I know the race took place yesterday and all the things that happened, did happen a long time ago now - but other commitments meant that it wasn't practical to start making a post after midnight. So as a result this series of characters, words and I am lucky, complete legible sentences, is no longer timely or relevant. There is a valid argument that says that noting posted in this corner of the internet has ever being relevant, and thus probably shouldn't even be here - but on we go. To give a hope of getting this completed this side of midnight, you will be glad to know that I intend it to be a more concise recollection of a race that might prove pivotal in terms of the remainder of the season. Of course no matter what happened across the 44 lap event, the whole world will be all up in arms about the tiniest bit of contact that took place on lap 2.
The Race
There were some vague concerns about rain at the start of the race, but that merely amassed to a couple of rogue drops rather than anything worthwhile. Maybe if there had have been a little bit of moisture things might have turned out very differently and all those angry faces at the end of the race. It appeared that the Ferrari team forgot when the race was starting and had people working on Alonso's car as the formation lap got underway. Fernando was to be handed a 5s pit-lane penalty which for a clear-cut rule violation seemed to take an age to decide and was a tad lenient.
Hamilton made the best of the start and moved himself and Vettel ahead of Rosberg through La Source. Towards the back of the grid, Bianchi ran into difficulties, or more accurately difficulties ran into the back of him - due to the lack of any relevant replays I've no idea who did the hitting, but as a result Bianchi suffered a rear puncture. Up at the top of the hill, Vettel attempted to go round the outside of Hamilton at Les Combes - but had to run across the chicane. This promoted Rosberg back up to second - behind his team-mate.
Lap two at Spa will forever be known as "The Incident" at Les Combes. Rosberg had a run on Hamilton up the kemmel straight and went to the outside on turn in to Les Combes. Nico stayed on the outside, with only the tiniest fraction of an overlap - and instead of backing out of the move he argued the point. This became a problem when Hamilton wanted to take the racing line for the second apex and... the incident happened. Rosberg's front wing clipped Hamilton's rear tyre which was immediately punctured. On the way back to the pits Lewis' deflating tyre shredded the undertray of the car. This collision was an inevitable event in team where the only immediate threat comes from the other side of the garage, after a post race 'special meeting' at Mercedes. It was claimed that Rosberg suggested he could avoid the collision if he wanted to, and stayed alongside to prove a point. That point being that he'd refuse to back down...ever, which is all well and good demonstrating a strong stance and a refusal to be pushed around, but this wasn't the way of doing it. Sure Hamilton forced Rosberg off in Hungary in those final laps, and a refusal to let that happen again hurt both cars. Someone should forward Rosberg some footage of Alonso's on board footage - because Fernando knows when to back out of a move - and no-one maintains the opinion that the Ferrari driver is a push over. I understand what Nico was up to, but he wasn't far enough alongside for it pay off.
With Nico now struggling with a car with a damaged front wing he found himself under pressure from a group of pursuing cars. Namely from the two Red Bull drivers, Alonso having lost ground to Ricciardo. In a bizarre case of role reversal it was the Ferraris that were sitting ducks in a straight line while a low downforce setting for Red Bull made them faster... Ricciardo continued he charge forward when he picked off his team-mate after Vettel got sideways in the middle of Pouhon - that lower downforce setup biting the German. In a continuation of the broadcast crew being slightly ignorant of the lower end competitors both Lotterer and Maldonado had retired without the smallest amount of TV coverage. The top four cars all had sight of one another coming into the first round of pit-stops, which in this era is a bit of an oddity.
