VETTEL WINS SMASH FEST BELGIUM FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX

Sebastian Vettel won the Belgium Grand Prix in commanding style as he took the lead from pole sitter Lewis Hamilton and drove away to a comfortable 11 second win over the championship leader. The main action in the race took place in the first few kilometres as quarter of the field were taken out of contention at turn 1. Max Verstappen eventually moved past the impressive Racing Point Force India cars, as did Valtteri Bottas to claim 3rd and 4th places.

The rain affected qualifying session played havoc with the normal pecking order of the F1 grid and Kimi Raikkonen later suggested that it was this anomaly that contributed to the chaotic scenes at turn 1 on the opening lap of the race.

 “It’s what you get when you’ve had a bad qualifying.” Raikkonen said in his typically blunt fashion. “People start doing things that obviously don’t work very well. I got hit and that’s it.”

As the race got underway, Lewis Hamilton moved left to block the fast starting Sebastian Vettel, with the two Racing Point Force India close behind. The short run towards the slow first turn produced a concertina effect as drivers looked for position while also trying to avoid contact. Nico Hulkenberg looked to move forwards after his grid penalty and used the outside line to make up places. The Renault driver misjudged the track conditions and locked the tyres as he ran out of racing room. He cannoned into the back of Fernando Alonso which sent the orange McLaren sideways and over the rear wheel of Charles LeClerc. The wheel to wheel contact between the two cars sent Alonso skywards across the air intake and cockpit of the Sauber. The much maligned halo took the impact from McLaren as it flew over the Sauber with an explosion of carbon fibre, thick plume of smoke and sporadic bursts of flame from Alonso’s Renault engine.

The crash triggered a chain reaction as Alonso made contact with the rear of Daniel Ricciardo, Slow motion replays showed a brief shower of sparks from the rear end of the Red Bull as Alonso’s McLaren glance the left rear of Ricciardo’s car and tore a section away from the rear wing. The contact slewed Ricciardo into the back of Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari and punctured a rear tyre. Raikkonen’s car suffered further damage to the undertray as he completed a lap of the circuit with a flapping tyre.

“I remember sliding and next minute I was in the back of Kimi,” Ricciardo said of the incident. “It all happened pretty quick but what I remember was getting a hit initially and then looking and then I’m basically in the back of Kimi on the exit.“The rear wing was pretty much ripped off. The mechanics tried to get me out there before we went a lap down but we just missed that but they did all they could. We tried to go [out] and wait for a safety car, because then we would of got a lap back so it would have put us on the lead lap. So we were trying but we couldn’t obviously keep racing and hoping till the end, so we packed it up.”

Kimi Raikkonen was one of many who were unaware of the contact between Alonso and Ricciardo which triggered the incident with the Ferrari until shown overhead footage of the initial crash.

“[Ricciardo] hit me on the rear and I had a lot of damage,” said Raikkonen afterwards “Also on the floor [and] rear wing, as I needed to do the full lap with a flat tyre. Then it ended up being so bad that the DRS opened itself all the time, so obviously there was no point in carrying on. Obviously it was far from ideal.”

Nico Hulkenberg had the blame laid solely upon his shoulders by the race stewards and was issued with a 10 place grid penalty for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

“It’s just incredible to find out again on lap one how sensitive these cars are with aerodynamics,” said Hulkenberg. “When you have a few cars that bunch up in front of you, how much grip and load you lose.“When I hit the brakes, obviously I instantly locked up the front wheels and was just sliding into Fernando. Probably misjudgment from my side, a bit too late on the brakes, a bit too keen. Frustrating obviously for him, for Charles as well, but also for myself.”

There was also contact at the start between Valtteri Bottas and Sergey Sirotkin at the same corner which went largely unnoticed due to the severity of the Alonso incident. However stewards did respond and issued Bottas with a 5 second post race penalty which had no effect on the overall race classification.

At the front of the field. Lewis Hamilton came under intense pressure from Sebastian Vettel and the twoRacing Point Force India cars. Hamilton had moved to block a pass by Vettel at turn 1 and compromised his run up the hill and along the Kemmel Straight. Vettel had a much better exit speed and ranged alongside the Mercedes on the to Les Combes. Not to be outdone both Ocon and Perez looked for an opportunity to take the lead. Ocon was forced to back off on the approach to Le Combes when Vettel moved to the right. Ocon braked heavily to avoid contact and lost 3rd place to Perez in the process.

“I made a good start and I was on the inside of Sebastian at Turn 1,” Esteban Ocon explained. “He had better traction, but I was very quick on the straight and tried to get the lead on the Kemmel straight.“I had a good run down, slipstreaming both Vettel and Lewis and I tried to find a way on the inside but in the end I lost a place to Sergio. It was good, fair racing all around.”

The race was soon nullified with a much needed safety car intervention to clear the wrecked cars and debris which littered the track at turn 1. Red Bull and Ferrari used the race stoppage to repairs both cars, though Raikkonen and Ricciardo both retired when it became obvious that the cars had been compromised in the collision. The race itself resumed on lap 4 and soon became a much more subdued affair as Sebastian Vettel controlled proceedings form the front.

Vettel went on to record a comfortable victory from Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, who was fortunate to have taken the inside line from teammate Ricciardo at the first turn. Valtteri Bottas survived a post race penalty to remain in 4th place from Perez and Ocon in the Racing Point Force India cars. Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly and Marcus Ericsson completed the top 10 finishers.

“Lewis pushed me quite far to the left at the first corner, but I knew my chance would be up the hill and I climbed it well,” said Vettel.”My timing was crucial and I managed it perfectly. As soon as I was ahead I was quite relieved. After the safety car, I had a good re-start and a very good exit so after that it was a very smooth race. A great weekend.”

Lewis Hamilton was full of praise for the performance of Vettel and his Ferrari which had shown a clean pair of heels to the Mercedes throughout the weekend.

“Congratulations to Seb, exclaimed Hamilton.“I did everything I could in the race. He drove past me like I wasn’t there on the straight.”They [Ferrari] have got a few trick things going on in the car so we have got to keep pushing to see if we can catch up.”

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