First off, before we cover the events of the day I have to ask where on earth was all this rain that was predicted for the race - after all the fun it caused yesterday everyone here... well me, as blog HQ is merely a corner of the sofa, was really looking forward to the prospect of a wet race. Other than the first three corners in Malaysia we've had dry conditions on race day for the entire season, despite the amount of practice and qualifying events that have been interrupted by some precipitation. Spa as always promised so much and has often delivered on that promise, but today not too much - at the front of the field the race was virtually a complete formality outside the first four corners of the race. It was a race where the DRS on the Kemmel straight was all too often far too powerful and cars would just ease past one another, but some drivers were a little more adventurous - and Eau Rouge didn't claim any victims this weekend, in F1 anyway.
It is always a shame that the series moves away from Spa as it signifies that the traditional European season is drawing to a close, with only Monza left next time out - after that lies a range of new and typically over-engineered tracks. Of course there is still Suzuka and Interlagos in there which echo to the adoration of fans across the planet, something that Abu Dhabi and Korea struggle to attain. But this time around the Belgian GP will not be etched into the annuls of history of being a hive of activity and an enthralling challenge for victory, but I've seen considerably worse races.
The Race
I hoped to turn on the coverage to find the BBC crew holding umbrellas and standing in a puddle in the pit lane as rain descended on the circuit - yet there was sunshine and blue skies... at Spa, what madness was this. Twitter indicated that several showers had hit the circuit overnight but as day erupted it was bright with no threat of rain until well after the race was finished. So we started the formation lap in the dry making the strategists days considerably easier, and a little more uneventful.
Off the line the front row mad an even start but the main losers were Di Resta and Webber who lost ground which slowed the inside line down a little bit. So when the Lotus' and Webber went three wide through La Source a gap opened up for Alonso. Raikkonen and Grosjean went wide and Fernando used KERs to pass Webber into Eau Rouge - 10th to 5th by turn two isn't too bad. On the other side of Eau Rouge on the exit of Radillon Vettel seemed to have so much more speed than Hamilton and just eased past the Mercedes a long way before Les Combes. As it has been seen on so many occasions before the German Bloke was never seen of again. Somehow the first lap was completely contact free, only Massa asked his team about his front wing after getting close to the back of Raikkonen as the Lotus came back on after running wide in La Source.
For a while nothing too much took place, everyone just waiting for the DRS to be activated, Alonso had a go at passing Jenson on the Kemmel straight before the device was activated and the Ferrari simply couldn't out-drag the McLaren ahead of him. Out of those cars that broke into Q2 yesterday on the slicks both the Marussias had fallen to the back of the field - Chilton naturally taking up last place, while Van Der Garde was still in the place he qualified in, despite being under pressure from Maldonado and the Torro Rossos. But as soon as the DRS was activated the positions started to change, which didn't work out too well at all for Jenson Button - first he was passed by Alonso in the Ferrari, and one lap later it was Webber repeating the process shuffling the McLaren down to 6th place. One lap after that Alonso performed the same pass on Rosberg for 3rd.
While things were settling down at the front of the pack, attention turned to the mid-field where Di Resta found a line of cars growing behind him, headed by Hulkenberg and Raikkonen. Kimi was finding if difficult to pass the Sauber even with the DRS because the Lotus isn't the fastest car in the straight line. Behind them Grosjean and Perez were involved in a similar battle, except this time the Lotus was defending - Sergio used the DRS to get alongside and eased himself back onto the racing line before Les Combes. The problem being that Grosjean was still there and Perez squeezed the Frenchman off the side of the circuit and was promptly issued with a drive through penalty. Further up the train Kimi managed to gain a much better run through Eau Rouge then Hulkenberg to counter the lack of top speed to pass Hulkenberg into Les Combes without pushing anyone off. Because it is possible.
Slightly earlier than expected, the pit window opened and we entered the phase of the race where cars were in all kinds of positions through the field and generally being out of position - for example we had Hamilton doing battle with Grosjean as Lewis had stopped and Romain hadn't. Hamilton took the place initially, but refusing to be defeated Romain repassed the Mercedes in Les Combes, Hamilton tried again into the Bus Stop but Grosjean defended that attack effectively. As Vettel pitted from the lead, just to prove he still exists he found himself not leading the race because Jenson was staying out hoping for a one stop strategy to work out. Back in the middle of the field, Raikkonen was making his way forward after a stop and found himself behind Perez - the only car he keeps making contact with this season. This time things were more sensible, but due to a lack of straight line speed Kimi had to think outside the box a little - and made the pass stick round the outside of Bruxelles, which does not happen too often. The Finn wasn't done, following that pass up with one down the inside of Gutierrez into Rivage and the grand finale to his charge was a brilliant pass round the outside of Di Resta in the final chicane.
However Raikkonen's day was about to implode as he caught Massa, the Lotus had been releasing clouds of brake dust from the left front for quite a while, and as Kimi went down the inside of the Ferrari into the Bus Stop the brakes finally died. The Lotus ran off wide, and returned to the pits for retirement, ending a monumental streak of race and points finishes. Elsewhere the Force India team were having fun with Perez, as Di Resta was attacking the McLaren Sutil passed the pair of them almost running three wide on the straight down to Eau Rouge until Adrian took the place. As Perez pitted the Force India squadron caught up to the back of the battle between Maldonado and Gutierrez. It had been a while since Maldonado had run into anyone so today he was about to make up for that. Firstly he tried to round the outside of Gutierrez in the Bus Stop after running side by side through blanchimont and then tried to make the pit-lane. The problem was the Force Indias were in the way - firstly he hit Sutil losing half his front wing, Pastor then tried to turn again towards the pit lane and wiped out Paul Di Resta. The second Force India was completely ruined and Maldonado ended up with a 10 second drive through penalty but was able to continue.
After escaping the melee Sutil found himself side by side with Gutierrez approaching Eau Rouge, the Mexican pushed Adrian to the edge of the track but left just enough room, but Adrian kept the boot in and passed his second car turning into Eau Rouge. But with this battle pack broken up the order had roughly sorted itself out with sensible gaps through the field. Vettel was in a different universe in the lead, Alonso in second also had no-one near him - Hamilton was the only car in the top three that could see anyone else as his mirrors had Rosberg and Webber in them albeit with three seconds between each car. Button had a lot of track space to his self in 6th, 11 seconds behind Webber. A couple of positional changes were left, as Massa took Grosjean for 7th demoting the Lotus to 8th. Down outside the points Gutierrez and Vergne were duelling, the Mexican went down the inside of the Torro Rosso in Les Combes, but Vergne held position easing Esteban off the road on the exit of the corner. But Gutierrez refused to be defeated and made the move stick - however the car was off the track and the stewards issued another daft penalty. Meanwhile Chilton also received a penalty for ignoring blue flags.
Our hopes were raised momentarily before the race drew to a close as Vettel's engineer informed him that there might be some rain on the way... but he inevitably lied because the race stayed completely dry to the end. Vettel crossed the line in a different time zone to everyone else... again. Alonso recovered from a poor qualifying with a strong race up into 2nd place, while Hamilton fell back to 3rd. Rosberg was able to hold of a brief charge from Webber to take fourth place not too far behind his team-mate. Despite having to give up on a single stop strategy Jenson brought the McLaren home in a respectable 6th place, scoring enough points to take the team ahead of Force India in the constructors. Massa finished 7th after passing Grosjean a few laps from the end, Sutil survived the mid-field contact to score some points in 9th, while Ricciardo - Webber's potential replacement - stole a final point from Sergio Perez at the end of the race.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
This most recent visit to the Belgian GP circuit was not the most memorable of visits to the grandest of circuits on the current calendar, the rain never arrived and as predicted Vettel was able to vanish off into the distance.
- 25pts - Fernando Alonso -10th to 5th in three corners, and then up into 3rd within 6 laps ultimately finishing best of everyone who isn't Vettel
- 18pts - Adrian Sutil - Two passes into Eau Rouge both on unpredictable Mexicans
- 15pts - Sebastian Vettel - For being dominant once more
- 12pts - Daniel Riccardo - 19th to 10th deserves a mention
- 10pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Some of the best overtaking manoeuvres of the day
- 8pts - Jenson Button - A decent day for the McLaren, beating a Ferrari and a Lotus on pace
- 6pts - Giedo Van Der Garde - For retaining his position longer than the other lower teams
- 4pts - Esteban Gutierrez - Did a good job today, and didn't deserve that late penalty
- 2pts - Pastor Madonado - Managed to hit two cars from the same team in one corner
- 1pt - Lewis Hamilton - For conspiring with Vettel to douse Coulthard in champagne on the podium
The Penalties Championship
The stewards have been a little weird over recent races and another brace of penalties have been unleashed again this weekend:
- Lotus Team - 5,000 EUR fine for an unsafe release of Grosjean's car in Q3
- Sergio Perez - Drive through penalty for forcing Grosjean off
- Max Chilton - Drive through penalty For ignoring blue flags
- Esteban Gutierrez - Drive through penalty For passing Vergne because that is apparently illegal now
- Maldonado - 10s stop and go penalty, for leading a one man assault on the entire Force India team
The Penalty Points Championship
Other than the official penalties because they are getting a little mental of late here are the in-house penalty points
- Rain - Where were you?
- The Stewards - Sometimes I wonder
- Jack Harvey - Caused a significant accident in the first GP3 race, but the chap oddly actually admitted to causing it
Looking ahead to Monza
From one massively fast high speed circuit to another, Monza has the highest average speed of any lap on the calendar and marks the conclusion of the European season before everyone packs their bags and flies out to the night race at Singapore. Monza is characterised by really long straights leading into several chicanes which on the basis of other races this season will be overly exploited by the powers that decide where the DRS zones are placed. Much in the same way as Spa in the sense that there is a chance of being taken out by an errant car in a chicane especially at the first corner. A situation demonstrated by Liuzzi in an HRT taking wild evasive action alongside Heikki and speared across the grass wiping out Rosberg and Petrov in the first corner.
The season at this point is starting to look like a Vettel walkover again, that championship lead is constantly increasing, and is going to take some beating, especially if Vettel doesn't come across any problems. It was calculated that for Hamilton to beat the German Bloke he'd have to take - on average 5.5pts per race from the Red Driver, a little less for Alonso or Raikkonen. But Kimi's retirement plays into Sebastien's hands to make Alonso the new closest challenger. But things could be worse, for example in Formula Ford UK - Dan Cammish has won all 21 races of the season, which is taking dominance way too far. Perhaps Monza will be different, technically not a Red Bull circuit, but neither was Spa, so until then this is farewell from blog HQ.
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