After the stops, it appeared that re-occurring debris was to be the story of the middle part of the race. Firstly it was Felipe Massa who got some of Hamilton's shredded tyre caught on the car, and hamper his progress and speed starting off with a position dropped to Sergio Perez's Force India. The Williams team calculated that the time spent with the debis caught on the car cost the Brazilian a total time loss of 40s. Then the debris struck again - almost as if the ghost of Hamilton's dreams were haunting the rest of the field. This time a section of the carcass got caught on Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber which in itself is an unremarkable affair. But after Rosberg pitted for a new front wing he rejoined behind the Mexican - and as he pulled out to make a pass the tyre material dislodged and flew onto Nico's car. Wrapping itself round the aerial such that is was tickling the German's visor - which can't be distracting at all...
As the stops cycled, Jenson Button occupied the lead position, something that McLaren haven't been accustomed to in a while - but it was only temporary as he too had to pit. Promoting Ricciardo up into the top spot after Rosberg lost track position through replacing the nosecone. If one McLaren dropped back, another was make steps further up the grid - Magnussen overtaking Vergne and being another car to effortless breeze past a Ferrari in a straight line. In Bahrain when they were defenceless on the straights Dominicali was encouraged to remove himself. This time they still had one car left in the hunt, after an early stop and some impressive lap times brought Raikkonen onto the back of the leading drivers in second place. Sebastian Vettel was under threat from Nico Rosberg in a recovering Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas' Williams. The slimmest wing settings on that Red Bull and Sebastian's 'Defence Mode' was actually working out against the raw pace of the Mercedes. Nico tried to make it work on the outside of the Bus Stop chicane and ultimately surrendered the place to Bottas as a result.
At the half-way point life was getting difficult for Mercedes - Rosberg had to pit again to cure a vibration caused by a significant lock-up when fighting Vettel. Hamilton was still in the race, and was complaining regularly on the team-radio asking to give up, asking to pull the car into retirement. Mercedes urged him to continue in the hope that a potential safety car intervention would bring him onto the back of the field. It took until a few laps from the end of the race, before Lewis' wishes were heeded and the damaged car and his ruined afternoon were officially brought to a close. But when Rosberg rejoined the track, on new un-damaged tyres he was very quick - making light work of Jenson Button and then breezing past Fernando Alonso on the Kemmel straight... That higher downforce configuration wasn't giving anyone in a Ferrari too much to defend with. Raikkonen had the same problem when he found himself dealing with Rosberg's Mercedes - utterly powerless to prevent the German coming through.
Alonso found himself in the midst of another battle when he came across the McLaren of Kevin Magnussen on older worn tyres and what ensued was a display of substantial defensive driving. Kevin refused to give in and unlike Rosberg, Alonso decided not to force the issue backing out in Malmedy to avoid contact. This particular duel was only silenced when Magnussen pitted to remove those older tyres and give Alonso a break. But up front there was the thought of a gargantuan tussle for the lead - because Rosberg was homing in on Ricciardo at a vast rate of knots. Even after a final stop for fresh soft tyres and carving past Bottas the Mercedes was powering towards Daniel at over two seconds a lap... unfortunately Nico required to be travelling about half a second faster to have a change of rescuing a win from a challenging day for the team as a whole.
So as that battle seemed like it was going nowhere, it was fortunate that there was another far more intense one brewing further back. Somehow Magnussen found himself at war with Alonso again, and this time he brought Button and Vettel along for the ride. With laps remaining being in short supply the Dane was getting increasingly desperate - combined with the fact that the Ferrari was having difficulty overtaking anything in a straight line. As soon as Alonso came close to making a pass Magnussen would close the door - even on the middle of the Kemmel straight pushing Fernando onto the grass. This allowed Jenson to pounce on the Ferrari round the outside of Malmedy, Button tried to follow that up with an outside pass of Rivage. True to form Magnussen slammed the door shut pushing Jenson off the track and allowing Alonso back through. Vettel was also able to pass Button into Fagnes. On the next lap Alonso tried to pass Magnussen again - to the outside of Rivage, and once again was nerfed off on the exit - allowing Vettel to steal another position. This duel intensified as the collection of drivers had to negotiate an intense battle between Ericsson and Chilton at the back of the field.
