Plenty of people – myself included – thought that when F1
returned from its summer break, we’d see Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes continue where
they left off in Hungary. Although the practise sessions were of mixed
conditions, there was a feeling that Hamilton was not showing his true speed.
Qualifying almost seemed to prove that and the race was going to be easy,
right? Wrong.
Vettel takes control
Although not as obvious as his 2011 campaign, when Sebastian
Vettel gets the lead early on, he can still control the race. It’s been one of the
key strategies from him and the Red Bull team and the race at Spa shows it
still works well. How much the mixed conditions impacted his qualifying, and
whether the Mercedes have really overcome all of their problems, are two key
factors that will determine how the rest of Red Bull’s title challenges go.
After this result, it brings things back into perspective about who has the
momentum over the next few races.
McLaren’s direction
McLaren had a better weekend than they have had for a while,
and a botched strategy cost Jenson Button a potential podium – which would have
been a massive boost to the team. They have switched their focus to next year’s
car but since they began this year with a car that would have some impact to
next year, I’m left wondering how wise that move is. Time will tell, but it
looks unlikely that a win is on the cards for Button or his younger teammate,
Sergio Perez.
Misery for Di Resta
I really feel for Paul Di Resta this weekend. He was having
a pretty stable race before Pastor Maldonado wrecked his car. We’re very quick
to judge Romain Grosjean for accidents but Maldonado has had plenty of his own
since he entered F1 and I think his penalty was light – but what other penalty
was there to give?
The Force India team has slipped back a bit – probably because
McLaren are slowly moving back towards where they would normally be – but it
was a decent result for Adrian Sutil with a few more points in the bag.
Stepping up
Qualifying gave us all a bit of a surprise this weekend –
largely due to the weather – but also with some excellent strategy calls.
Caterham and Marussia surprised everyone by getting it right and making it into
Q2 – with the Toro Rosso cars missing out. It was not to be in the race but at
least they are making progress – and in the future they can be mixing it with
the rest on a more regular basis.
Despite their poor starts, Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric
Vergne made it back up the field, with the former grabbing a point. The poor
starting position wasn’t good but if the rumours are true and Ricciardo has
signed a contract for Red Bull, it’ll be one less thing on his mind!
Summary
This was definitely not the most exciting race at Spa, which
is a massive shame. It’s one of my favourite tracks and produces some of the
most exciting races (and I would love to go there one day!). The weather might
have mixed things up a bit more but I think Vettel had this one in the bag from
the moment the lights went out. Two weeks until Monza and we get a change in the
type of track.
Results
1 – S. Vettel (Red Bull)
2 – F. Alonso (Ferrari)
3 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
4 – N. Rosberg (Mercedes)
5 – M. Webber (Red Bull)
6 – J. Button (McLaren)
7 – F. Massa (Ferrari)
8 – R. Grosjean (Lotus)
9 – A. Sutil (Force India)
10 – Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)
11 – S. Perez (McLaren)
12 – J. E. Vergne (Toro Rosso)
13 – Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
14 – E. Gutierrez (Sauber)
15 – V. Bottas (Williams)
16 – G. van der Garde (Caterham)
17 – P. Maldonado (Williams)
18 – J. Bianchi (Marussia)
19 – M. Chilton (Marussia)
20 – P. Di Resta (Force India) – DNF
21 – K. Raikkonen (Lotus) – DNF
22 – C. Pic (Caterham) – DNF
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