Key events
Lap 11/15: Verstappen is battling now. He has both McLarens on his tail and Piastri is hovering with menace. The Red Bull driver sounds concerned on the radio.
Lap 10/15: Bearman is doing well to hold off Isack Hadjar’s Racing Bull and could pick up two points in seventh.
Lap 9/15: Norris is the fastest car on the track at the moment and is moving into the DRS zone for Piastri.
Lap 8/15: Piastri is losing ground to Verstappen and Norris making use of the clean air to close in on his teammate.
Lap 7/15: Hamilton is being pursued by Antonelli. The Ferrari is struggling and Hamilton comes on the radio to say he has no rear grip.
Lap 6/15: Verstappen is holding off Piastri and may well be on for his 12th sprint win. Norris is not making much ground on the leading two but is well clear of Leclerc.
Lap 5/15: Piastri is seven tenths behind Verstappen and closer to dropping out of DRS than overtaking. Antonelli has moved up to 17th but little else happening out on the track currently.
Lap 4/15: Norris is back into third after utilising is superior speed in the turns.
Lap 3/15: Gasly is back in the sprint but two laps down, just a bit of extra practice for the Alpine. No action further up the road as of yet, Verstappen still leads.
Lap 2/15: Piastri is in touch with Verstappen but even with DRS open the McLaren is not close enough to attempt an overtake.
Lap 1/15: George Russell has also moved up a place or two from 13th and with Verstappen now leading, DRS will be opened up on the second lap so this could change again.
Light out and away we go!
Verstappen tries to go around Piastri on the outside on turn one but can’t get past, but he does one corner two! Leclerc has passed Norris too, a very poor start for the McLarens.
Formation lap underway. With Gasly out, all drivers ninth and below everyone moves up a place on the grid. Lights out next.
Sky have grabbed a quick word with Verstappen. On trying to overhaul the McLarens the Red Bull driver, who has a new leader on the pit wall at Spa, said: “It won’t be easy, they have been good all weekend, very strong especially Oscar. We have to focus on our own race and try to get the most out of it.”
There we have it, Gasly officially out of the sprint. Alpine have a few hours to get the issue sorted before qualifying.
Bad news for Gasly, his car is heading back to the Alpine garage with the engine off. He is not officially out of the sprint just yet but with 15 minutes to go to the start of the sprint the best Gasly could hope for is starting from the pit lane, where teammate Franco Colapinto will also be heading out from. Apparently it’s a water leak issue for Gasly.
There is some concern about Pierre Gasly after the Alpine summoned him to the pits while other are out on the track. Crofty was stalking the car as it was being pushed back out on track on the Sky coverage, no concrete information on what that was about yet. Hopefully nothing major for Gasly, who has a chance to score from eigth on the grid.
Preamble
British drivers have dominated the sprint races so far this season, with two previous edition being won by Lewis Hamilton (China) and Lando Norris (Miami), but the chances of that run being extended this morning are not high. Norris will start third on the grid, behind teammate Oscar Piastri, who is on pole, and Max Verstappen. Norris has a very slim chance of pulling level with Piastri at the top of the drivers’ standings qualifying should he overcome the odds, win the sprint and see Piatri fail to score. In all likelihood, Piastri will start this afternoon’s qualifying with a small increase in his lead there.
Hamilton is all the way down in 18th after an error in sprint qualifying yesterday saw him fail to make it out of the first session. Oliver Bearman, who qualified in seventh for Haas, has a better chance of extending the British run of sprint winners this season than the Ferrari driver.
The sprint race has had little correlation with either qualifying or the Grand Prix winner this season, so trying to read too much into it is misguided but hopefully it’s a nice little amuse-bouche to the action to come. What was clear from yesterday’s qualifying is that the McLaren are quickest on the corners, with Piastri and Norris ahead of Verstappen in the bendy sector two, so if the Briton can find a bit more speed in the straighter sections he has every chance of bettering the Red Bull.
That said, it could well be that we have a 15-laps of smoke and mirrors. We’ll find out soon.