Formula 1 - Round 11: Belgium

I think I’ve broken one of my records. I’ve played it a few times whenever Formula 1 goes to a track with legendary and classic credentials, but almost every time I play it something goes wrong and it starts playing the German national anthem for some reason (and I get the words ‘Deutschland, Deutschland über alles’ or whatever it is that isn’t really the first line of the anthem). I suppose it’s the only needle I have that fits the record player and works consistently, but it’s still annoying when a record that has previously been amazing plays out the same dull slog.

I’ll probably put the record away in storage for now while throwing out the one where I say I’m going to get these out for a particular day, mainly because I have little urge to play that one. But it seems in the Ardennes Forest, its business as usual as Formula 1 returns from its summer break.

Circuit: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

2012 Winner: Jenson Button

2012 Pole: Jenson Button

2013 Tyre Compounds: Medium and Hard

Formula 1 has seen many great champions throughout its years, yet in the days of Schumacher and Vettel we don’t really see greats, but people who are almost ruining the sport. The 1988 season’s not considered a write-off, even though only one race was won by a car other than a McLaren. But then, those cars were driven by two of the all-time greats in Prost and Senna and were given equal chance of winning.

Anyway, Belgium. Spa-Francorchamps, another legendary circuit and hails back to the sport’s early days and still retains much of its original character with fabled corners such as Eau Rouge and the undulating track that runs through the Ardennes Forest, a place where the weather is always unpredictable.

Naturally, the rumour mill was running as Red Bull didn’t confirm their new driver line up for 2014 as was expected. Raikkonen is seemingly getting restless as there was even talk of him getting to Ferrari for some reason with another rumour suggesting Hulkenburg might go to Ferrari in Massa’s stead.

The changeable weather raised its head as soon in first practice, reducing the number of laps drivers completed to only just ticking over double digits as teams did their normal thing of limiting running ‘as they won’t learn anything’.

For what it was worth, Alonso was fastest with the two Force Indias in tow while Kovalinen made another return to the Caterham in Pic’s place for the session.

The track dried up for practice two, the Red Bulls fastest but not before Vettel suffered a tyre failure that wrecked the underside of his car with flailing rubber. Parallels to Silverstone were immediately drawn up, but Pirelli’s almost practiced excuse of ‘debris’ turned out to be true this time. Van der Garde, pushing on a track he knows well, made a mistake and hit the wall, totalling his Caterham.

Final practice once again saw Vettel fastest, which always remained an anomaly on a power track (I suppose the Red Bull is by far the best at put down its power without totalling its tyres). Hamilton, meanwhile, was looking fairly sloppy, spinning several times while Massa and Di Resta had near misses with the walls.

The McLarens looked like they had improved while the Ferraris weren’t looking to be slouches

Shortly before qualifying began, the rain made an appearance and forced everyone onto intermediate tyres, the Williams and Toro Rossos first on track before everyone else went out. The rain didn’t stay long, but the track didn’t dry particularly fast even though the times were tumbling fast.

There was room to take a risk and the Marussias and Van der Garde did so, going out on Slicks for their last runs. At first, it looked like the risk wouldn’t pay off, the Mercedes fast as well as what appeared to be some face from the Williams cars as they topped the time sheet for a moment.

However, on the last few runs the entire list changed with both Williams, both Toro Rossos and Gutierrez getting eliminated along with Pic, who didn’t take the same risk as his team mate. The slicks paid off for the Marussias and Van der Garde and they made it through.

The dry line the normally back three made use of was still there in qualifying two, though the rest of the track wasn’t drying quickly still. Vettel waited until near the end of the session to set a lap while Rosberg pootled about, looking slow before his last effort.

When the serious times were getting pumped in, it was amazing how close they were. A single second covered the top thirteen, 0.7 of a second covering the top ten itself. Hulkenburg, Sutil and Perez were unfortunate enough to go out along with Van der Garde and the Marussias, who were never under any illusions about where they may qualify.

Everyone sent out straight away at the start of qualifying three as rain threatened, Di Resta taking a risk and going out on intermediates. It was a worthwhile risk as it started raining before anyone could complete their out laps, forcing everyone to change and giving Di Resta a free track and nearly allowing him to take pole.

The rain started to ease slightly as both Red Bulls and Hamilton managed to sneak by the flag before it went out to start their last runs, the grip returning as Rosberg poked Di Resta off pole. Vettel looked like he may seal another pole before Hamilton knocking him off top spot once again with a massively quick lap. Di Resta ended up fifth, ahead of Button, Grosjean, Raikkonen and a surprising Alonso and Massa.

The rain fully cleared ahead of race day, making way for a new and more interesting threat: Greenpeace. A few of their members jumped out of a microlight onto the main grandstand and put up a banner against Shell’s  apparent plans to drill for oil in the artic. Naturally, the TV crews weren’t permitted to point at the banner, but Facebook isn’t as bothered about petty corporate concerns.

