It was the twelfth round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship and the third Grand Prix weekend of the season to utilise the sprint format.

The announcement of this date in September 2022 had initially sparked some controversy, as it directly conflicted with the Spa 24 Hours endurance race, hosted by GT World Challenge Europe, which had already been scheduled to run that exact weekend.

[7] The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with the exception of Daniel Ricciardo, who replaced Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri starting from the preceding Hungarian Grand Prix.

[12] The session, which was affected by heavy rain, was temporarily red-flagged after Logan Sargeant lost control of his car and crashed into the barriers.

Max Verstappen allegedly impeded Alexander Albon with no action taken, before going on to take Piastri's spot at the top of the timing sheets.

[15] Meanwhile, Esteban Ocon ripped the right side of his front wing and ended up joining Yuki Tsunoda, teammate Pierre Gasly,[15] Kevin Magnussen, who would also be given a grid penalty for impeding Charles Leclerc,[16] and the other Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas out of the session, which Piastri momentarily topped with Verstappen in tenth.

Verstappen was fastest but carried a five-place grid penalty for new engine components, which meant Charles Leclerc achieved the second pole position of the season for Ferrari ahead of Sergio Pérez and Lewis Hamilton.

The Aston Martin team, which had shown success previously in the season, struggled early on before Fernando Alonso became the second-fastest driver by the session's end.

Yuki Tsunoda, Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen, Zhou Guanyu and Nico Hülkenberg – the latter failing to take advantage of the changing conditions and being inconvenienced due to an issue with the Haas pit crew's front jack – were all out in SQ1.

Fifteen minutes before the session began, FIA sporting director Steve Nielsen announced that the track would not be declared wet.

Verstappen was second behind Lewis Hamilton, but improved his time and achieved the pole position for the sprint race, with his teammate Sergio Pérez in eighth.

When the safety car went into the pits, with the race distance reduced to 11 laps after the extra formation laps, Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz Jr., Pierre Gasly, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Pérez, Daniel Ricciardo, Alexander Albon, Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas, and Nico Hülkenberg pitted to switch to intermediate tires.

After Pérez was overtaken by Sainz and Charles Leclerc, he ran into the gravel on the next lap at turn 15 and tumbled down the order before eventually retiring.

Lewis Hamilton crossed the line in fourth but dropped to seventh after receiving a five-second time penalty for causing the collision with Pérez.

Meanwhile, Sainz, still suffering from earlier damage to his car, dropped down several places behind Fernando Alonso, Yuki Tsunoda, Alexander Albon, and Logan Sargeant.

As the race reached its halfway mark of 22 laps, Sainz pitted to retire due to significant earlier damage.

[36][38] Verstappen took the checkered flag to win by 22 seconds from Pérez, followed by Leclerc, Hamilton, Alonso, Russell, Lando Norris, Ocon, and Stroll.

After a quick pit stop, Norris was running as low as seventeenth before recovering ten positions to finish in seventh.