There was no stopping Max Verstappen on Sunday at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Despite penalties that had him starting 14th on the grid, Verstappen piloted his Red Bull racecar to an impressive P1 finish. Sergio Perez finished behind him to make it a 1-2 result for Red Bull while Ferrari's Carlos Sainz came in third.
Here's what you need to know from Sunday's race.
Verstappen was riding a rocket ship to earn his ninth victory of the season — and third in a row — in dominant fashion.
Although Verstappen was forced to start P14 due to exceeding his quota of power unit elements plus gearbox changes, the Dutch driver made a mockery of his lowly starting position ascending up into first by just the 13th lap of the race and eventually finishing almost 18 seconds ahead of Perez.
Verstappen's teammate was no slouch either as Perez was nearly half a minute up on Sainz. That's some serious 2013-era Red Bull vibes right there with Verstappen and Perez 1-2 in points and running away with the constructors' title.
There was just no way anyone was going to catch the Red Bulls on Sunday. Just looking at how much speed they were able to achieve down the straights over Ferrari shows they were a class above the field.
Coming out of the summer break, it was an opportunity for Ferrari to put their misfortune behind them and start over fresh. Instead, it was just another reminder of Ferrari being Ferrari.
This time it started before the race even began when Leclerc was fitted with the wrong set of tires for the third and final session during Saturday's qualifying.
If only that was it. Leclerc also started near the back in P15 due to an engine penalty and was on target to finish fifth until Ferrari took a late gamble to try and steal the fastest lap bonus point away from Verstappen.
Never mind that it was a futile effort, but Leclerc came into the pits on the penultimate lap and came out behind Alpine's Fernando Alonso. Although Leclerc managed to reclaim P5 on the track, the Monegasque driver was dinged five seconds for speeding through the pits during his (unnecessary) stop and ended up losing the place regardless to Alonso.
Has anyone at Ferrari read the "For Want of a Nail" proverb? For want of one fastest lap point, two points were lost due to Leclerc finishing sixth instead of fifth.
Sure, Sainz scored a podium finish for Ferrari but how things ended for Leclerc is sure to leave a sour taste.
Leclerc is now 98 points back of championship leader Verstappen — a seemingly insurmountable advantage — and also fell behind Perez in the standings.
Alpine proved once again they're the best of the midfield with another double-points finish. Following Alonso's P5 result, Esteban Ocon joined his teammate in the top 10 crossing the line P7.
Ocon pulled off a masterful manoeuvre on lap 36 passing both Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel and AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly in one swoop. It was reminiscent of Mika Hakkinen's beauty double overtake on Michael Schumacher and Ricardo Zonta at the very same track back in 2000.
So then, why are Alpine's drivers jumping ship next season? Alonso appeared to catch the team off-guard during the summer break by announcing he'll be moving on to Aston Martin next season to replace the retiring Vettel. In what seemed to be a panic reaction, Alpine then promoted reserve driver and top prospect Oscar Piastri to a seat. Not so fast, said Piastri, who looks keen to join McLaren.
The situation with Piastri should be sorted out during a hearing on Monday, but it's still baffling that a team in a position like Alpine would have trouble retaining top talent.
We've been critical of AlphaTauri's dreadful season — having scored zero points over the previous five races — but credit where credit is due. Gasly went from starting in the pit lane to finishing in the points in P9.
Still, considering how well big brother team Red Bull has performed it's a bit puzzling that hasn't trickled down to AlphaTauri even within the midfield as they languish in eighth in the constructors' championship.
While Verstappen's car was figuratively a rocket ship, Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes literally went airborne when he collided with Alonso on the opening lap.
Alonso had some choice words for Hamilton saying: "What an idiot! Closing the door from the outside. We had a mega start but yeah. This guy only knows how to drive starting first." Ouch.
It's the first time Hamilton has retired from a race this season and snapped his streak of consecutive podium finishes at five. As Hamilton made the long and lonely return to the paddock, all that was missing was that sad walking away song from The Incredible Hulk.
Meanwhile, Mercedes teammate George Russell continued his fine form in P4 to net his 13th top-five finish through 14 races this year.
Not even "Plan G" was working out for McLaren on Sunday with Lando Norris finishing 12th and Daniel Ricciardo in 15th.
Simply put, things haven't worked out for Ricciardo at McLaren — whether it's due to driver or team — and it wasn't surprising they'll be parting ways at the end of the season despite having another year on his contract.
Ricciardo now has to prove he's worthy of another F1 seat somewhere else and unfortunately for the Australian driver, he wasn't able to show it Sunday.
F1 is right back at it next weekend heading to Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix. The race returned last season following a 36-year hiatus with Verstappen taking the victory at his home circuit.