As the world of Formula One comes back to life after the summer break, we witness yet another ‘Silver Arrows’ weekend. The team led all of the sessions in the weekend, showing the typical Mercedes domination that we’ve come to know in the recent seasons. Lewis Hamilton led his teammate, Nico Rosberg, across the line. It was forecast that light rain would affect the end of the race, but we didn’t see that rain on the circuit.
Lotus finished the weekend with their first podium since the 2013 United States Grand Prix, getting Romain Grosjean in third position by the end of the race. With a grid place penalty dropping Grosjean’s car further down to the back of the grid, the true performance of the Lotus car and Mercedes engine have been highlighted. Grosjean was able to provide a great battle for third with Sebastian Vettel, until Vettel’s tyre blew out while the team was attempting to complete a one stop strategy. This will be a big boost for Lotus, which is in the middle of financial issues that will result in the impounding of their car following the race weekend.
Red Bull was the other team that surprises many. Despite their negative comments about the performance of their Renault engine and the rumors of the team terminating their contract with the French engine supplier one year earlier than agreed, the engine performed well and gave the team some great results in the weekend’s sessions. Their weekend started off well with times worthy of top the five in both free practice one and two. Saturday’s sessions were a bit slower times and they lost Daniel Ricciardo in the race, due to a mechanical issue. Daniil Kvyat was able to shine with a fourth place finish.
Overall, the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix was a great way to restart the 2015 Formula One season. The sport will be in Monza, Italy in two weeks for what could possibly be the last Italian Grand Prix.
