The F1 caravan arrived in Belgium after the 4-week long summer break. Spa Francorchamps is one of the most iconic race venues on the F1 calendar, as the circuit has hosted an F1 race ever since from 1950 apart from a few exceptions. Every F1 fan knows the combination of turns 3, 4 and 5, the Raidillon Eau Rouge, which is known as one of the most dangerous corners in F1. It was only two years ago, that F2 driver Anthoine Hubert lost his life after a crash at this very place.
Spa Francorchamps is known of varying weather conditions. The track was wet, as the qualifying got underway, but the rain had stopped. The Williams duo of Russell and Latifi were the only drivers to come out on the intermediate tyres, whilst all rivals opted for the full wets. Williams' choice proved the right call, as the green-walled intermediate Pirellis were 5.5 seconds faster in drying conditions. Norris at the wheel of McLaren delivered brilliantly on the slippery track, and the Briton was topping the time sheets both in Q1 and Q2.
The conditions in the second session were quite similar to those seen in Q1. Norris kept shining. It was almost unreal, how the young McLaren ace was able to use the high kerbs to turn his car into the corner and not to lose control of his car. Verstappen showed strong performance as well and was only a tenth of a second shy of Norris. Both Mercedes pilots struggled at the beginning of the session, but both Hamilton and Bottas managed to deliver in the dying moments of Q2, jumping second and third. Unfortunately both Ferrari aces were in trouble on the high-speed circuit of Spa Francorchamps, and neither one of the red-suited warriors made it within the top ten.
The rain intensified, as the final segment was kicked off. Full wets were the only call to be made in the downpour. Williams' Russell, McLaren's Norris and Aston Martin's Vettel were the first drivers to go out. Soon after exiting the pits, Sebastian said on the team radio, that the race should be red-flagged due to undrivable conditions. Norris, too reported about aquaplaning on the team radio. Only a short moment later Norris started his first flyer, losing control of his orange McLaren at Eau Rouge. The Briton crashed into the left-side tyre wall and ended up spinning recklessly on the track with heavy damage on the car. Luckily Norris was able to walk away from his car with a few bruises only. Qualifying was red-flagged with nine minutes remaining in the clock.
Q3 was resumed after a 45-minute suspension. Hamilton took provisional pole on the intermediates, as raining had finally stopped. Verstappen was massive nine tenths off the pace, and Bottas in third was 1.5s down on his teammate. The last moments of Q3 saw a heroic drive from George Russell, who set the first two sectors purple and grabbed pole position -but only to be deprived of it by Max Verstappen in the end. However, this was the very first front row grid slot for Russell, who was absolutely over the moon. Hamilton was left third, but McLaren's Ricciardo was a surprise fourth. Aston Martin's Vettel delivered in the challenging conditions as well, qualifying fifth. AlphaTauri's Gasly was 6th and Red Bull's Perez 7th. Bottas, Alpine's Ocon and Norris rounded out the top ten.
Race day dawned rainy, which anticipated an eventful and exciting race. Unfortunately reality proved otherwise. Before the start all drivers exited the pits on the full wets, as it was raining heavily at Spa Francorchamps. Perez, who was driving slowly and cautiously, still ended up aquaplaning and crashed into a tyre wall nose first. This was bad news for the Red Bull pilot, who was now out of the race.
After a delay the cars followed safety car on the track. However, the conditions were find to be too dangerous for racing, so after just two laps the start procedure was suspended, and the race was red-flagged. The cars returned to the pit lane in pouring rain. No one knew, what was going to happen. The race control announced a weather update every ten minutes, but the rain didn't show any signs of stopping. Initially there was a 3-hour time limit in terms of the race, but after tens of minutes of waiting, the race control announced, that the clock had been paused, and that they were aiming for a 1-hour race. During the massive delay Red Bull were shown green light, that Perez was allowed to start to the race from the pit lane, as the Red Bull mechanics had been able to fix the Mexican's RB16B while waiting for the race to be started.
After over three hours of waiting, the safety car led the cars on track. Two laps were driven in pouring rain behind the safety car, and again the conditions were considered undrivable. Another red flag, and the cars returned to the pit lane. After another half an hour of waiting, the race control confirmed, that the race was not resumed! So in four hours only four laps were driven, all behind the safety car! No racing whatsoever took place in the Belgian GP!
Half points were given, as only four laps were driven. Verstappen stepped on the top step of the podium with Russell second and Hamilton third. Russell was genuinely happy, as this was the first podium finish for him in F1. It could have come in a more glorious way, but podium is always a podium! I felt so sorry for the fans, who stood in the rain for four hours supporting their favourite drivers and saw no racing at all!
After such an anticlimax of a race, I'm definitely looking forward to some proper racing in Holland this week! Forza Ferrari!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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