Posted on 23rd August 2015
At the Belgian Grand Prix this afternoon, Lewis Hamilton bounces back from Hungary and wins an action-packed race to extend his championship lead by 28 points ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg in second place and ahead of Lotus driver Romain Grosjean who has to be my driver of the day after battling from ninth to third place for his first podium of the season.
After Qualifying yesterday, it was announced that Lotus driver Romain Grosjean receive a five place grid penalty for changing his gearbox and also that Max Verstappen would also have a ten place grid penalty for changing his gearbox as well.
However, this morning we learnt that Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen will also be dropping five places on the grid as Ferrari decided to change his gearbox after his car stopped with transmission failure in qualifying yesterday.
On the formation lap, Nico Hulkenberg reports to his team that he has no power from the engine. The Force India team tell Hulkenberg to pit at the end of the lap and then they retract their decision and tell him to take the start. However, Hulkenberg on his grid slot waves his hands in the air to inform the marshals that he has a problem. The start is then aborted and an extra formation lap is needed in order to get Hulkenberg back to the pit lane.
On the extra formation lap, Carlos Sainz Jr also tells his team that he also has no power in his Toro Rosso and has been told to go into the pitlane.
The Belgian Grand Prix is underway! Lewis Hamilton gets a good start as does Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez is now up to second place. Nico Rosberg had a bad start and got bogged down and now sees Sebastian Vettel closing up on him.
As we head into the next few corners, on the way up Eau Rouge to the next corner, Perez gets a slipstream from Hamilton and manages to pass him for the lead shortly but Hamilton was able to get the position back heading into Les Combes. Daniel Ricciardo is now up to third while Rosberg and Bottas heading into the final corner battle for fourth place but Rosberg hold on to the position despite a lock up.
Lap 2 sees Nico Hulkenberg retiring from the race with a terminal problem with his Force India and it is a real shame after a promising weekend for the German driver. Pastor Maldonado meanwhile reports to the Lotus team that he is having engine problems and is going slowly on the track. He manages to get it back to the pits and officially retires from the race.
In the early stages of the race, we saw the battle for tenth intensify between Marcus Ericsson, Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen with Ericsson losing two places to them within two laps. We also saw Daniil Kvyat passing Felipe Massa for eighth place and Daniel Ricciardo catching Sergio Perez for second place. The battle for sixth place also took our attention between Valtteri Bottas and Romain Grosjean with Grosjean gaining on Bottas all the time and on Lap 8, Grosjean passes Bottas for fifth place.
A big surprise in the early stages of the race was Ricciardo pitting at the end of Lap 7 with the Red Bull team telling Ricciardo it is to try and get past Perez and want to do the “opposite†of what they will do. Perez pits at the end of Lap 8 and Ricciardo is able to get past Perez on the track; with the undercut working beautifully for him and his team.
Williams driver Valtteri Bottas when he pitted has been allocated the wrong tyre compound and has a mixture of the yellow and white tyres on his Williams; with 3 yellow tyres and a white tyre. He will then have to pit in order to change his tyres to one compound as it is against the technical and sporting regulations. Lap 13 sees the stewards announcing that an investigation is underway with Bottas for having incorrect tyres fitted onto his car.
Lap 11 saw Max Verstappen battling with Felipe Nasr for eleventh place and in a beautiful move at the Bus Stop Chicane after trying for several corners to get past; Verstappen passes Nasr for track position. At the end of Lap 13, Lewis Hamilton makes his pit stop and hands over the lead to Sebastian Vettel who hasn't yet stopped for tyres.
The stewards announce on Lap 14 that Bottas will receive a drive through penalty as a result of having incorrect tyres fitted onto his Williams on his first pit stop. At the end of the lap, Vettel pits for tyres and hands the lead back to Hamilton who had a 3.4 second lead to his team mate Nico Rosberg in second place.
After the first round of pitstops, everyone's attentions were on the battle for seventh place between Kvyat, Massa and Raikkonen with Massa catching the young Russian driver very quickly indeed. While this battle is going on, Grosjean is flying and is able to pass Ricciardo on Lap 18 with a great move on the Australian driver and is quickly catching Perez for third place. On Lap 20, Grosjean passes Perez into Les Combes for third place with a brilliant move.
On Lap 21, Daniel Ricciardo stops just after the Bus Stop Chicane while catching Perez for fourth place and after locking up his front right tyre, he lost hydraulic pressure which caused him to lose the throttle. Ricciardo has to sadly retire from the race and a virtual safety car has been deployed in order to get the car removed safely.
The racing then resumed on Lap 22 with Raikkonen catching Massa for seventh place on the track. Two laps later, several teams in the pit lane reporting to their drivers that there could be a threat of rain in the latter stages of the Grand Prix as Hamilton leads Rosberg still by 2.4 seconds.
In the second half of the race, we saw a battle between Daniil Kvyat and Sergio Perez; with Perez slowly catching the Red Bull driver. After making his pit stop two laps later, Kvyat with ease passes Bottas for ninth place. At the end of Lap 30, the race leader pits for new tyres after a discussion with his race engineer and hands the over to Rosberg which Rosberg hands back to Hamilton after his pit stop a lap later.
Felipe Nasr once again passes Fernando Alonso for twelfth place while Perez and Massa battled for fifth place on the track. At this stage of the race, showers are roughly thirty miles from the Spa-Francorchamps circuit; will we see the threat of rain hit the circuit in the latter stages of the race?
Lap 35 sees the Toro Rosso team informing Carlos Sainz Jr that they will be boxing the car to retire from the race officially after being two laps down on the leaders and are probably thinking of this in order to keep mileage on the engine at a minimum.
The battle for third place between Sebastian Vettel and Romain Grosjean caught everyone's attentions; with Grosjean being urged on by his team to “keep pushing†and that “he can catch Sebastian†on the track. Lap 37 sees Kvyat passing Raikkonen with a good move to take seventh place and joins the battle for fifth between Sergio Perez, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen.
Kvyat is successful with passing Massa for sixth place on Lap 40 and passes him with a great move into Les Combes; despite locking up his front right tyres in order to complete the move. The next lap sees Kvyat managing to pass Perez with another great piece of driving to get fifth place.
On the Kemmel straight on Lap 42, Sebastian Vettel’s right rear tyre blows up and he is going slowly to try and get into the pits. Vettel’s chances of a podium finish has now gone in their 900th Grand Prix start and Romain Grosjean now takes the place. On the final lap of the race, Max Verstappen tries to pass Kimi Raikkonen for position; but Verstappen couldn't make it work and Raikkonen retains the position.
But it was Lewis Hamilton who took victory at the Belgian Grand Prix and extends his championship lead over rival Nico Rosberg to 28 points as we head to the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. Hamilton has now won 39 Grand Prixs and now ties with the great Aryton Senna on podium finishes which is 80 and it is a fantastic achievement for the British driver to be tied with his hero.
He finished ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg in second place who was 2.058 seconds behind him but was ahead of Lotus driver Romain Grosjean who finished in a fantastic third place and his first podium of the season who was 37.988 seconds behind the Mercedes of Hamilton; despite everything that is going on in their legal battle with former Test driver Charles Pic off the circuit.
Daniil Kvyat finished the race in a fantastic fourth place ahead of Sergio Perez in a credible fifth place, Felipe Massa in sixth place and Kimi Raikkonen in a credible seventh place after all his troubles this weekend after being resigned by the Ferrari team for 2016. Max Verstappen finished the race in eighth place ahead of Valtteri Bottas finished the race in ninth place despite what happened during the race ahead of Marcus Ericsson who rounds off the top ten finishers.
Felipe Nasr finished the race just out of the points in eleventh place ahead of Sebastian Vettel finished the race one lap down in a disappointing twelfth place after his tyre exploded on the second to last lap of the race when he was in third position. But he finished ahead of the McLaren-Honda drivers of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button also one lap down in thirteenth and fourteenth places and Roberto Merhi in fifteenth place also one lap down.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Will Stevens finished the race in sixteenth place one lap down. Carlos Sainz Jr, Daniel Ricciardo, Pastor Maldonado and Nico Hulkenberg were not classified.
The classification of the Belgian GP is as follows:-
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.23.40.387
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 2.058s
3. Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, 37.988s
4. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Renault, 45.692s
5. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 53.997s
6. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 55.283s
7. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 55.703s
8. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 56.076s
9. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.01.040
10. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.31.234
11. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.42.311
12. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1 lap
13. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
14. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
15. Roberto Merhi, Manor, 1 lap
16. Will Stevens, Manor, 1 lap
17. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, Not Classified
18. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, Not Classified
19. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, Not Classified
20. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, Not Classified
Lewis Hamilton leads the Drivers' Championship with 227 points, Rosberg is second with 199 points, Vettel is third with 160 points, Raikkonen is fourth with 82 points, Massa is fifth with 82 points, Bottas is sixth with 79 points, Kvyat is seventh with 51 points, Ricciardo is eighth with 51 points, Grosjean is ninth with 38 points and Verstappen is tenth with 26 points.
Mercedes lead the Constructors Championship with 426 points, Ferrari is second with 242 points, Williams are third with 161 points, Red Bull are fourth with 108 points, Lotus are fifth with 50 points, Force India are sixth with 49 points, Toro Rosso are seventh with 35 points, Sauber are eighth with 23 points and McLaren-Honda are ninth with 17 points.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
SPA By www.grahamandleigh.co.uk
