Lights out offered plenty of action at Spa Francorchamps, where the weather was cloudy, with only 20 % risk of rain. The start of the top six was clean, and pole-setter Hamilton was the first driver to go into tricky Turn 1. Further down in the pack there was a fateful chain reaction caused by Renault's Hulkenberg. The German missed the braking point into Turn 1 and locked his tyres, which made him hit the rear of Alonso's McLaren. Alonso's orange McLaren got air-born and flew over Leclerc's Sauber, and all three were out of the race. Thanks to the new halo system, Leclerc got away from the shunt unharmed. The collision had also an effect on Red Bull's Ricciardo, who ended up hitting the rear of Kimi's SF71-H. Ricciardo got severe damage to both his front and rear wings, and Kimi suffered a rear-right puncture. Safety car was deployed due to the massive collision, and both Ricciardo and Kimi limped into the pits. In addition to the puncture, the end plate of Kimi's rear wing and the DRS system had taken severe damage. Kimi switched to the white-marked medium rubber, and the team sent him back out. Ricciardo had a massively delayed pit stop, and the Australian was already one lap down when re-joining the track. Mercedes' Bottas, who had started to the race from P17, had an incident with Williams' Sirotkin, as the Finn hit the rear of the Russian's FW41. Bottas broke his front wing as well and had to pit for a new nose. What an action-packed opening lap!
Sebastian was determined to snatch the lead from Hamilton. Before the safety car came out after the first-corner collision, Sebastian challenged the Briton at Turn 5 and made it past Hamilton! At the same time Force India's Ocon was very close to challenge both of them for the lead. However, Ocon's move proved costly, and teammate Perez managed to pass the Frenchman. Meanwhile Red Bull's Verstappen was lurking behind the pink cars already.
Safety car came in on lap 5, and the battle was on. Sebastian managed to defend his lead perfectly, and Hamilton had to settle for playing the second fiddle to the German. Right from the beginning it was obvious, that Ferrari's race pace was in a class of their own. The pink cars were unable to match the top two's pace, and on lap 7 Verstappen attacked Ocon, moving fourth. On lap 8 Kimi drove into the pits, and the team had a closer look at the Iceman's rear wing. Kimi was sent back out again, but he returned into the pits a lap later. There was nothing the team could do to fix the Iceman's car. What a shame! Kimi had been absolutely flying in the free practice sessions and in the qualifying (before he ran out of fuel), so he would have deserved so much better! It was a truly frustrating moment to see him retire his SF71-H.
Verstappen had chased down Perez and attacked the Mexican on lap 10. Verstappen's driving was impressive, bold overtaking moves without foolish mistakes! Meanwhile, Bottas was offering an overtaking show of his own. On lap 18 the Finn swept past Toro Rosso's Gasly, snatching P8 already. Mercedes decided to try an undercut by calling Hamilton in on lap 22. The Briton's pit stop was close to perfection, and he re-joined the track in P3, behind Verstappen. Ferrari reacted right away and called Sebastian in on the following lap. Both drivers opted for a fresh set of the yellow-walled middle compound, and Sebastian maintained his lead. Verstappen had no chance to hold back Hamilton, and the Briton made a successful overtaking move, snatching back P2.
Lapped Ricciardo joined the group of retired drivers, as he was called in to retire the car on lap 31. With ten laps to go, Sebastian had the race perfectly under his control. The gap to Hamilton was already over five seconds. Verstappen in P3 was unable to match the top two's pace. Perez was fourth, but Bottas had begun his chase. With five laps to go, the Finn was right at Perez's tail, hungry for getting past. Bottas' overtaking move proved successful, and the Finn had climbed up to P4 already. Very remarkable driving from the Finnish Mercedes ace, who had started to the race from P17.
Sebastian took his fifth win of the season, which made me feel over the moon. More importantly, he decreased the gap to Hamilton into 17 points in the drivers' championship standings. After the race Hamilton seemed a bit confused about how fast Ferrari proved in the race. Verstappen completed the podium for Red Bull, which I was also very happy about. Bottas finished excellent fourth, followed by the pink duo of Perez and Ocon. Haas drove an impressive race as well, as Grosjean finished 7th and teammate Magnussen 8th. Toro Rosso's Gasly and Sauber's Ericsson completed the top ten. After the race the stewards gave Hulkenberg a 10-place grid penalty for Monza and three penalty points for causing the first-corner collision. Bottas was handed a 5-second time penalty (which didn't affect the race result) and two penalty points for his incident with Sirotkin on the opening lap.
It's time for back-to-back races, as the F1 circus moves to the legendary Monza, the home soil of the Red Team, already next week! Looking forward to another red victory! Forza Ferrari!
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