F1 2025 Belgium GP LIVE: Sprint race start time, schedule and latest updates

“Not quick enough, I guess. It wasn’t the cleanest of laps but still quite a big gap to the top, not too disappointed or worry, just the sprint.

“I’m not too fussed, not the happiest of course, it is the way it is, just got to do some more work tonight – that’s all.”

• Oscar Piastri – 1/4
• Max Verstappen – 9/2
• Lando Norris – 5/1
• Charles Leclerc – 25/1
• George Russell – 125/1
• Esteban Ocon – 225/1
• Lewis Hamilton – 225/1
• Carlos Sainz – 225/1

“Spa could be a good Red Bull track,” said the 1997 world champion. “It’s always been a surprise which car is quick and where this year.

“They’re all so close. They’re all so close to each other that if they hit it wrong, a couple of tenths lost, and instead of being in pole, you’re P5, P6.

“You always know that McLaren will be there even on the bad weekend. They will still be in the fight. And then the rest, it’s up and down. There will always be another team fighting for the pole, but you don’t know which one.

“The reason I say Red Bull is because Max has shown also in Silverstone, he’s capable of running with lower downforce. And on tracks like that it works, unless it rains.”

7. Racing Bulls – 36 points

8. Aston Martin – 36 points

For the second time in three races, Max Verstappen will be without his usual race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

Lambiase is absent from the Belgian GP this weekend due to personal reasons.

Simon Rennie takes his place as the man in Verstappen’s ear in Spa.

Horner won 14 world championships in total across his two decades at the team and has been a fierce rival for Hamilton, both during his time at McLaren and at Mercedes.

In modern-day Formula One, there aren’t too many narratives which could have compensated for Lewis Hamilton missing out on a Silverstone podium for the first time. Nor one which sparked more acclaim than Lando Norris winning his home grand prix. Yet Nico Hulkenberg’s tense and glorious third-place finish last time out – ending the sport’s longest podium-less streak, 239 races and no more – was just that.

From last on the starting grid in P19, the German driver and his Sauber team, now pivotally led by ex-Red Bull guru Jonathan Wheatley, executed every call and nailed every pit-stop in the dry-wet chaos to leapfrog 16 cars and finish on the podium, staving off Hamilton in the process.

A podium for Hulkenberg in a Sauber before Hamilton claims a podium for Ferrari? Nobody had that on their 2025 F1 bingo card.

French engineer Mekies, previously team principal at Red Bull’s sister F1 team Racing Bulls, has taken over from Horner and is at the helm this weekend for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Mekies previously enjoyed a near-decade stint at Toro Rosso, the old name for Red Bull’s sister team, and also has experience to his name at Ferrari and the FIA.

Yet a brief Red Bull statement announcing Horner’s departure did not spell out the specific reason why the Briton lost his job, with drivers Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda also unable to give a clear cause on Thursday.