Webber made another poor start off the grid with Rosberg and fast starting Button and Alonso. Massa, Di Resta and Raikkonen all slipped back while Hamilton got away from the line fine. Through Eau Rouge, however, the Mercedes seemingly missed the apex very narrowly and slid slight, killing off the momentum he would need to hold off Vettel who easily slid through, the Briton powerless to stop him.

This signalled a return to normal business as Vettel easily pulled away, the Mercedes unable to really push as it dropped slowly back into the clutches of the rest of the pack. Alonso, despite his poor qualifying, was looking extremely quick, making his way pasted Button and Rosberg.

Raikkonen’s brakes, meanwhile, were spitting out huge clouds of dust through almost every major braking point. He pressed on, the issues seeming to go away as the race continued, but on lap 25 while attempting to pass Massa, the brakes finally gave way and he overshot the bus stop. There was enough brake left to avoid crashing into a barrier and return to the pits, making this is first racing retirement since the German grand prix in 2009 (excluding the two years he was Rally driving, that makes 38 grand prix without a retirement).

Shortly after, the only other really noteworthy occurrence of the race was Maldonado’s desperate attempt to hold off Gutierrez and the Force Indias. After Gutierrez got by, Sutil snuck around, clipping Maldonado’s front wing. The Venezuelan tried to dive towards the pit entrance without realizing Di Resta was squarely in his way, colliding with the Scotsman and demolishing his rear suspension. Sutil then completed a brilliant move on Gutierrez going into Eau Rouge.

With the race getting well and truly neutralized, as is typical of a Vettel dominated race, the promised rain occasionally looked to make its way to the track but never materialized. Alonso’s superior speed left Hamilton well behind but he couldn’t do more than match the Red Bull ahead. Button, on a long strategy, finished well while Rosberg and Webber had an anonymous race. Grosjean occasionally fought with the leaders when they pitted, making life a hassle for Hamilton while Sutil survived the mid-field chaos created by Maldonado and Riccardo snatched the last point from Perez.

So, Vettel won again, and even Greenpeace crashing the podium didn’t exactly cheer me up. I’m losing my enthusiasm to write this thing now, as you can probably tell from the fact I lopped out huge chunks of the race. I’ve essentially written ‘classic track, Vettel bore fest’ several times and there’s not a lot you can do with that to make it funny or interesting.

I’ll keep plugging on though. The next race is at yet another legendary track, the last European race of the season before the F1 circus goes on its tour of Asia, taking in the alright Singapore before heading off to another legend in the form of Suzuka. That’s followed by two of the dullest and stupidest races on the calendar, and after some of the boring races we’ve had this year, that’s saying something.

Anyway, aimless rant over for now, I’m off to play Rayman Legends.

Race Results:

	Driver	Constructor	Race Time	Grid
1st	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:23:42.196	2
2nd	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	+16.869	9
3rd	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+27.734	1
4th	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	+29.872	4
5th	Mark Webber	Red Bull	+33.845	3
6th	Jenson Button	McLaren	+40.794	6
7th	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+53.922	10
8th	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	+55.846	7
9th	Adrian Sutil	Force India	+1.09.547	12
10th	Daniel Riccardo	Toro Rosso	+1.12.470	19
11th	Sergio Perez	McLaren	+1.21.936	13
12th	Jean Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	+1.26.740	18
13th	Nico Hulkenburg	Sauber	+1 .28.258	11
14th	Esterban Gutierrez	Sauber	+1.40.436	21
15th	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	+1.47.456	20
16th	Giedo Van der Garde	Catherham	+1 lap	14
17th	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	+1 lap	17
18th	Jules Bianchi	Marussia	+1 lap	15
19th	Max Chilton	Marussia	+2 laps	16
20th	Paul di Resta	Force India	DNF (Crash)	5
21st	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	DNF (Brakes)	17
22nd	Charles Pic	Caterham	DNF (Oil Leak)	22

Driver’s Championship:

	Driver	Score
1st	Sebastian Vettel	197
2nd	Fernando Alonso	151 (-46)
3rd	Lewis Hamilton	139 (-58)
2nd	Kimi Raikkonen	134 (-63)
5th	Mark Webber	115 (-82)
6th	Nico Rosberg	96 (-101)
7th	Felipe Massa	67 (-130)
8th	Romain Grosjean	53 (-144)
9th	Jenson Button	47 (-150)
10th	Paul Di Resta	36 (-161)
11th	Adrian Sutil	25 (-172)
12th	Sergio Perez	18 (-179)
13th	Jean-Eric Vergne	13 (-184)
14th	Daniel Riccardo	12 (-185)
15th	Nico Hulkenburg	7 (-190)
16th	Pastor Maldonado	1 (-196)

Constructor’s Championship:

	Constructor	Score
1st	Red Bull	312
2nd	Mercedes	235 (-77)
3rd	Ferrari	218 (-94)
4th	Lotus	187 (-125)
5th	McLaren	65 (-247)
6th	Force India	61 (-251)
7th	Toro Rosso	25 (-287)
8th	Sauber	7 (-305)
9th	Williams	1 (-311)