Lewis Hamilton gets acquainted with the perimeter of the Belgian track
Tom Leahy
Formula One correspondent; @Tom_Leahy
The historic Spa-Francorchaps circuit was the venue for the twelfth round of the Formula 1 World Championship. Once again the circuit provided a unique prospect for the drivers with its fast-flowing and unpredictable nature. By far the fastest circuit on the calendar, Spa is seen by many as one of the best circuits that F1 has to offer.
The weekend began as one would expect for Belgian Grand Prix: wet. Limited dry running became a challenge for teams unsure as to how their new Pirelli tires would handle. Teams were also hindered while qualifying as the track began to dry for the first time in the entire weekend, and were faced with the dilemma of either setting their cars up for the dry and suffering in qualifying or praying that the infamous rain of the Ardennes forest continued for a third day running – not a bad gamble considering the circuit previously endured fifteen consecutive wet weather races. The weather had proved difficult for Ferrari as the water cooled track gave the team a less then ideal scenario. As a result Fernando Alonso was out-qualified by Torro Rosso’s Jamie Alguersuari and the F1 returnee Bruno Senna. Senna’s very inclusion in the race came to many as a surprise, none more so the Nick Heidfeild who began high court proceedings against the cash strapped Lotus-Renault outfit for wrongful termination of his contract to replace the injured Robert Kubica.
Qualification though was once again dominated by Sebastian Vettel who provided a sensational lap to earn his 9th pole position of this year’s championship campaign. However his pole position run came at a cost as Red Bull had clearly ignored the advice of Pirelli by setting high camber on both their cars. This resulted in high tire degradation on the Red Bull, forcing a request for change of tyres on Vettel’s car. This was a matter of fierce contention among those teams who had obeyed the guidelines of Pirelli, and so Vettel began the race with no special treatment.
Team leader Christian Horner later admitted having given ‘a lot of consideration’ to starting from the pit lane out of concern about their front tyre blistering heading into the start of the race. Starting from the pit lane would have resulted in fresh tyres and a camber change for the two cars who with hindsight made the correct call. See Michael Schumacher for what would have happened otherwise.
Schumacher was celebrating his twentieth anniversary in F1 this weekend, but his performance in qualifying quickly dispelled the celebratory mood. He was seemingly unable to cope with the severe conditions, ending up in the barriers a mere two corners into his first qualification lap and as a result qualified in the 24th grid position.
Schumacher was not the only one to be disappointed with his qualification performance as Jenson Button failed to extract the best that his McLaren Mercedes had to offer, and as a result qualified a disappointing 13th. The other McLaren of Lewis Hamilton was once again embroiled in an on-track collision as Pastor Maldonado in the Williams took the rules into his own hands by intentionally damaging Hamilton’s car in retaliation to the Englishman’s questionable overtaking in the qualifying session. In spite of the vengeance threatened at him, Hamilton produced a stunning drive to qualify 2nd and split the Red Bulls.
The latter stages of the weekend eventually pandered to qualifying’s reserved strategists as the dry weather finally became permanent. This provided an exciting start to the race as Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes stormed straight to the front of the grid. Fernando Alonso also gained off the line. That said, he was certainly aided by the poor start of Mark Webber’s Red Bull, whose engine kicked into anti-stall off the line. The collision between Bruno Senna and Jamie Alguersuari was pretty handy for him too. Both of their hopes of points-scoring finishes were ended in turn one when Senna ran in to the side of Alguersuari, who in turn broke his front suspension. Senna later admitted that he had to take full responsibility for the clash.
A crash was once more the premature end of Lewis Hamilton as he collided with the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi, resulting in the deployment of a safety car, putting an almost certain end to the former champion’s title ambitions. Hamilon accepted blame for the crash via twitter, saying ‘After watching the replay, I realise it was my fault today [sic] 100%… I didn’t give Kobayashi enough room though I thought I was past. Apologies to Kamui and to my team. The team deserves better from me.’ Damn right they do.
The race ended with a bang as Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher attoned for their poor qualifications, fighting through the pack and finishing 3rd and 5th respectively. Red Bull once again recorded a 1 – 2 finsh to firmly cement their place at the peak of F1’s Constructors’ championship with 8 races remaining.
The other contenders, quite literally the chasing pack, have a lot to do to catch up. Perhaps, in fact, too much.
