Round 14 of the Formula 1 calendar brought our teams back to the prestigious Spa-Francorchamps circuit, a track known for its beautiful backdrops and unpredictable weather. 2023 saw a Red Bull 1-2 on Sunday’s podium, and after
Verstappen not having stood on the podium since the British Grand Prix at the beginning of the month, things weren’t looking too promising after he was handed a ten place grid penalty for this weekend’s race. But his chance of victory couldn’t be ruled out entirely as he won the Grand Prix at Spa in 2022 after starting P14 due to penalties – so would he do the same this weekend, or would someone else have the chance to shine?
Saturday saw some of the wettest weather of the weekend, and after having around only 10/15 minutes of on-track action during FP3 due to several red flags, all was to play for as qualifying began and I sat watching on from the Gold 8 grandstand on La Source in my yellow rain poncho, vaguely resembling Leclerc in his infamous banana costume.
Q1 saw the elimination of both Haas cars, alongside Tsunoda, Sargeant and Zhou, and Q2 saw off Albon, Gasly, Ricciardo, Bottas and Stroll. Not to be outdone, Verstappen was able to set the fastest lap of Q3, however due to his penalty, Leclerc inherited the pole position and Verstappen was bumped down to P11, Following from Leclerc, Perez started alongside him on the front row of the grid, and behind them was Hamilton, Norris, Piastri, Russell, Sainz, Alonso and Ocon, followed now by Albon in P10 after they were all bumped up a position due to Verstappen’s
demotion.
The weather on Sunday, however, was on a whole new level. Gone was my fetching rain poncho, and instead I found myself slathering my arms and legs in suncream as the sun bore down on the track, which thankfully was bone-dry in time for the start of the race itself. As always, I held my breath as the lights went out, but thankfully, everybody made it around the first corner in one piece. Leclerc held the lead, having gotten away on a fantastic start, but behind him,
Perez and Hamilton were getting a little too close for comfort. Hamilton managed to get past Perez’ defense and take P2; however, behind them, Norris’ wheel kissing the gravel lost him some time and so that meant that Perez remained ahead of him, with Piastri now in fourth and Russell also up a position into P5.
It was only then on lap 2 that Verstappen made his next move and got around Alonso. Meanwhile, Norris regained a lost position past Sainz, but shortly after went wide and fell immediately back behind the Ferrari driver, leaving him to be the one now with Verstappen on his tail. On the following lap, much to the crowd’s excitement, Hamilton used the
power of DRS and took the race lead on the Kemmel straight. It wasn’t all sunshine for everybody, however, because unfortunately for Zhou, he began to lose power and fall towards the back of the pack. Four laps later during lap 7, he limped back into the pits, retiring his Kick Sauber and bringing his race weekend to an abrupt end.
The pit stops then began early in the race, with Hulkenberg pitting on lap 8 for hard tyres, followed on the next lap by both Albon and Sargeant in a stacked stop for Williams, and also then Ricciardo, the latter having struggled on soft tyres up until that point. Hamilton continued on in the lead, ahead now by about two seconds, but was conscious of maintaining his tyres, so wasn’t pulling ahead any further. Two laps later he headed into the pits, and so did Perez and
Piastri, leaving Leclerc out on track to continue leading the race – right up until he then pitted on the next lap, leaving Sainz to take the lead with Norris hot on his tail, desperate not to lose any more time in the gravel. It was Sainz, however, that dipped into the gravel next, retaining the lead but losing a good chunk of the gap to the cars behind him. By lap 18, it was only Magnussen in the Haas and Sainz who hadn’t pitted at all yet, the latter not then pitting until the 21st lap.
Lap 27 saw Piastri take the race lead after more pit stops, showing great pace in his McLaren and presumably still on a high from his stunning maiden win just a week earlier. Three laps later he was still holding onto that coveted lead,with Russell and Norris behind him, but then lap 30 saw Norris pit and return to the track in a Verstappen-Sainz sandwich. A lap after Norris’ pit, Piastri brought himself into the pit lane, nearly taking out a member of the pit crew as he overshot his mark slightly and lost valuable time, leaving Russell, who was on a one-stop strategy, to take the lead.
By lap 33, Russell had gained a 6 second gap to Hamilton behind him, though the next car behind the two Mercedes’ was Leclerc, looking to take a podium spot for the second year in a row at Belgium; now only 2.8 seconds behind Hamilton. Before Leclerc could look to make a move on Hamilton, however, Piastri overtook him on lap 36 and secured P3 behind Hamilton for now – the gap to Russell in the lead at this point only being 3.7s for his teammate.
Hopes for a Red Bull podium were slowly dwindling now for the team, with Verstappen still battling Norris for fifth position, and Leclerc not too far ahead of them. By this point I was watching (and holding my breath) stood on the walkway leading up to the gate at La Source – if you know, you know – and for the last few laps, the crowd went crazy watching the gap between Hamilton and Russell fluctuate, with it looking like Hamilton would make it past his
teammate at one point. But Russell held onto the lead and crossed the line first, as I came to terms with the fact my grandma would be green with jealousy when I came home having seen a Russell win in the flesh. Hamilton crossed the line in P2, with Piastri coming home in a very respectable P3. Leclerc, meanwhile, had held onto P4, narrowly missing out on a podium spot this year.
As I ran towards the podium down the starting grid, I was contemplating at what point it was okay to succumb to my emotions and cry about seeing the two Brits on the podium (it was when the British national anthem started playing, if you were wondering). The events that followed the podium will never, ever take away the fact that I got to see Russell and Hamilton up there, together, in their Mercedes race suits, and I don’t think it’s a sight I’m in any hurry to forget.
Following up from the four aforementioned drivers at the front, Verstappen managed to climb up to P5 and stay there, which wasn’t all that bad considering the penalty he’d faced – perhaps it would have been a very different race if he’d won pole and kept it. Norris came home P6, Sainz P7, Perez P8, Alonso P9 and Ocon P10, with Ricciardo having narrowly missed out on points, much to my disappointment.
Or so I thought.
It emerged when I was sat mentally checking out on the coach in the grid-locked car park later that evening that Russell, despite his fantastic efforts in the race, had been disqualified, due to his car being under the required minimum weight after being drained of its fuel; a genuine mistake made by the team; though, despite their best intentions, Russell was stripped of the win, though the trophy still stayed in the Mercedes family with Hamilton. This subsequently bumped Piastri up into P2, with Leclerc taking P3 as he did last year – and Ricciardo was promoted into
the points as everybody was moved up a position.
After a weekend of such mixed emotions, I’m sure the drivers will be looking forward to their much-needed summer break to debrief and relax. Going into the break, Verstappen still leads in the drivers championship with 277 points, Norris behind him with 199; not only that but McLaren are creeping up to Red Bull in the constructors championship, with 366 points versus Red Bull’s 408.
We next see the cars on track when Round 15 of the championship takes us to the Netherlands on the 23rd -25th August – and who knows what might happen then!
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