The F1 drivers came to the paddock today with heavy hearts. Yesterday's F2 race had seen a fatal crash at Raidillon on lap 2, which led to the death of young and talented French racing driver Anthoine Hubert. There was a touching one-minute silence before the Belgian national anthem. The late Hubert was a close friend of pole-setter Leclerc, who wanted to win the race in memory of his friend.
The start was eventful, which is typical of Spa. Leclerc took a fantastic start and maintained his lead. Hamilton's start was brilliant, too, and the Briton made it ahead of Sebastian, climbing up to Eau Rouge. However, Ferrari's straight line speed was superior compared to the silver cars, and Sebastian snatched his second place back on the long straight. Once again Verstappen, who started to the race from P5, had a lousy start. He lost two positions right away, trying to compensate his loss, going into Eau Rouge. He dived into the inside of Kimi, where there was no room at all. Verstappen crashed into Kimi's Alfa Romeo, making Kimi's car jump into air and landing on two wheels. The crash damaged the front suspension of Verstappen's RB15, which made the aggressive Dutchman to crash out into the tyre wall at Eau Rouge. What a stupid and desperate move from Verstappen! Safety car was deployed, and Kimi pitted for a new nose cone. However, there was severe damage in the floor of Kimi's Alfa Romeo. The Iceman pitted for the second time on the sequential lap, this time for a fresh set of yellow-walled medium Pirellis. The Finn re-joined the track at the very back of the pack. The safety car stayed out a bit longer than intended, as McLaren's Sainz also faced DNF.
As the race was back on, Leclerc had a firm lead, with teammate Sebastian second. Hamilton was third, followed by teammate Bottas and McLaren's Norris, who had made it from P11 up to P5. Due to yesterday's tragic events, Leclerc had to work extra hard to keep up his concentration. He locked up his tyres going to Les Combes, which caused him to cut the corner. Nevertheless, Sebastian wasn't able to decrease the gap to his teammate.
Sebastian was the first top driver to pit on lap 15. He switched to the medium compound and re-joined the track in P5. After his pit stop Sebastian was absolutely flying. His lap times were significantly better than the top three's. It seemed, that Sebastian was going to take the lead, when his rivals pitted!
It was absolutely heart-warming to see, how the crowd got up to give standing ovation for Anthoine Hubert on lap 19, which was his racing number. Meanwhile, Kimi was really struggling with the performance of his car. Unfortunately the Iceman seemed like a bowl, which got passed one driver by another. A spectacular start had turned into a disappointing P16.
Race leader Charles came in not until on lap 20. Similar to his teammate, he switched to the medium compound. Sebastian benefited from the undercut, and Charles re-joined the track behind his teammate, in spite of a flawless pit stop. The Mercedes duo pitted on the sequential laps for a similar tyre choice. Hamilton maintained his third place, and teammate Bottas stayed in fourth. Charles was significantly faster than Sebastian, although the teammates were on the same rubber. Charles was rapidly catching his teammate.
The tables have turned at Ferrari, as Sebastian was given a team order on lap 26; he was told to let Charles past. The German obeyed, and Charles was back in the lead. Sebastian was in serious trouble with his out-worn medium tyres, which had degraded faster than he had hoped. Hamilton's pace on the medium Pirellis was frighteningly competitive, and the Briton was catching Sebastian lap by lap. Sebastian reported on the team radio, that his tyres weren't going to last till the end. The German was likely to be forced to make a second pit stop.
By lap 29 Hamilton was right at Sebastian's tail. It was only thanks to Ferrari's splendid straight line speed, that Sebastian was able to defend his position. But on lap 32 Hamilton managed to squeeze himself extremely close to Sebastian, and thanks to DRS, the Briton snatched the second place from Sebastian. Immediately there was a new danger lurking from behind: Bottas, who was on a hunt. But as the Finn was on a striking distance from the struggling German, Sebastian drove into the pits for the second time. He re-joined the track on a fresh set of soft tyres in P4. It was a disappointing turn, as it had seemed earlier, that he had an excellent chance to win the race... But success just disappeared in the air.
With ten laps to go, Charles had a seven-second lead to Hamilton, so the Monegasque's maiden win seemed quite secured. Sebastian set the fastest lap time on lap 37. Nevertheless, the gap to Bottas was far too massive (18 seconds) to be caught up. Meanwhile, the battle in the midfield was extremely intense and tight. The Red Bull debutant Albon managed to pass Toro Rosso's Kvyat, making it P7 already. Kimi's teammate Giovinazzi was driving a great race as well; the Italian made an overtaking move on Toro Rosso's Gasly, making it in the points. A lap later he attacked Renault's Ricciardo, claiming P9 already.
On the closing laps Charles' tyres were dying. Hamilton smelled the Ferrari ace's blood, determinedly closing the gap tenth by tenth. With three laps to go, the gap between the top two was under 2.5 seconds already. Hamilton was able to decrease the gap especially on the second sector, which consisted of corners mostly. On the second last lap, the gap was only 1.5 seconds. Would Hamilton be able to try an overtaking move on Charles?
The penultimate lap was highly dramatic. Norris, who was driving a superb race in P5, suffered a sudden loss of power on the very last lap, with his orange McLaren coming to a halt. It was such a shame, that a great result turned into P11 and no points. Also Giovinazzi, who was on his way to the points finish, crashed out on the very last lap, due to a mistake of his own! The yellow flags meant, that Hamilton missed his chance to try a move on Charles. Charles took his well-deserved maiden win at legendary Spa Francorchamps. Hamilton finished the runner-up, only less than a second behind. Bottas completed the podium, and Sebastian was left in P4. Albon drove a strong first race for Red Bull, finishing fifth. Perez finished sixth for Racing Point and Kvyat seventh for Toro Rosso. Renault's Hulkenberg, Toro Rosso's Gasly and Racing Point's Stroll rounded out the top ten.
Is Charles the new number one driver at Ferrari? Sebastian still seems to struggle with his performance, for one reason or another. His strategy wasn't perfect today, but I can't help wondering, why Sebastian's pace on the medium tyres was so poor compared to his teammate's pace on the same compound. Charles was clearly the faster one of the red-suited drivers the whole weekend. Next week the F1 circus moves to Monza, "the temple of speed", which is expected to be the Red Team's territory as well. Hope to see another red victory, preferably by Sebastian!
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti