearman and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.

On The Chase© Getty Images

As the race headed for its final third, Lando began to reel in Oscar. Regularly running half a second faster than the Australian, he closed the gap to just over five seconds with five laps left. Max also began to close in on Charles and at the same distance from the flag, the Champion had reduced a 2.3s deficit to just 1.2 seconds.

But though both the defending Champion and the title contender pushed hard to create a fighting chance, neither could gain enough before the chequered flag.

In the end, Lando’s chance evaporated in a late lock-up that cost him over a second and with the gap lengthening, he throttled back to finish more than three seconds off race winner Oscar.

Max, meanwhile, almost breached the DRS margin to Charles, but the Monegasque had just enough tyre life in reserve to stretch that gap to 1.5s on the final two laps.

Behind Max, George took fifth ahead of Alex and Lewis. Liam Lawson scored good points for VCARB with eighth place, while Gabriel Bortoleto finished ninth ahead of final points finisher Pierre.