MONDAY MORNING DEBRIEF: How Verstappen was seriously compromised in Spa as he attempted to recover from his grid penalty

Max Verstappen’s fifth place finish (fourth after George Russell’s disqualification), from his penalised P11 on the grid after setting the fastest time in qualifying, illustrates the helter-skelter nature of his Spa weekend.

On the surface nothing about Verstappen’s race day performance suggests that the Red Bull was as competitive as he had made it look in the wet of qualifying. Pre-race the likes of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton were convinced that Verstappen would be progressing to the front, just as he had from his penalised positions here in 2022 and 2023.