After a long month without Formula One, the sport made their return from the summer break. The teams arrived at the legendary Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, one of the crown jewels of motorsport and Formula One, for the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix.
Mercedes started Friday on top, earning a 1-2 result in the first session of the weekend. Nico Rosberg led the way with Lewis Hamilton less than a second behind. Kimi Räikkönen completed the session quite close behind the slower Mercedes, with Sergio Pérez separating Sebastian Vettel from his teammate. The session saw some drivers run on some experimental tyres from Pirelli and the Hola cockpit protection system also made a brief appearance in the opening session. Marcus Ericsson was handed a grid penalty for using a sixth turbocharger and Hamilton also received the first of three grid penalties that he would get this weekend, as the team began to stockpile power unit components. Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo topped the second free practice table, as Mercedes opted to test the harder tyre compounds in order to get some data regarding race strategy. Force India continued their strong performance in Belgium, as both drivers completed the day inside of the top five.
Saturday started out poorly for Verstappen coming off of his session lead the day before. He was unable to set a time in the final free practice session due to gearbox troubles. Kimi Räikkönen led the session, as Mercedes focused on more race setup. Williams broke into the top five, with Valtteri Bottas completing the session in P4. Drivers were forced to work with the Pirelli tyre pressures and continued to battle tyre degradation. As expected, Mercedes took a third engine, turning their 30 place grid penalty into 55 places. Because he wouldn’t be able to start the race in any position other than last, Hamilton only ran four laps in qualifying before ending his day. Fernando Alonso never really started qualifying, as his car stopped shortly into the start of his out lap, preventing him from setting a lap time. Rosberg took pole position, with Verstappen completing the front row and both Ferrari drivers locking out the second row of the grid. Force India continued their promising performance, as they outperformed Williams in qualifying.
Sunday took both Ferrari drivers out of the competition, as the pair made contact in turn one. They went three-wide with Max Verstappen into the first corner and Vettel turned in on his teammate. Both drivers returned to the pits for repairs, although a small fire for Räikkönen made repairs take a little longer than planned. Verstappen also pitted after the first lap to get repairs to his front wing. Pascal Wehrlein rear ended Jenson Button on the first lap, ending both of their races. On the following lap, Carlos Sainz’s race came to an end after he suffered a massive tyre blowout on the large straight after Eau Rouge. All of the chaos on the opening laps allowed Rosberg to maintain the lead and Hamilton to gain many positions. A massive crash for Kevin Magnussen in Eau Rouge brought out the safety car, as the Dane lost the rear grip and spun off into the barrier with so much force that the head reset was flung off of the car. After a long safety car period, it was determined that the damage to the barriers was too much, so the race was red flagged. The race resumed with Rosberg leading and Hamilton in P5 behind Fernando Alonso. Räikkönen and Verstappen made minor contact again, as Verstappen pushed Räikkönen wide into the bus stop chicane. On the next lap, the pair almost made contact again, as Verstappen blocked the Ferrari under braking for the bus stop chicane. A pit stop issue for Hamilton lost him a lot of time. Despite this, he was still able to drive his Mercedes car to the bottom step of the podium, while his teammate took the top step. Daniel Ricciardo completed the podium, in what was a fairly quite race from him.
It will be a busy week for the teams, as they find themselves going to Italy for next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.
