Verstappen: We finished in front of Norris, my main rival

Everyone was expecting Verstappen to blitz the field and take his fourth consecutive win at Spa-Francorchamps from 11th on the grid due to a ten-place grid penalty for taking a fifth Internal Combustion Engine.

But the reality was that his RB20, despite being good for pole one day earlier, was not dominant enough on Sunday afternoon at the historical Belgian track, as Verstappen struggled pass the McLaren of Norris, Red Bull resorting to strategy to beat the McLaren.

In the end, the Dutchman managed to keep the Briton at bay and finish ahead of him in fifth, something the former considered a positive.

Unlike the Hungarian GP, Verstappen was calm after the race in Belgium despite not even making it onto the podium.

Speaking in Red Bull's race report, the triple F1 Champion said: "All in all it was quite a positive day for me, considering we started at P11, and we finished in front of Lando who is my main rival in the Championship.

"I think we did everything right with the strategy today and I had a good clean start. I was in the DRS train and it was difficult to pass, but I think strategy wise we did everything that we could to the limit. It was tough to make it with two mediums and a hard tyre and we could potentially have taken more position if we started with the hard tyre, but I think we did a good job and maximised our result today.

"It wasn't realistic to start P11 and fly to the front, so I am overall happy with our performance," Verstappen insisted.

"We are looking forward to the summer break and having a bit of time to relax, but at the same time we are committed to being better and faster and are trying to find solutions as we go into the rest of the season. However, everyone has been doing a great job and will have a well deserved break.

"We had a great start to the season, our last few races have been a bit more difficult, but we have been pushing to find a solution how to do that. Next race is obviously my home race in Zandvoort.

"It will be a tough battle and it will be all about tyre management, but it will be great to be in front of my home crowd again," Verstappen concluded.

Sergio Perez in the sister Red Bull had a disappointing race in Spa, as he dropped to eighth after starting from second, thus throwing away all his good work in qualifying one day earlier, despite taking an extra point for the fastest lap of the race.

He reflected: "Starting P2 and fighting for the top positions, the race was going well in the first stint and we managed to stay in the pack and had quite an intense fight with Lewis as well, we clipped wheels at the beginning.

"At some point in the second stint it went wrong with the medium tyre when everyone else was on hard tyres, we just didn't have any pace and it was hard to push. We need to understand what went wrong as we changed a lot on the car but didn't have the opportunity to try it on the dry as the conditions were so different from qualifying.

"We compromised a lot in the final stint, in the strategy we lost quite a bit of time unfortunately," the Mexican went on. "We managed to set the fastest lap at the end, which was the maximum we could get today and more points in the bag.

"It's been a bit of a rollercoaster for me recently, as a Team we need to re-group and take some time during the summer break to understand everything and hopefully we hit the ground running for the second half of the season.

"I'm looking forward to getting some time with my family over the break and getting back in to a good training routine and just really resetting. There is still a long championship ahead," he concluded.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner summed up his team's Belgian GP, he said: "It was a tough race today. We finished 7 seconds behind the leader and over all we struggled.

"There were some positives though, Max has extended his lead over Lando and Checo brought home fastest lap. But it was a really tight race today. We didn't have a big offset of pace today over the others but, credit to George and Mercedes, I'm not sure they planned to do a one stop but it worked out well for them today.

"We have a lot to reflect on as we go into the summer break. We continue to lead in both the Constructors and Drivers Championships but convergence within the field means the gap is ever closing.

"We will regroup on Monday, as we always do before a break and look at how we can come back fighting for the second half of the season," Horner concluded.

With George Russell disqualified from the Belgian GP, Verstappen was promoted to fourth, while Perez was promoted to seventh.