Red Bull Motorsports
F1
What happened at the Belgian Grand Prix?
A crazy crash-filled start didn't deter Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel in Spa, while Max Verstappen grabbed a podium at one of F1's signature circuits.
1. The build-up
Plenty had happened since the most recent race in Hungary when the paddock reconvened at Spa-Francorchamps, so much so that all four drivers in the first part of the pre-event press conference (Daniel Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly) were all wearing shirts for teams they won't be driving for next year …
On the teams front, the takeover of Force India, which went into administration at the Hungarian round, saw the team compete as an all-new entry under the banner of Racing Point Force India, with Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon continuing to drive for the outfit, but all 59 constructors' points earned by the team this year struck from the statistics as it raced as a 'new' squad for the first time.
Once the action got going on track, Ferrari led the way through all three practice sessions, but when Spa's notoriously fickle micro-climate dumped rain onto the track in Q3, it was Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton who stepped to the fore as they did at the Hungaroring four weeks previously, the championship leader taking a record fifth pole in Belgium and sixth of 2018 with a lap that was right on the ragged edge.
"I don't think I can quite put into words just how difficult the conditions were out there today, we were all tip-toeing around," Hamilton said after beating Sebastian Vettel by seven-tenths of a second to top spot.
The rain and the length of the longest lap in F1 (7.004km) created the chance for a junked-up grid, but few would have believed you if you'd suggested Ocon and Perez would have locked out row two for their 'new' team. Third for Ocon was his best qualifying yet, and was timely given his 2019 future remains unclear because of the ownership change at his team. "A fantastic day," he beamed.
Romain Grosjean used the grunt of Ferrari's engine to qualify a strong fifth for Haas ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who was much further back than expected after a fuel miscalculation from his team left him stranded in the garage as the track improved later in the session. Others caught out by the weather included Red Bull (Max Verstappen seventh ahead of Ricciardo in eighth), while Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas didn’t complete a timed lap in Q3, the Finn consigned to a back-of-the-grid start no matter where he qualified because of engine component changes.
Nico Hulkenberg would join Bottas at the back because of his own Renault engine penalties, while there was no home comfort for McLaren's struggling Stoffel Vandoorne, the Belgian qualifying last and at a loss for answers. "It’s a real shame that we don’t have better machinery to really put on a good show and give the fans a good result," he said.
Gloomy and threatening weather on race morning, the two title protagonists sharing the front row, cars out of their normal position behind … everything was in place for a gripping race around one of the sport's signature circuits.
2. The race in exactly 69 words*
Vettel's pace was devastating once he got out front
© Ferrari Media
Hulkenberg's monster shunt with Alonso at the first corner eliminated both drivers and Sauber's Charles Leclerc, and caused a safety car. Vettel blasted past Hamilton into Turn 5 just before the safety car neutralised the race, and was never headed thereafter, winning by 11.275 seconds. Hamilton retained his series lead with second, while Verstappen completed the podium with a lonely third. Ricciardo was one of five drivers to retire.
(* 2018 is the 69th season of Formula One)
3. Ricciardo recap
Ricciardo would be pleased to see the back of Belgium
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Ricciardo admitted he was left scratching his head after qualifying behind Verstappen for the seventh race running, saying he was losing time "everywhere" to the Dutchman, and not being able to put his finger on why. The Red Bulls started alongside one another on row four, but any plans of a battle between them were shelved when Ricciardo made a slow getaway, and had his rear wing damaged by Alonso's flying McLaren after Hulkenberg sent the Spaniard skywards. Ricciardo then hit Raikkonen's Ferrari with his front left tyre, and the Australian limped back to the pits for hasty repairs, and re-joined once the safety car released the field two laps down and on nothing more than an information-gathering run, where only attrition was going to lead to points. Once the pitstops had played out, the team chose to retire Ricciardo's car so he can take a new gearbox without a grid penalty at the next race in Italy.
Ricciardo's last five race results follow a pattern: DNF (Austria), fifth (Great Britain), DNF (Germany), fourth (Hungary), DNF (Belgium). Can we pencil him in for a third at Monza and a maiden Italian GP podium, then? He'll be hoping so after an anonymous weekend at Spa where he fell behind Verstappen in the drivers' standings for the first time this season.
