Max Verstappen staved off the dual McLaren threat of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to give Laurent Mekies a winning start as the new team principal of Red Bull.
The four-time F1 champion delivered the key move on the approach into the Les Combes chicane on the opening lap of 15 at the Spa Francorchamps Circuit, passing championship leader Piastri, who had started on pole position.
For the remainder of the race, even though Piastri was forever within DRS range, he lacked the ultimate top speed on the Kemmel Straight to reel in the Dutch driver.
By the chequered flag, Verstappen, Red Bull and Mekies were celebrating, bringing to an end a turbulent few weeks for all involved following the dismissal of Christian Horner after 20 years as team boss.
The leading trio finished the race within 1.4 seconds of one another.
It was Verstappen's 12th sprint win, whilst Piastri has extended his championship lead over team-mate Norris to nine points.
Result Sprint race - Belgian
That winning feeling for Max Verstappen and Red Bull
From second on the grid, and given the power of the slipstream along the Kemmel Straight following the climb out of Eau Rouge and over the hill at Raidillon, Verstappen eased around the outside of Piastri on the approach to the Les Combes chicane.
It was similar for Norris and Leclerc, who had started alongside one another on the second row, with the Monégasque passing the Briton at the end of the Kemmel Straight to claim third.
Once the DRS was allowed to be used from the start of lap three, Piastri failed to make any inroads on the Kemmel Straight despite being within half a second of Verstappen.
Norris, though, did reclaim third from Leclerc on lap four to leave him under two seconds adrift of Piastri, who continued to struggle in the turbulent air of Verstappen's RB21 that had been set up for the sprint with greater straight-line speed as a trade-off for downforce.
By lap 10, Norris had pulled to within DRS range of Piastri, but he then encountered the same issue as his team-mate and was unable to get close enough to make a move.
On the same lap, a small mistake from Verstappen out of the final chicane gave Piastri a whiff of a chance on lap 11, as Piastri was closer than at any previous stage, only for the Dutchman to defend admirably along the Kemmel. It proved to be his only chance.
Behind the top three, Leclerc finished fourth ahead of Haas drivers Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman in fifth and seventh, either side of Williams' Carlos Sainz, with Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar claiming the final point for eighth.
For the start, there was the unusual sight of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli in his Mercedes on the back row.. The duo had claimed pole in China and Miami, respectively, for the first two sprints of this season.
Hamilton, who complained of having "no rear" at one stage midway through the race, finished 15th, with Antonelli 17th.
For Alpine, the sprint was a disaster. Franco Colapinto, who had qualified 19th, started from the pit lane due to changes made to his car under par fermé conditions. He finished 19th.
Team-mate Pierre Gasly, who had points in his sights after qualifying a superb eighth, did not start due to a suspected water leak. He did, however, join the event at the start of lap three, effectively as a test ahead of the rest of the weekend.
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