FORMULA 1
By Vlad Roman,
General Manager, Smart Games
Continuation of the previous article
As expected Verstappen set the fastest time in qualifying, Leclerc was second, followed by Perez; Hamilton and Sainz. After the very good results in Budapest, the orange McLaren cars took the 6th and 7th positions with Oscar Piastri ahead of Lando Norris. Again 5 teams share the first five lines of the starting grid, Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin.
On Saturday the Sprint sessions (shootout and race) took place, the weather was equally unstable, the heavy rain caused the postponement of the shootout session and by default the sprint race by 35 minutes. Intermediate tires were used in the first stage of sprint qualifying, the session was quiet unlike the second when Lance Stroll forced his luck and put on slicks even though it wasn’t the case yet, lost control and causing the session to stop 29 seconds early leaving teammate Alonso no time to set a fast lap to qualify for the final session.
In the final qualifying section, it was time for all drivers to take to the track on soft tyres. Most teams planned the session so that their drivers managed two timed laps with a cooling lap on the same set. Timing was crucial as conditions steadily improved.
Again, Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen proved to have the upper hand. The world champion crossed the finish line just before the end of the session and found the best conditions in his last attempt. In the end, he clocked just 0.011 seconds better than Oscar Piastri. 3rd and 4th place went to Ferrari drivers while Lando Norris was fifth.
The sprint race started more than an hour late due to the rain, the first 5 laps were behind the safety car and because the sprint started in rain conditions all drivers were forced to run on blue tires – full wet . After the withdrawal of the safety car it was switched to intermediate tyres, Alonso slid on a kerb, spun on the gravel and had to retire. Another neutralization ensued after which Max managed to pass Piastri, the sprint finish brings points to Max, Piastri, Gasly, Sainz, Leclerc, Norris, Hamilton and Russel.
At the start of Sunday’s grand prix Leclerc got off to a good start and managed to hold off Checo at the back unlike Piastri who was pushed into the trackside wall by Sainz, forcing him to change his front wing and subsequently retire . Sainz, for his part, was kept on the circuit despite having a damaged car, soon becoming the slowest car in the peloton. He was called to the pits on lap 8 for a tire change, but was later forced to abandon.
Despite a light rain starting on lap 22 all drivers continued to run on slicks until the end of the race won of course by Max Verstappen who after changing tires on lap 14 and overtaking Perez, 4 laps later, put a lead of 22 seconds at the end of the race compared to it.
3rd place goes to Charles Leclerc while Hamilton, whose race pace did not allow him to overtake the Ferrari driver and with a relaxing gap to the 5th position held by Alonso, makes a tire change on lap 43 and manages to get the additional point awarded for the fastest circuit lap.
In conclusion, the weekend in Belgium was once again dominated by Max Verstappen – first in qualifying, first in the shootout, first in the sprint and first in the race, reasons that made Helmut Marko, the gray eminence of Red Bull, declare: “This already puts Max up there with the greats of the sport. Finds the limit easily, is incredibly gentle with the tires. So we can only take our hats off to him”, but he also praised Checo: “Perez was very strong throughout the weekend. I knew he was one of the best drivers and I repeat no one looks good against Verstappen. He does his job very well and has consolidated his position, he is number 2 in the championship. So it fits.”
At the end of the first half of the championship, we have the Red Bull pilots in the first 2 places with 314 and 189 points respectively, followed by Alonso with 149 points, Hamilton with only one point less, Leclerc and Russel tied with 99 points. In constructors, the first 5 places are occupied by Red Bull (503), Mercedes (247), Aston Martin (196), Ferrari (191) and McLaren (103)… the rest of the teams collected a total of 93 points.
The first grand prix after the summer break will take place on August 27 at Zandvoort – Netherlands, another home circuit for the reigning world champion.
