Vettel survives chaotic start to dominate at Spa, Hamilton a distant runner-up as championship tightens yet again; Vertsappen salvages P3 at home race

The action at the Belgian Grand Prix was all front-loaded with a large and frightening multi-car opening lap shunt starting the proceedings off in chaos and then the race settling down to a serenely dominating performance by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. The crash began when Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg misjudged his breaking going into Turn 1 La Source and plowed into the back of McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, sending the Spaniard airborne. Alonso came down on top of the Sauber of Charles Leclerc, showing for the first time since its introduction this year the efficacy of the Halo head protection device. Leclerc could well have had cockpit intrusion by Alonso’s car as it fell on top of him but the Halo successfully deflected any potential contact to the Frenchman’s otherwise exposed head. Hulkenberg was assessed the blame for the accident and rightfully so. The veteran German, who is not usually a reckless driver, will face a 10-spot grid penalty in Italy next weekend as well as 3 points on his super license. In addition to Hulkenberg, Alonso and Leclerc, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo were also caught up in the mess, somewhat victims of their poor starting positions due to the scrambled wet weather conditions in Saturday qualifying They came together harshly in the resultant accordion effect and Raikkonen suffered a puncture and rear wing and floor damage and Ricciardo’s rear wing was completely ruined after someone had knocked him into Raikkonen from behind. That necessitated time consuming repairs during the Safety Car period, particularly a complete rear wing change for Ricciardo that put the Aussie a lap down. But while both soldiered on gamely their races were inevitably ruined. Raikkonen and Riccardo would both be forced to retire before the end of the race.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Meanwhile the fi the race might as well have been in a different postal code as neither Mercedes pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton or the man starting beside him from P2, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, were effected in the least by the mayhem behind them. Waging their own private championship battle and oblivious to the unfolding carnage, the two fierce championship rivals rocketed through Radillon and Eau Rouge and up the Kimmel Straight at full chat bracketed by two game but overmatched Force Indias. There Vettel made his move, scooting by Hamilton to grab the lead of the race before the Safety Car was deployed. That meant Vettel could dictate the restart when the Safety Car came in at the end of Lap 4. And while he did his best to roar away when he got the green flag the German could not quite escape Hamilton’s pursuing Mercedes. Hamilton tracked Vettel’s Ferrari tightly through Blanchimont then made an aggressive attempt to pass going into the chicane preceding the start/finish straight. It didn’t come off and Vettel was away like a shot after Hamilton had lost his momentum by locking up slightly. After that it seemed the Mercedes could do nothing to dent the Ferrari’s advantage, perhaps pointing to superior recent engine upgrades by the Scuderia. In any event, Vettel controlled the race from the front just as he used to do in his Red Bull glory days and swanned away to an impressive victory. The German contender came home over 11 seconds to the good of Hamilton at a power track where the Silver Arrows used to be clearly superior to the Prancing Horses. The win brought Vettel back within 17 of the English points leader as the seesaw battle between these two 4-time World Champions continued to swing like a pendulum.

With his Red Bull compatriot wounded and then out of the race, Max Verstappen put the team on his shoulders by knifing his way through the trouble at the start. The Dutchman picked up two positions straight off the bat and eventually picked off the two Force Indias to claim third in the race. After that initial dynamic rush Vertsappen would easily maintain that podium position, running a fairly lonely and unchallenging race well back of the top two and well in front of any other pursuers. Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas had perhaps the best drive of the day, clawing back from last on the grid due to engine penalties, avoiding trouble and then using a shrewd 2-stop tire strategy to make up ground on the middle of the field. In the end Bottas was able to fight his way up to P4, a heartening result for both himself and team Mercedes, particularly as Raikkonen’s second Prancing Horse DNF’d and scored no points. Thanks in part to Bottas’ sterling effort and Hamilton’s high finish Mercedes now lead the Constructors Championship by 15 points.

Further back in the field Force India made the most of their unexpectedly good rain-enhanced qualifying efforts and put the “new” team solidly back in the points after all their previous championship scoring efforts were stripped due to an in-season change of ownership over the summer break. Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon didn’t repeat the mistakes they made by being overly aggressive with each other last year and they finished a more than decent P5 and P6 respectively. Haas also gained valuable points in what has been a strong campaign for the young American team, with Romain Grosjean driving steadily for P7 and Kevin Magnussen taking a P8 finish. Pierre Gasly, soon to be promoted to Red Bull next season to take Daniel Ricciardo’s seat, got a nice result for the junior Toro Rosso team by coming home P9. And Marcus Ericsson took his Sauber across the line in P10 to score in the last points-paying position.

Top 10 finishers of the Belgian Grand Prix:

Complete race realists available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time, at equally historic Monza in Italy. With the summer lull well and truly over and the championship fight hotting up as we head into fall don’t miss this classic GP in Ferrari’s backyard. The tifosi will certainly be there in full force to support their man Vettel but Lewis Hamilton has plans to spoil the party. Hope to see you then to see how it all shakes out!