The Belgian Grand Prix has brought the curtain down on the first part of the season, with Max Verstappen winning once again.

The Red Bull man has had a stunning season so far.

Coupled with a brilliant Red Bull RB19 car, the Dutchman has been untouchable and he is cruising to a third world title, with him winning race after race in 2023.

It's an incredible effort from him and the team, and sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and appreciate what you're witnessing, even if it is obviously not the most entertaining spectacle in the world seeing the same driver winning over and over again.

Indeed, in Belgium he was, as he has been for much of this season, in a league of his own with him overcoming a grid penalty that had him starting the race in sixth place with ease, as he carved his way back through.

He is going to win this world championship - it just remains to be seen when - but what else can we take away from the final race before the summer shutdown? Here's what we've picked out...

Yuki Tsunoda back in the points

Tsunoda has seen a lot written about the two team-mates he has had so far this season; Nyck de Vries and Daniel Ricciardo, and amid it all he has kept his head down and more often than not done a great job.

Indeed, here he put in a great drive to finish in 10th in the AlphaTauri, just ahead of former team-mate Pierre Gasly in the Alpine, and he can be rightly proud of his performance.

He stated he wanted to get back into the points this weekend and that is what he has duly done.

Fernando Alonso delivers

The Aston Martin/Fernando Alonso hype train has slowed down in recent weeks with the likes of Mercedes, and McLaren, picking up better results.

Indeed, Aston have obviously lost a little bit of the advantage that they had at the start of the season, but here in Spa Fernando Alonso produced a fine drive on Sunday to secure fifth place and some very good points in the process.

He span out of the Sprint on Saturday but responded in typically class style to deliver a great result for the team, with him having this to say about the AMR23:

“The car felt great today – and really gave me confidence. This is a high-efficiency circuit – and, after the British Grand Prix, we were a little concerned about our performance coming here. The team changed a few characteristics on the car and it really paid off."

A much-needed shot in the arm for Aston, with Mike Krack adding these comments:

“The 12 points scored today ensure we maintain third place in the Constructors’ championship. This was an important confidence boost for everyone in the team before the well-earned summer break.”

Charles Leclerc shows his class

Leclerc started on pole thanks to Verstappen's grid penalty but the feeling was both within the Ferrari team and from outside that in normal circumstances he'd have little chance of keeping the Dutchman, and Sergio Perez, behind him for the duration of the race in the Red Bull cars.

Indeed, so that was proven with Perez jumping Leclerc at the end of the first blast down the Kemmel straight, whilst Verstappen would roar past in similar fashion a handful of laps later.

From there, though, it was all about making sure he brought home P3, with Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes keeping him honest for much of the GP, and the Monegasque was up to the task.

Indeed, it was as good a result as Ferrari could realistically hope for and, with Carlos Sainz retiring midway through the race, securing a good haul of points with the other car was of critical importance.

Leclerc showed his mettle to get on the final spot on the podium, and will be happy with that result to take into the summer break.

McLaren's weekend of ups and downs

A rollercoaster ride for McLaren at Spa.

The team from Woking have become accustomed in recent weeks to be challenging towards the front of the field and this weekend appeared set to be no different, with them having good pace in qualifying to start with.

Indeed, both cars getting into Q3 seems likely at the moment for the team, and in the Sprint we saw Oscar Piastri achieve his first top three finish, of sorts, in F1 as he crossed the line in P2 - having led a handful of laps as well during the race before Verstappen overtook him.

A good start to the weekend, then, but things unravelled somewhat on Sunday with Piastri unable to complete even a single racing lap before having to retire.

He and Carlos Sainz had contact at the first turn of the first lap, with Piastri taking damage to his front right, and that was that for him - with Sainz also retiring later on in the race after being unable to continue with his own sustained damage.

Lando Norris in the other McLaren, meanwhile, recovered well from the team opting to put him on hard tyres early on - and deciding that was the wrong call pretty quickly - to finish in P7. A fine drive from the Briton all things considered.

It's been quite the season for McLaren so far, and overall they do seem to be well on the right path.

Time to take stock of the season

And with that, the first part of the season is wrapped up and we can now head into the summer break.

It's been quite an intriguing campaign so far, if you take out Red Bull's dominance, and it is of course a shame in some respects that one team is running away with things at the top.

That can happen in F1, though, and you have to give the team from Milton Keynes a huge amount of credit for the work they have done, and are continuing to do out in front.

Behind them, the battle for second between Mercedes, Aston Martin, Ferrari, and now McLaren, is a hard-fought one, and that will provide one of the biggest storylines for the second half of the year.

The gap between them is close, and the advantage each weekend seems to swing between them, providing for the sort of unpredictability that can make this sport so exciting - it is just obviously a sore point that we don't have such a fight out in front for race victories and the championship.