Red Bull Motorsports
F1
Max Verstappen reigns in the rain in shortened Belgian Grand Prix
A brilliant Saturday pole proved decisive for Red Bull Racing Honda star Max Verstappen when Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix was called off after two laps.
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Max Verstappen has always loved Spa-Francorchamps, home to the Belgian Grand Prix. The problem was, the venerable circuit in the Ardennes hasn't always loved him back, a pair of third-place finishes before 2021 was the best he could manage.
And while Sunday's 12th round of the 2021 Formula One season changed all that for the Red Bull Racing Honda star, Verstappen's breakthrough win in Belgium wasn't the way he – or anyone else – would have wanted. Incessant rain delayed the start from its scheduled 3pm time slot, and from there, the packed grandstands, the teams, drivers and a worldwide TV audience waited, and waited and waited.
Over three hours later, the cars re-emerged on track to complete two laps behind the safety car before the race was red-flagged. It couldn't be restarted as limited visibility became even worse as afternoon turned to evening with no sign of the rain abating. Those two laps made it possible under the sport's regulations to declare a result, with half world championship points awarded.
Verstappen's brilliant pole made the difference on a race day that wasn't
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Verstappen, by virtue of his pole position in wet weather, which wasn't quite as wet 24 hours earlier, took his 16th Formula One victory to draw himself level with one of the sport's legends, Stirling Moss. The 12.5 points he earned for the win also drew him to within just three points of Lewis Hamilton's world championship lead.
Mercedes driver Hamilton finished third, the championship-contending duo split by George Russell (Williams), who took his first podium in F1 after a stunning qualifying on Saturday that dragged Williams onto the front row for the first time since the 2017 Italian Grand Prix.
Verstappen's win came on the team's 50th race with engine suppliers Honda, while Red Bull Racing Honda narrowed its deficit with Mercedes to seven points in the constructors' standings.
Here's what did (and mostly didn't) go down on a long, frustrating and waterlogged afternoon at Spa.
Verstappen's Saturday proves decisive
Win number 16 saw Verstappen draw level with Stirling Moss
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The victory was Verstappen's sixth of what's already been the best season of his career and keeps the title fight very much alive with 10 races still to run in 2021.
All weekend, whatever the conditions, the Dutchman was at or near the top of the pile. Second to Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas in opening practice on Friday when the weather was at its best, Verstappen led second and third practice and pulled out a brilliant lap on a soaked track in Q3 on Saturday to take pole – which made all the difference on a bizarre Sunday.
"In hindsight, it was very important to get that pole position," Verstappen said afterwards.
"Of course, it's a big shame not to do proper laps, but the conditions were very tricky out there. The visibility was very low. I think if we'd started at 3 o'clock we'd have had a better chance, but nevertheless, after that, it stayed wet and kept raining.
"It's a win, but it's not how you want to win. Big credit goes to all the fans around the track to stay here the whole day. They're the bigger winners today."
Sergio's early shower
Pérez paid the penalty after being caught out by the conditions
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The weekend that started very well for Sergio Pérez; the Mexican, a winner in Baku back in June, was confirmed as Verstappen's team-mate for 2022 after a solid start to his first year with the team.
From there? Even Pérez would be forced to ruefully admit things went from bad to worse; disappointed to qualify seventh on Saturday, he crashed at Turn 6 on his lap to the grid on Sunday, damaging his front right suspension after his car slithered off the sodden surface.
The three-hour rain delay saw his mechanics frantically complete repairs that team principal Christian Horner said would have normally taken three to four hours in just one in the hope that the race would be restarted. Still, Pérez didn't get a chance to make amends, starting in 20th and last place at the back of the pit lane and staying in that position after the race was red-flagged.
"I did a mistake, conditions were extremely hard," Pérez said.
"I just went onto the kerb, did a mistake and lost it, which was very costly. We were ready to go; we were so hungry to go and race, but unfortunately, that couldn't happen."
After being taken out on the first lap of the Hungarian Grand Prix at the start of August, Pérez will be happy the calendar flips to September for next weekend's Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.
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Gasly's gain comes with pain
Gasly had his best race result in four F1 visits to Spa
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Pierre Gasly took his fourth top-six finish of the season with sixth place for Scuderia AlphaTauri. Still, that silver lining came with a grey cloud after he ceded eighth place in the drivers' championship to McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo, who came into the race tied on 50 points with the Frenchman but moved ahead after finishing a season-best fourth.
On the other side of the garage, rookie Yuki Tsunoda's lack of wet-weather experience in F1 machinery showed as he qualified 17th on Saturday. Still, he eventually finished 15th after Perez's mishap, and a five-place grid penalty for Aston Martin's Lance Stroll promoted him up the order in a race where there were no on-track overtakes.
Winners and losers
Russell was the biggest beneficiary of the Sunday stoppage, but his first F1 podium owed little to luck after driving his Williams car into a grid position the team has barely seen since its glory days.
"We don't often get rewarded for great qualifyings, so we absolutely did today," Russell said.
"It's a shame we couldn't get this race under way, but for my side and the team's side, that's an amazing result. We'll have a little celebration tonight, that's for sure. I didn't expect that this year."
Other winners on a wet day? Daniel Ricciardo, whose best qualifying of the year was rewarded with a season-best fourth, and a trio of drivers who qualified outside of the top 10, Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, and Russell's team-mate Nicholas Latifi.
Five-place grid penalties for Bottas, for causing an accident at the previous race in Hungary, and McLaren's Lando Norris, who needed a new gearbox after a heavy shunt in qualifying, pushed both drivers outside of the top 10. This proved critical when no racing could be held. Leclerc (eighth), Latifi (ninth) and Sainz (10th) all made the points-paying positions without overtaking a single rival.
Norris was classified 14th after a bruising end to a weekend with so much promise; the young Briton looked set to take another step forwards in a season where he's come of age after he topped the first two periods of qualifying but shunted heavily at the fearsome Eau Rouge corner in Q3 and thankfully emerged unscathed.
Zandvoort worth the wait
When you'd waited 35 years for Formula One's return to Zandvoort, another 12 months was a minor inconvenience for the hordes of Verstappen fans who will flock to the beachside circuit for the comeback of the Dutch Grand Prix next weekend (September 5).
Not since 1985 has F1 tackled the flowing layout nestled beside the North Sea, and you'll be hard-pressed to find many of the 70,000 on hand each day not clad in orange for their hero's first GP under his home flag.
Keep an eye out for the heavily revised final sector, complete with a unique banked final corner named after another Dutch four-wheel hero, two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Arie Luyendyk.
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