Max Verstappen fourth in Belgian Grand Prix: 'Very difficult'

Published on 27 July 2025 by Florence Cobben

Max Verstappen has come fourth in the Belgian Grand Prix. The start of the race was delayed by about an hour due to heavy rainfall. As the sun began to start shining and the track dried up, the field was greenlit, with the whole grid on inters. Max didn’t make any headway coming off the rolling start, even making the switch to mediums. The whole race, the Oracle Red Bull Racing-driver was in Charles Leclerc’s rearview mirrors. With Max’s car set up for rain, his top speed was never high enough to take the attack to the Ferrari-driver. In the end, Max finished the race in fourth. Piastri took the lead at the start of the race, and came home to win his sixth Grand Prix of the year. Lando Norris made it a 1-2 result for McLaren, with Charles Leclerc completing the podium.

After the events of the race, Max weighed in: “I was not really stuck behind Leclerc, only on the intermediates, but after that we had the same speed. Then he pulled away from me a bit, but then he also made a mistake, and that put me close behind him again.”

One of the reasons Max struggled to come close to Leclerc was that his RB21 was set up for a wet weather race: “Our rear wing was set up for rain, but in the end we didn’t race in the rain, so that was useless.” Regarding the decision to postpone the race, Max also had a strong opinion: “It was a very safe decision, so that’s a shame. We should have immediately got going, even through the most intense rain, but it is what it is. Race control makes the decisions and we have to live with it.”

But the rain was not the only thing making for a disappointing race, Max says: “Our wing didn’t help, but on the other hand, you also have to gain time in the corners, and we didn’t set up the car for that either. The big problem is that we also can’t control our tyres well, and we don’t have the balance in the car to attack, which makes the race difficult. We had too much tyre degradation, and too much understeer, and it just makes everything tricky. There’s work to be done.”

Ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, the heavens are pouring. At three o’clock the formation lap gets underway, but race control makes the call for all cars to return the pits and wait for the rain to subside. With race control waiting it out, it takes an hour for the sun to return and dry up the track, and for the race to finally get underway. At 4:20 pm local time, the race finally starts with all drivers on inters. After four laps behind the safety car, the race beings with a rolling start. Max maintains his fourth place, while at the head Oscar Piastri catches some slipstream and takes the lead from teammate Lando Norris at the end of the Kemmel Straight.

In the race’s opening phases, Max is in the hunt to overtake Leclerc, but with the RB21 set up for a wet weather race, Max has too much downforce and not enough speed on the straight to take the fight to the Ferrari-driver. In lap twelve, experienced drivers Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso are the first to make the switch to medium tyres. Leader Piastri and Verstappen follow a lap later. Max switches to medium compound tyres and comes back on track after a slow pitstop, just in front of George Russell on P7. A lap later the last drivers on slicks make the switch to dry weather tyres, including Norris, who is the only one switching to hards, and comes out on track with a sizeable gap to teammate Piastri in first. After all the drivers have made their pitstops, Verstappen is on P4 behind Leclerc.

Following the pitstop, Max is unable to put Leclerc under pressure, and the gap between the two drivers fluctuates at 2 seconds for the remainder of the race. Towards the end of the race, Piastri’s medium compound tyres are starting to degrade, but Norris is unable to close the gap to the Australian on his hard tyres. Piastri ultimately claims his sixth Grand Prix-win of the season, extending his lead from teammate Norris to sixteen points. Norris ends the race three seconds behind Piastri on P2, while Charles Leclerc claims his fifth podium of the season in P3. Verstappen comes fourth, a second and a half behind Leclerc, with George Russell behind on P5. Alexander Albon claims an impressive sixth, having manged to keep Lewis Hamilton behind him. Liam Lawson, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Pierre Gasly complete the top ten.

Results Grand Prix Belgium: