News F1 Belgian Grand Prix Spa-Francorchamps, 26-28 August

Ferrari is probably going to get a double podium....
and_it_s_gone_by_celeith-d5div3y.jpg

:facepalm:
 
Results:

Code:
POS	NO	DRIVER			CAR			LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	6	Nico Rosberg		MERCEDES		44	1:44:51.058	25
2	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RED BULL RACING		44	+14.113s	18
3	44	Lewis Hamilton		MERCEDES		44	+27.634s	15
4	27	Nico Hulkenberg		FORCE INDIA MERCEDES	44	+35.907s	12
5	11	Sergio Perez		FORCE INDIA MERCEDES	44	+40.660s	10
6	5	Sebastian Vettel	FERRARI			44	+45.394s	8
7	14	Fernando Alonso		MCLAREN HONDA		44	+59.445s	6
8	77	Valtteri Bottas		WILLIAMS MERCEDES	44	+60.151s	4
9	7	Kimi Räikkönen		FERRARI			44	+61.109s	2
10	19	Felipe Massa		WILLIAMS MERCEDES	44	+65.873s	1
11	33	Max Verstappen		RED BULL RACING		44	+71.138s	0
12	21	Esteban Gutierrez	HAAS FERRARI		44	+73.877s	0
13	8	Romain Grosjean		HAAS FERRARI		44	+76.474s	0
14	26	Daniil Kvyat		TORO ROSSO FERRARI	44	+87.097s	0
15	30	Jolyon Palmer		RENAULT			44	+93.165s	0
16	31	Esteban Ocon		MRT MERCEDES		43	+1 lap		0
17	12	Felipe Nasr		SAUBER 	FERRARI		43	+1 lap		0
NC	20	Kevin Magnussen		RENAULT			5	DNF		0
NC	9	Marcus Ericsson		SAUBER FERRARI		3	DNF		0
NC	55	Carlos Sainz		TORO ROSSO FERRARI	1	DNF		0
NC	22	Jenson Button		MCLAREN HONDA		1	DNF		0
NC	94	Pascal Wehrlein		MRT MERCEDES		0	DNF		0

Magnussen had a 12.5G crash coming out of Eau Rouge ... enough to red-flag the race whilst they put the tire barrier back together. He was able to get some braking in from 300km/h when he left the track, and he went in roughly sideways. Good to see him walk away, but the car was unrecognizable.

More fun and games between Max and Kimi. Max is riding his luck with his driving style, but no trips to the stewards so I guess it's alright.

Awesome race from the back for Lewis, managing to get on the podium.

All in all a great race. Love Spa ... probably my favorite track, with so many nice curves and elevation changes.
 
Good race. It's annoying me that the penalties don't carry any more, though. Hamilton took a ridiculous 55 place drop, but this wasn't actually reflected in his starting position, and he got massive advantages for the race with new power components (upgrades), not having to bother about qualifying - so no stress on the power unit and loads of tyres left over, and a perfect, race focussed setup. Because it doesn't matter once you've hit the back of the grid it doesn't matter, the teams took a raft of extra power components to give him additional choices later in the season, defeating the point of having penalties for changing components in the first place.

Not that I like seeing drivers demoted for changing engines anyway, but I find the whole thing ludicrous. The situation was the same with Alonso, who took a 30 place penalty., But only actually lost two places.

Then we have red flag situations. Now, like back in Monaco, teams are allowed to change the cars however they see fit during the red flag stoppage period, which effectively destroyed the dramatic end of the race because nobody was struggling for tyres any more. Fair enough, fix things that are broken, or making the car unsafe, but changing strategy or setup should not be permitted. Essentially put the race on pause.
 
Ironically Toto Wolff (Mercedes Team Principal) lobbied for a change to this exact rule pre-season, but was voted down by other teams, so he is only doing what the rules expressly allow.

My view - we want to see racers racing, and so if we can be done already with artificial penalties for things outside the driver's control, then it's better for all. In Hamilton's case ... back to back engine failures, then somebody ramming into him, then another failure ... that's already multiple grid position penalties and DNF's ... and then a full grid penalty yesterday ... and people still want more? It's already too much.
 
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