At the very front, Ricciardo was too far ahead to be caught by Nico, and took a third victory for Red Bull in front of the German. Bottas took the third place from Raikkonen after merely blasting past the Ferrari, like so many others have done before. Vettel made sure he passed Magnussen - swerving towards the Dane in the braking zone to La Source and surviving contact with Alonso who couldn't avoid the two cars slowing on the apex. Button remained behind his team-mate as McLarens finished 6th and 7th, and Alonso limped home with a damaged wing in 8th. The points were finished by Perez in 9th and Kvyat in 10th. Magnussen was later penalised for pushing Alonso off track and dropped down to 12th in the results.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
After a day and many hours after the flag brought the event to a close it is time to update the points scorers from the Belgian GP - note that the overall points are being maintained in a spreadsheet which writes out the relevant HTML, just to prevent any hint of points equalisation as the season progresses.
- 25pts - Daniel Ricciardo - As soon as Mercedes mess up Ricciardo is able to capitalise and consistently making Vettel look rather average
- 18pts - Kimi Raikkonen - After a relatively poor season, only a weak top speed kept the Finn off the podium at Spa
- 15pts - Fernando Alonso - A brilliant display of skill in both battles with Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button - and a spectacular save at the top of Eau Rouge, and a less experienced set of hands that car was going in the wall.
- 12pts - Valtteri Bottas - Another podium finish for the Williams driver, considerably beating Massa - although Felipe had issues in the race
- 10pts - Kevin Magnussen - In the first battle he was defending brilliantly, but doesn't score as well due to the actions towards the end even if he was fending off a trio of drivers with seven world titles between them.
- 8pts - Max Chilton/Marcus Ericsson - Even through they are the slower pay drivers of the bottom teams their little scrap almost had the Magnussen fight running four wide as they lapped them. And for virtually high-fiving each other on twitter afterwards.
- 6pts - Jenson Button - Has to have some points for that pass on Fernando at Malmedy and for keeping out of the way of Magnussen
- 4pts - Daniil Kvyat - Despite being absent from all TV coverage throughout the race but still comes home with some more points
- 2pts - Nico Rosberg - Despite making a pigs ear out of that move on Hamilton it was a solid recovery drive with some incisive passes
- 1pt - Artem Markelov - Gets the remaining point for his outstanding pass on Tom Dillman in GP2 when the track was wet on the outside curbs of Malmedy
The Penalty Points Championship
It is not often these days that the penalty points series makes an appearance but after Spa there will be some additions.
- Nico Rosberg - Yes you were trying to make a point, but that was a little silly of you now wasn't it
- Lewis Hamilton - Stop whining, so what if you're last miles off the pace - so are Chilton and Ericsson, but they don't throw in the towel because points are impossible. Sure they don't have a championship to fight and engine components worth conserving - but their race isn't less important than yours
- Camera Director - There are cars outside the top eight - just wanted to remind you
- GP2 Stewards - There was nothing wrong with what Cecotto did (for once) so there was no need to ask him to move over
- The Stewards - Their F1 counterparts get penalty points too, it took an age to penalise Ferrari for a blatant breech of the regulations and even then delivered a weak penalty. Having a loose wheel in the pits beings on all hell fury from the administrators, but a team calling personnel onto a live grid as cars are powering up for a formation lap gets a slap on the wrist...is this the FIA delivering a lesser penalty to Ferrari because they are friends... who knows.
Looking ahead to Monza
From one extreme speed circuit to another, replacing the high speed corners and elevation changes with pure power. A race which should be Mercedes' to lose, but then again so should have been this one and look what happened, but I daresay that the two Mercedes team-mates may be travelling in separate coaches down to Monza with not a word spoken between them - especially if Toto Wolf's face was anything to go by. His post race interview would certainly give Kvyat's death stare a run for it's money when the cameras picked him up yesterday. As it was reported across the internet, following the events of Spa and "The Incident" - it is most certainly on...
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