<p>Verstappen, the Spa Sprint has its king. Leclerc just misses the podium, Hamilton's disaster.</p>

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS (Belgium) - Max Verstappen won the third sprint race of the season, dominating the two McLarens with a monumental performance. The world champion made the most of his Red Bull's compromised (very light) setup, preventing Oscar Piastri from attacking him. Charles Leclerc finished off the podium, while Lewis Hamilton finished in 16th place, frustrated by his driving difficulties and lamenting the absence of his rear-wheeler. A smooth start with Verstappen and Leclerc taking advantage of Kemmel's slipstream, and at Les Combes the two McLarens: the world champion takes the lead and the Monegasque takes third place. On lap 4, Norris reclaims third place from Leclerc, while Piastri struggles to catch Max, who does well to gain those precious tenths at La Source to prevent the Australian from attacking Kemmel. With four laps to go, Verstappen makes his first small mistake, but he still holds off Piastri's attacks in what was the final gasp of an uneventful sprint. Qualifying begins at 4:00 PM ahead of Sunday's race, which could be rainy.

1) M. Verstappen (Red Bull) 2) O. Piastri (McLaren) 3) L.Norris (McLaren) 4) C.Leclerc (Ferrari)

5) E. Ocon (Haas)

10) L. Lawson (VCARB)

The Dutch champion said: " It worked great. It was the only way to get the upper hand, and then we did it. I knew it would be difficult to keep up with them, and with the DRS and the battery usage, we were playing cat and mouse, " he added. " I couldn't afford too many mistakes, and it was a great result to keep up with faster cars, so you have to drive beyond the limit. I did 15 qualifying laps ." Piastri : " I didn't have enough speed on the straight at the start, nor for the next 15 laps, but it's still a good result, good points, even if I'm a little frustrated that I couldn't overtake him. Tomorrow the situation looks pretty bad, which means we shouldn't take too much wing off, but I don't want to repeat the sprint. We'll see what we can do ." While Norris : " Not much happened today, a bit of fun at the start with the fight with Charles. The Red Bull was too fast on the straight. Maybe we should make some changes in qualifying, I don't know ."