By Robert Haile

A dramatic wet to dry sprint race ended with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez taking a 1-2 finish at the teams home race.

The duo survived early scares as the wet track only landed just before the race started with most teams moving to the intermediate tyre.

At the start Perez dived down the inside of turn 1 to take the lead from Verstappen who struck back at turn three to retake the lead.

After that Verstappen never looked back going on to win the race comfortably by over 20 seconds.

Drivers championship leader, Verstappen said: “I had a bit of a slow start today, it could have been spicy between Checo and I but he said that he couldn’t see me, and I trust his word.

“We’re all good, we had a chat after the race and all is cleared up, there’s no need to make a big deal about it. After we settled into the race, we knew that 24 laps on the intermediate tyres would be quite long, so it was all about managing the tyres whilst trying to drive fast, which is not always easy.

“I was able to extend the gap and then towards the end of the race I had a few cars around me on slicks. Of course, we had to stay alert, but I think the race went pretty well today.”

The day was tinged with sadness as Formula Regional driver Dilano van ‘t Hoff died in a multi car accident at the Belgian track Spa-Francorchamps with Verstappen adding: “It’s of course incredibly sad about what happened to Dilano today, he had the same dreams that we had when we were at that age.

“It’s sad for everyone, his family, the Team and the world of motorsport. There’s a lot more that can be done to protect drivers.

With Verstappen passing him for the lead Perez had given Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg a chance that he snapped up and moved second.

The Haas driver would eventually drop back with Perez taking second on lap 12 and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz moving passed into third a lap later.

Not long after Mercedes’ driver George Russell radioed saying it was almost dry enough for slicks and was brought in for them which triggered a cascade of drivers to do the same.

The top five of Verstappen, Perez, Sainz and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso all stayed on the intermediate tyres too claim points.

Hulkenberg took sixth as Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Russell were split by 0.009 in the last of the points.

McLaren’s Lando Norris finished ninth with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, teammate Oscar Piastri and Ferrari Charles Leclerc following.

Alex Albon’s Williams beat Kevin Magnussen’ Haas to thirteenth with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly dropping back to fifthteen.

Under fire Nyck de Vries finished seventeenth just behind his AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda with Williams’ Logan Sargeant ahead of Alfa Romeo duo Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas.

Verstappen’s lead is increased to 53 points ahead of his teammate Perez in the Drivers Championship with Alonso 71 points further back in third.

In the Constructors Championship Red Bull are 135 points clear of Mercedes who move into second with Aston Martin dropping to third.