After a month-long summer break, the Formula One drivers and teams were back in action this weekend for the 2017 FORMULA 1 PIRELLI BELGIAN GRAND PRIX at the legendary Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. Well rested, the drivers will be preparing for their final stint to the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Felipe Massa had the longest break out of the current drivers, having missed out on the Hungarian Grand Prix last month due to injury. Unfortunately for the Brazilian, he also spent the least amount of time in the car on Friday. The Williams driver hit the inside kerb at turn 7 just 16 minutes in and slid into the barriers on the exit. The car was too damaged to take part in any more sessions that day. Massa was not the only driver to struggle in free practice one, with Valtteri Bottas having ran off into the gravel and Pascal Wehrlein having suffered from technical issues in his Sauber. Meanwhile, at the top of the time sheets, Lewis Hamilton was the sole Mercedes in the top ten, with Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel having sandwiched him in the top three. The Red Bulls followed close behind, but with a considerable gap.
With rain on the way in the second free practice, it was a rush for the teams to get their laps set before the track became damp. By the time the rain hit with 25 minutes remaining in the session, Hamilton had set the fastest time, with a mix of Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull cars close behind. The top five were all within 0.5 seconds of Hamilton’s pace. Heavy rain finally hit and all the drivers parked up in the garage. Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso ventured out in the wet conditions, but the rest of the grid packed up for the day.
Saturday morning’s final free practice session was led by Räikkönen, with Vettel and Hamilton close behind. The top three were separated by less than 0.2 seconds and Hamilton was just 0.001 seconds from Vettel’s fastest lap. The top three were well over a second ahead of the remaining cars. Daniil Kvyat had some poor luck at the start of the session, having suffered an engine fire early on. Massa also didn’t have much luck on his first session since FP1, getting caught for speeding under the yellow flag and receiving a grid penalty.
Come qualifying on Saturday afternoon, Hamilton was able to command all three sessions to earn his 68th career pole position and match Michael Schumacher’s pole position record. Vettel earned a front row start for the race on Sunday, while his teammate started alongside Bottas in the second row. Red Bull locked out the third row of the grid. Further down the grid, there were many penalties to apply: Stoffel Vandoorne had a 65 place grid penalty for using additional power unit elements, as did Kvyat (although only 20 places); both Sauber drivers lost five grid places for changing their gearbox; and Massa was given a five place grid penalty for his incident in FP3.
The race start on Sunday was pretty standard for the front runners, with all of them maintaining their grid position on the first lap. Turn two resulted in some contact between the Force India duo, after Nico Hülkenberg and Sergio Pérez squeezed Esteban Ocon into the inside wall. There were some good battles involving Alonso, until his lost the pace of the other cars and eventually retired some time later. Max Verstappen was the victim of further Red Bull failures, retiring from the race. Räikkönen received a penalty for failing to slow down for Verstappen’s parked car after Eau Rouge.
The main incident of the day and likely the source of some future heated discussions within the Force India motorhome, was a collision between the two drivers. Pérez punctured his rear tyre and damaged his teammate’s front wing in turn two after he attempted to block the faster Ocon. The safety car was deployed. Hamilton was unhappy with the safety car and the restart gave Vettel a few good overtaking chances. However, Hamilton was able to maintain the lead and take victory in Belgium.
Hopefully the drivers and teams made good use of their month of relaxation because there will be little time to rest before the Italian Grand Prix in one week’s time. This is just the first of many more back to back race weekends before the end of the season.
