Spa-Francorchamps, home of the Belgium Grand Prix, is likely to feel a world away from the heat of Valencia – at least, Sebastian Vettel will hope so.
Brawn’s Jenson Button may be looking over his shoulder at the top of the driver standings as his season continues to falter with no win or even a podium in four races, after six victories from the first seven, but Vettel has had a lot of rain falling on his parade lately, too. He failed to finish in Hungary, then two Renault engines from his season’s allocation of eight went bang in Valencia last time out, the second bringing about his second consecutive DNF – but Spa is widely regarded as suiting the Red Bull cars, so even if the sun fails to shine in Belgium as it did in Spain, Vettel’s outlook may brighten considerably come August 30. We look at who's got the most potential to shine at every driver’s favourite track…
Mark Webber (AUS) – RBR-Renault
Current position in standings: 3rd, 51.5pts
All of the drivers love Spa, but Mark Webber loves it more than most, so you can expect the Aussie, already enjoying his best ever season in F1, to be in with a decent shout of victory. The European GP in Valencia was a weekend to forget for Webber, out of the points for the first time in seven races in that most annoying of positions – ninth – and watching Rubens Barrichello win, leapfrogging him back into second in the drivers’ standings. But Mark’s been around too long to let one result dishearten him. Remember the joyful outburst over the radio after that debut win at the Nürburgring? That’s the Webber that’ll be rolling into Spa-Francorchamps.
Sebastian Vettel (GER) – RBR-Renault
Current position in standings: 4th, 47pts
He’s still only 22, remember, but a good car, some great results this season and a chance of a drivers’ title so early in his career have given the paddock’s Mr Nice Guy some added steel. Now that he can win, the German doesn’t like losing, and if, as expected, it rains again at Spa, the kind of class in the wet we saw at Monza last year (his maiden win and also Toro Rosso’s first ever) and China this year (Red Bull’s famous debut victory), could win through. But despite the obvious wet-weather pedigree and the comparisons that suggest themselves, don’t call him the new Michael Schumacher (or the new Luca Badoer, for that matter).
Lewis Hamilton (GBR) – McLaren-Mercedes
Current position in standings: 6th, 27pts
Did that bungled pitstop in Spain when his wheels weren’t ready cost Lewis his second consecutive win? The look on his face in the post-race press conference as he stated that Rubens would have won anyway, refused to criticise his team and then self-consciously slurped his glass of orange suggested the jury was still out. But the fact that he was even in contention for another win, after a season that began with McLaren in disarray over the ‘Lie-gate’ scandal in Melbourne and with arguably the grid’s worst car, should bring a wry smile to Hamilton’s face. A defence of his 2008 title is still mathematically possible, and he’ll know it. And after last year’s Spa débacle, when a thrilling last lap saw the slipping, sliding Hamilton just edge it when Kimi Räikkönen lost it with metres to go, only for the stewards to ruin the best race-finish for years by penalising the Englishman in dubious circumstances, Hamilton has unfinished business with Belgium, too.
Kimi Räikkönen (FIN) – Ferrari
Current position in standings: 7th, 24pts
Despite being the world champion at the time and the sport’s top earner, he spent much of last season in the shadow of team-mate Felipe Massa, but with the Brazilian’s unfortunate absence, Räikkönen is now Ferrari’s undisputed top driver again, and has quietly been doing the business, finishing second in Budapest and third in Valencia in the last two outings. The widely-held assumption is that, with his recent rallying exploits and the open secret that his Ferrari seat for 2010 will be Fernando Alonso’s, Räikkönen is already thinking about life beyond F1. This, along with the fact that it’s the resurgent McLaren and not the F60 that’s being talked about in the same breath as pacesetters Brawn and Red Bull, mean that Kimi can go about his business with a lot less pressure than last year, with the fact that he so nearly won here 12 months ago also a factor. Whether the improved Ferrari, on which development has now been halted to begin work on 2010’s car, is good enough to match its rivals at Spa is another question.
Romain Grosjean (FRA) – Renault
Current position in standings: 22nd, 0pts
His debut as Nelson Piquet Jnr’s replacement might have been this weekend, had Renault’s ban from the European Grand Prix (after Fernando Alonso’s wheel flew off at the Hungaroring) not been overturned, but Grosjean was unlucky in Valencia when a first-lap shunt saw him have to pit for a new nosecone, dropping him down the order from an admirable 14th on the grid. Nevertheless, a 15th-place finish shows that, like fellow recent addition Jaime Alguersuari at Toro Rosso, Romain is dealing with the unique rigours of Formula 1 with aplomb. As with the Valencia street circuit, Grosjean knows Spa from GP2, where he won the feature race for ART last year.
Add a comment
Comments