4. What the result means
Hamilton had no answer when Ferrari flew
© Daimler AG
The prevailing view heading into the mid-season break was that Hamilton's 24-point lead had been earned despite Ferrari having the stronger car, and Vettel proved that correct by setting a devastating pace at Spa that Mercedes simply couldn't match. After one lap once the race resumed following the safety car period, the German tore off to a 1.6-second lead, and while Hamilton pegged the gap at around three seconds before he pitted on lap 21, Vettel stopped a lap later, fitted the same tyre compound (softs) as his title rival, and methodically built a lead of over four seconds within seven laps. By lap 30, with the lead over five seconds, the series leader had to concede defeat and take solace in having a 17-point championship lead with 13 of 21 races this season in the books. "He just drove past me like I wasn't there," Hamilton said of Vettel's pace in the early stages, while the German's post-race assessment ("I could turn everything down and control it") sent Mercedes an ominous warning.
Verstappen's fifth podium of the season, once he dispatched the Racing Point Force India (yes, that's taking some getting used to) duo of Ocon and Perez, won't go down as one of his most exciting drives, as he finished 20 seconds behind Hamilton and 31 seconds behind the race-winner. But it was a result that sent the hordes of Dutch fans home happy, and one that came in the country of his birth to please the locals just as much. "We just did our own race," he said after jumping Ricciardo to fifth in the championship standings.
From the back, Bottas did the best he could to get up to fourth by the flag, despite having to make an early stop when he clattered into the back of Sergey Sirotkin's Williams in the first-corner mayhem caused by Hulkenberg. With Raikkonen forced to retire with significant floor damage after being tagged by Ricciardo, Bottas' 12 points helped Mercedes retain its constructors' championship lead.
5. For historical purposes ...
Sunday's victory was Vettel's 52nd Grand Prix triumph, moving him ahead of Alain Prost into third on the all-time winners' list. Michael Schumacher (91) and Hamilton (67) are the only drivers who have won more.
6. The number to know
2: the number of points Verstappen now leads Ricciardo by in the drivers' standings after trailing him for the first 12 rounds. Ricciardo's advantage peaked at 37 points after round six in Monaco, which was his last podium finish.
7. A tweet that caught our attention
How could this not?
8. Under-the-radar winner(s)
Leclerc was fortunate to escape with merely a scare
© Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team
Advocates of the halo, which came in amid howls of protest (from some) this year, were left saying 'told you so' when the device deflected Alonso's flying McLaren from above Leclerc's head in the scary first-turn crash that ripped every conceivable corner from the McLaren. Leclerc would have been disappointed to be a spectator after lap one for the second straight race, but, equally would have been thanking his lucky stars afterwards.
"The positive side is that we all three are OK, including Charles," Alonso said. "I flew over his car and the halo was a very good thing to have. I think for him it helped, looking at the replay. I was definitely happier that I had the halo. We don't need to prove that it's a good thing to have."
For his role in the crash, Hulkenberg was handed a 10-place grid penalty for the next race in Italy.
Elsewhere, fifth (Perez) and sixth (Ocon) was a fantastic 'debut' for the 'new' Force India, while a double points finish for Haas (seventh for Grosjean and eighth for teammate Kevin Magnussen) saw the American team draw within six points of Renault for fourth in the constructors' championship after Hulkenberg's DNF and Carlos Sainz's 11th-place finish.
9. Those who lost out
It was a rough weekend on home soil for Vandoorne
© Pirelli Motorsport Media
Ricciardo, whose first race weekend back after his summer shutdown news barely got out of first gear. Raikkonen, whose five-race run of podiums was snapped. And Vandoorne, who finished last in every practice session, qualified slowest, and was the 15th and final car running at the flag for about as depressing of a home race weekend as can be imagined.
10. What's next?
It seems like no more than 10 minutes ago that the 2018 season started in Melbourne, but the final race of the season in Europe is coming in a flash, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza taking place in just seven days' time (September 2). Ferrari hasn’t won in front of the tifosi at home since Alonso saluted in 2010, with Mercedes annexing all four races since the sport switched to V6 turbo hybrid engines in 2014, Hamilton three of them.
