Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has roared from 14th to first to take a dominant one-two win in the Belgian Grand Prix and accelerate his run towards a second Formula One title.

The Dutch driver took the chequered flag on Sunday 17.8 seconds ahead of his Mexican teammate Sergio Perez, with Spaniard Carlos Sainz a distant third in his Ferrari after starting on pole.

“Max was on another planet today, he was flying, he was untouchable,” said Perez.

The win was Verstappen’s ninth from 14 races so far this season and put him a massive 93 points clear of Perez, who moves into second place overall behind his team mate with eight rounds remaining.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who started one place behind Verstappen in 15th after collecting similar engine and gearbox-related grid drops, finished fifth on the road but was demoted to sixth after a penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

The Monegasque is now third overall, 98 points behind Verstappen who also took a bonus point for the fastest lap.

Verstappen’s home Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort follows next weekend.

“The car was a rocket ship all weekend,” he said after his second successive win at Spa, although last year’s victory was after just three laps splashing through the rain behind the safety car.

“It was quite a hectic first lap to try and stay out of trouble, so many things were happening in front of me but, once we settled in, the car was really on rails,” added Verstappen.

The Dutchman had been comfortably quickest in Saturday’s qualifying but grid penalties meant Sainz inherited pole position.

The Spaniard kept the lead at the start, with Perez slow in getting away alongside as Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton slotted into second and third.

The former McLaren teammates then made contact as seven-times world champion Hamilton tried to overtake around the outsides into the Les Combes chicane.

Hamilton, who was called an “idiot” for his driving by Alonso, accepted responsibility for the collision and retired due to damage from the incident.

As they duelled for second place, Hamilton jinked to the left of Alonso under braking at Les Combes.

Hamilton was marginally ahead, but as he turned in for the right-left-right corner, his right-rear tyre made contact with Alonso’s left-front wheel.

The Briton was launched into the air and landed forcefully on the belly of his Mercedes.

Hamilton ran over the rumble strips, and attempted to soldier on, but water was pouring out of his terminally-wounded machine. Hamilton was ordered by his team to stop.

“I am so sorry, guys,” he said over the radio.

Alonso, though, was enraged. “What an idiot!” yelled the double world champion over the radio. “Closing the door from the outside.

“I mean, we have a mega start, but this guy only knows how to drive and start in first.”

Further behind, Valtteri Bottas beached his Alfa Romeo in the gravel while trying to avoid the spinning Williams of Nicholas Latifi in an incident that brought out the safety car.

Verstappen, meanwhile, was unstoppable. “It’s been a weekend I couldn’t imagine before,” he said. “But we want more of them… we’ll see next weekend what we can do.”

George Russell was fourth for Mercedes, with Alonso fifth.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo finished 15th in Sunday’s race at the end of a week in which his end-of-season split with McLaren was announced.

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