After the 4-week long summer break the Belgian GP started the second half of the season. Legendary 7-kilometre long Spa Francorchamps is the longest circuit on the calendar and has remarkable 100-year history in motor racing.
The latter half of the season got kicked off with massive amount of grid penalties, as seven drivers altogether were hit with penalties. The biggest names were Red Bull's championship leader Verstappen and his number one contender Ferrari's Leclerc. Penalties had been handed to Alpine's Ocon, Alfa Romeo's Bottas, McLaren's Norris, Haas' Schumacher and AlphaTauri's Tsunoda due to power unit element changes.
Conditions were chilly, as qualifying got underway, air temperature being only 15 degrees Celsius. The most positive performance in Q2 was offered by Williams' Albon, who made it within the top ten, dropping McLaren's Ricciardo out of the final segment. The 6th grid slot was on the way for Albon, as Verstappen, Leclerc, Norris and Ocon were all to drop out of the top ten due in the final results due to their penalties!
Charles Leclerc. Photo by Ferrari.
Verstappen's performance in Q3 was absolutely smashing. He was on a level, which no one else was able to reach, being six tenths faster than Sainz in his Ferrari. Perez made it 3rd in the sister Red Bull, leaving Leclerc 4th in the other Ferrari. The Alpine duo of Ocon and Alonso qualified 5th and 6th respectively and were followed by the Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Russell in the fourth row. Albon and Norris rounded out the top ten.
The penalties changed the qualifying results dramatically for the race day. Pole-setter Verstappen was dropped down to P14 and Sainz was promoted on pole. Perez made it on the front row alongside Sainz, and the second row was locked down by Alonso and Hamilton. Russell and Albon were on the third row, whilst Verstappen's closest rival Leclerc was dropped down to P15.
Carlos Sainz. Photo by Ferrari.
Tyre strategy for the race was interesting. Carlos in P2 was the only driver in the top ten to start to the race on the softs, whilst everyone else around him opted for mediums. Teammate Charles, as well as the winner candidate Verstappen, were on the softs as well. Carlos had no difficulties to hold on to his lead. His fellow countryman Alonso took a superb start and overtook Perez for P2 right away. Unfortunately the splendid start was ruined, as Alonso collided with Mercedes' Hamilton on the opening lap. The contact caused significant damage to the Briton's W12, which stopped on the track. Alonso managed to maintain P4 in spite of the clash. Like expected, safety car was deployed.
During the safety car Charles pitted after having reported about smoke coming from his front-right tyre. Apparently a zip-off from the Monegasque's visor had ended up in the front-right brakes. Safety car came in on lap 5, and Sainz continued in the lead, with Perez 2nd, Russell 3rd and Alonso 4th. Unbelievable but true, Verstappen had jumped from P14 up to P4 in seven laps only! The sequential lap saw the flying Dutchman storm past Russell, who was utterly armless against Max's dominant attack. Meanwhile Charles was still back in P12.
Carlos opened the pit stop window in terms of the top drivers. He rejoined the track in P6 on a fresh set of medium tyres. Verstappen stayed out and robbed his teammate of the lead, which didn't require too much of an effort. The Red Bull duo pitted on laps 15 and 16, Perez first. Both drivers opted for a fresh set of medium tyres. Verstappen came out in P2 and Perez in P3 ahead of Russell and Leclerc. After the first pit stops Carlos was in the lead, but with a 3-second margin only.
There was no stopping Verstappen, whose pace was in a league of his own. On lap 18 Max pushed himself past Carlos, taking over the race lead. Three laps later also Perez squeezed his RB18 past Carlos' prancing horse, which meant a double lead in the race for the Red Bull duo. Red Bull's pace was absolutely frightening. After losing a second per lap to Max, Carlos pitted for the second time. Teammate Charles followed, and both got new mediums on their SF75s. Charles came out in P7, whilst Carlos lost one position only, rejoining the track behind Russell in P4.
Dominant race leader Verstappen pitted for the second time on lap 31, opting for a fresh set of mediums on the contrary to his teammate and Mercedes' Russell, who switched to the hards. Two laps after his pit stop Max clocked a lap time two seconds faster than that of Perez and Sainz!
With less than ten laps to go, the order of the top drivers was quite stabilised. Verstappen had a 15-second lead over his teammate, Sainz was 10 seconds down on Perez and Russell two seconds off the Scuderia ace. Charles was massive 20 seconds behind Russell already. There seemed to be no question about the podium finishers.
Against the odds, Charles pitted for another set of softs on the second last lap. His pit stop had seemed secured ahead of Alonso and the team's goal seemed to be to give Charles a chance to chase the fastest lap time, but due to the third pit stop Alonso managed to get ahead of the Monegasque.
Charles Leclerc. Photo by Ferrari.
Ferrari's strategy failed badly, although Charles managed to squeeze his SF75 past Alonso's Alpine in the end. However, Charles was given a 5-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane, which dropped the Monegasque behind Alonso in the final results. Verstappen, on the other hand, took the chequered flag 18 seconds before teammate Perez, who made the day perfect for the energy drink team. And the fastest lap time went to who else but Verstappen instead of Charles!
Carlos Sainz 3rd on the podium. Photo by Ferrari.
Carlos brought some comforting points for the Scuderia and Russell continued his impressive streak by finishing 4th. Due to Leclerc's penalty Alonso made it 5th after all. The last points were scored by Alpine's Ocon (7th), Aston Martin's Vettel (8th), AlphaTauri's Gasly (9th) and Williams' Albon (10th).
Verstappen's lead in the drivers' championship standings is smashing 93 points to teammate Perez and 102 points to Charles! The Ferrari drivers are separated by 15 points only. Red Bull's lead in the constructors' standings is gigantic 118 points with eight more rounds to go. It needs a semi wonder from Ferrari to turn the tables in either one of the fights!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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