Well once again Spa Francorchamps has delivered some spectacular racing, between the trees of the Ardennes forest there was some outstanding action today. From the most ballsy overtaking of the entire season and probably won't be beaten for a considerable period of time, then there was the most chaotic and destructive start of the season too. What was rather interestingly missing from the equation was the rain, the same rain that doused the rest of the weekend from FP1 to the end of Q2. The clouds were grey and looming but didn't unleash their wrath.
The overall result may not have been to much of a surprise, with that German Bloke standing on the top step of the podium again - with his team-mate crossing the line behind. But the rest of the field had an eventful and entertaining day, some rather more so than others with varying degrees of success, resulting in the Safety Car paying a visit to the track. Luckily this intervention wasn't as crazy as the GP2 race where mayhem and carnage reigned behind the SLS (in the feature race anyway, haven't seen the sprint race). In between the contact and the overtaking brilliance it was a thrilling race and here, roughly is how things took place.
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| Credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk |
The Race
Before the start there were questions and a degree of annoyance among the top running teams - complaining that their tyres suffered blistering in Q3, and were unsafe to race on. But this was the result of a setup decision involving camber so was in essence the teams fault, and in reality were not an immediate danger so laps could be completed before changing them. And as per the regulations the top 10 start on the tyres they qualified on unless there was some severe structural damage and would be impossible to run on.
With that matter all settled - not to Adrian Newey's satisfaction, but after all you can't win everything - isn't enough you've got pole and a dominating championship lead... There was an air of uncertainty regarding the rain everyone considered it to be a dry race except amateur meteorologist Wing Commander Petrov who was certain of some precipitation. As is turned out it may not be best to listen to Vitaly's predictions as the clouds grew clearer as the race progressed.
Off the start the Red Bull cars seemed to struggle - Vettel caught it and saved the getaway, Webber however didn't and plummeted down the order. The Mercedes cars made the best start with Rosberg up into 2nd by the La Source. Behind them however things were going to get a whole lot less civilised, Renault Squadron new recruit Bruno Senna found out that Jaime El Incognito was a little more corporeal then his name suggests when he clattered straight into him. Jaime was knocked into Alonso ruining the Torro Rosso's suspension and putting him out. This was far from the end of the contact - Timo Glock drove into Paul Di Resta, who was knocked into Button's rear wing endplate. Then the two Lotus cars connected, almost taking Maldonado's front wing with it.
On the exit of the corner, Senna's wing finally gave up showering the cars behind with the shards, which bombarded Two-Cakes-Up Button's McLaren damaging his wing and severing a wing mirror. But the damage was over for this lap anyway. While Rosberg used the superior straight line power of the Mercedes to claim the lead from his compatriot. With Massa, Hamilton and Alonso rounding the top five.
Nico only managed to hang onto the lead while the DRS was deactivated - so was passed on lap three by Vettel, and Fernando was moving through the field - driving past Lewis on the kemmel straight. Massa was next in line and a rather forceful pass was put into play there into Rivage which opened the door to Hamilton on the run to Pouhon despite being forced rather close to the grass. Alonso rounded up Rosberg on the next lap using the DRS into Les Combes. Further back off camera some contact between One-Stop perez and Buemi resulted in a damaged rear wing on the Torro Ross and a front wing on the Sauber - bringing about Buemi's retirement.
The pits sequence opened with the Red Bull's first to replace the blistered tyres, Ferrari were within a couple of laps with Alonso rejoining right infront of Webber. Mark drew alongside Fernando on the run to Eau Rouge before passing around the outside of the second part of the corner, in the greatest overtaking manoeuvre of the season. However Alonso re-took the position on the following lap through DRS power. In Button's stop he replaced the front wing damaged by parts of Senna's wing on lap one - but had to nurse the damage till the end of the stint dropping him to 19th.
Hamilton came out amongst cars who hadn't stopped yet between Kobayashi and Sutil, he managed to pass the Sauber on the exit of Radillon but Kamui's car had a significant straight line advantage over the McLaren which was running a little too much downforce. Kobayashi moved to the outside of Hamilton as the Brit moved across - contact was made and Lewis was propelled rather significantly into the outside barrier. The armco was rippled and torn while Hamilton initially seemed a little winded from the impact - and the Safety Car was deployed. Martin Whitmarsh seemed to want to shove all the blame in the world at Kamui which is rather uncalled for, it was a racing incident with Lewis more at fault for the crash, but naturally he wouldn't see that.
Alonso and Webber decided not to pit under the Safety Car intervention, and thus inherited the top two positions, while Schumacher had found his way into the top 10 from the final grid slot. On the restart Rosberg unleashed his straight line power on Massa and Button continued his comeback passing Rubens for 10th. But Jenson wasn't done there - next in his sights were One-stop Perez and Wing Commander Petrov who were battling among themselves. Coming into La Source Two-Cakes-Up Button scythed down the outside of Vitaly and kept going to pass Sergio as well - two cars, one corner and the Jenson charge was well under way.
Then after a first half of overtaking and collisions there was a nice period of calm with Vettel now leading from Alonso, Webber, Rosberg and Massa - with Jenson quickly joining the queue. In addition to Button being on a Canadian spec comeback drive, Schumacher was still heading up the leaderboard, now chasing Sutil for 7th.
Button broke the peacefulness with another spectacular pass round the out-side of Massa at the Bus-stop (yes passing happens here but I still don't like the corner - put the old one back), clattering wheels between the apexes. Rosberg was next up and the DRS was barely enough to power past the faster Mercedes on the Kemmel straight - Jenson's most recent pass was followed by a radio message asking where the next car was. A sort of "Right who's next then, I'm coming for you" level of focus and determination.
With 14 laps to go the final round of pit-stops commenced with both Red Bulls going to the harder of the compounds to cover off Ferrari with Alonso on the same strategy - Massa however had to make a double visit to pit lane as a result of a puncture in the first set. Button had already used the harder compound and stayed out a little longer to have a shorted final stint on the softs, his cue to pit was after Vettel having stopped could just drive past on the fresher tyres.
Alonso's pace on the harder tyres was weaker than the cars around him with Webber making a more traditional overtake with the DRS compared to the immense move into Eau Rouge earlier on. He was also falling back towards Jenson who thought he had yet another pass left in him. With Renault Squadron in disarray, as Senna was on demolition duty - the role of formation flying fell to Mercedes as Michael had caught his team-mate. Here was the driver who started last on the grid right behind the one who lead the first lap - illustrating the strength of Schumacher's drive. In equal machinery the DRS gave Michael the edge and 5th position. It turned out Two-Cakes-Up Button did have another pass in him and his victim was Fernando Alonso, who didn't fight to hard as Jenson's softer tyres, raw speed and momentum made the pass inevitable.
The front two were too far away in the closing laps, and Red Bull crossed the line with another victory in the hands of Sebastien Vettel, and welcomed Webber home in 2nd. Jenson claimed a very impressive podium position ahead of Alonso, Schumacher was the top Mercedes on his 20th anniversary in 5th with his team-mate in 6th. Adrian Sutil lead a quiet race displaying Alguersuari levels of stealth to claim 7th, Wing Commander Petrov encountered difficulties on the final lap losing a place to Massa to finish behind him in 9th. Then Pastor Maldonado after a rather controversial qualifying scored a point in 10th.
That German bloke seems to be running away even further with the championship and Red Bull are so far away they could enter the rest of the season on bicycles and still win. But those championships don't matter, here it's bonus points so lets see how they finished...
The Official Bonus Points Championship points winners.
After a fantastic race and a brilliant outside broadcast involving cake, double cake in fact - take that Jenson I had two cakes too... But in between the racing and double word scores points will be awarded and here are the winners from today.
10pts: Michael Schumacher - For coming from the very back to a point where he could pass the early leader to finish 5th on his 20th Anniversary
8pts: Two-Cakes-Up Button - A brilliant drive with a lot of outstanding passes, two at La Source and Massa at the Bus-Stop in particular
6pts: Mark Webber: That pass on Alonso is reason enough - millimetres from a massive accident
5pts: Adrian Sutil: A performance of El Incognito standards scoring points without ever being caught on camera, well with Jaime attacked someone else had to do it
4pts: Pastor Maldonado: After a rather insane Saturday to score his first point of the season from 21st
3pts: Nico Rosberg: For the start avoiding the carnage and taking the lead on the opening lap
2pts: John&Mary: I am going to combine your scores it was an outstanding outside broadcast
1pt: Spa - Francorchamps: For being the best racing track on the planet
The Also Official Penalties Championship
- Bruno Senna - For testing out how incognito Alguersuari actually is be ramming him in La Source
- Timo Glock - For ramming Paul Di Resta also in the La Source collisions
- Sergio Perez - For attacking Sebastien Buemi off camera which forced the Torro Rosso out of the race
The Still Official Dodgy Dealings Championship
- One penalty point for Martin Whitmarsh for his nonsensical raving about the Hamilton/Kobayashi crash ploughing all the blame at Kamui for a racing incident Hamilton caused. There would have been a penalty point for Hamilton for his initial assessment but he took a fair knock and has apologised claiming full responsibility.
- Renault Squadron - For replacing Squadron Leader Heidfeld and completely ruining my naming system, I'll have to come up with something for Bruno but these things need to flow willingly or they sound forced
Looking to Monza
After the high speeds of Spa, time for something a little slower perhaps, well not exactly - Monza is the fastest circuit on the calender and the concluding race to the European season. The ultimate temple of speed and power deep in the heart of Ferrari country, the home of the loyal Tifosi.
The only shame about heading onward to Monza is that it means there is a whole year before we get to visit Spa again, but the Italian GP is an event in it's own right with slipstreaming battles and plenty of potential for overtaking into the various chicanes. It may not be Spa but it is certainly worth looking forward to it is going to be magnificent...
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