2016 Belgian Grand Prix review

This might get very long so I will talk about just a few things so that you guys still wanna read this...

At the start Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen had a better start than Mercedes' Nico Rosberg and Red Bull's Max Verstappen but his teammate Sebastian Vettel ruined his race by clashing into him. In the same situation Raikkonen also crashed into Verstappen who blamed the Finn for the whole thing.

Rosberg continued in the lead but the rest had to pit. Vettel was worried on the radio of what had just happened. I am pretty sure that he knew because usually he reacts aggressively when he isn't the one to blame. It's a shame because many had predicted that Raikkonen could have even won the race for the fifth time. He had done very good in practice and qualifying.

The safety car was deployed when Renault's Kevin Magnussen spun and hit the barriers. It was one of the hardest crashes in modern F1 (V6). It was 42G:s!! Only Jules Bianchi had a harder crash in 2014 (254G:s) which unfortunately killed him eventually. Robert Kubica had a bad crash in 2007 which was 75G:s but in my opinion those cars are not even close to what they are now. In the 90's Mika Hakkinen had a crash that almost killed him (over 200G:s).

Raikkonen could have gained an advantage from the safety car but Ferrari wanted him to pit for the second time already! Does anybody know why? It was very unclear for me.

Williams' Valtteri Bottas was third when the safety car had been out for a while and then suddenly Williams decided that it was a good time to pit. WHAT?!? WHY?! He dropped to the back and Rosberg continued in the lead with 0 pitstops. Bottas could have continued in third place with the same strategy as Rosberg... I don't understand what they were thinking.

On lap 10 the race was red flagged and it took almost 15 minutes for them to repair the barriers.

In the pits (when the race was stopped) Verstappen went to talk to his boss Christian Horner about the crash with the two Ferraris. Horner explained that it wasn't Raikkonen's fault and that Vettel didn't give enough room. Vettel said that he left room for his teammate but not for a flying Verstappen on the inside (and outside of the track).

Then the thing you all have been waiting for - Verstappen blocking Raikkonen later on in the race! 

Do I really have to say anything? Wasn't it pretty obvious? What Verstappen did was extremely stupid. I bet that if Raikkonen would have crashed into his back in almost 300km/h speed (while using the DRS) the youngster would never ever try that same thing again. It would really hurt even though the cars are extremely safe nowadays.

Verstappen-fanboys cried that he did nothing wrong but do we really have to see another incident like we saw with Jules Bianchi before people start to use their brains? Think about how fast they were driving! If you have a car or have driven one on the freeway/express way (or what ever you wanna call it), think about how much faster they are driving in F1 and would you wanna crash your car in high speed? Your car might be as safe as the Formula One car so why not? Because it's stupid!

Nico Rosberg said that "if Kimi says something about Verstappen it must be so because he never complains about small issues". Hamilton said the same about the Finn in Hungary and both of them seemed to be on Raikkonen's side. Verstappen said that "Kimi just complains as he always does". The more experienced drivers seem to have different views than Verstappen.

Speaking of experienced drivers, Niki Lauda who survived a tragic accident, who is a three time world champion and highly respected also said that Verstappen is a crazy boy who needs to see a psychiatrist if he thinks what he did was ok. He also said that he will have a talk with his father Jos Verstappen to straighten him out because this can't fly for long.

If the stewards think that Verstappen changing his racingline in several GP's is ok then the rest of the grid will also start doing it and all hell will break loose. Unless they only let the youngster do it of course. Seems a bit strange if you ask me.

What do you guys think?

These were the things that mainly were in my head after the race. Also a big thumbs up for Hamilton! He did a great job taking 3rd after starting from last place. Vettel did that same thing in Abu Dhabi 2012 and Raikkonen in Bahrain 2006. It's not easy!


Now it's time for my predictions!

Pole position: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes (Changed after confirmation of Hamilton's penalty) - CORRECT

The race:

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - CORRECT
2. Max Verstappen, Red Bull - WRONG. His teammate Ricciardo was 2nd.
3. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. He had problems and was 9th. Hamilton was 3rd.

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. Hamilton was fastest.

Surprise: Keep an eye on Kimi Räikkönen - His race was ruined when he got hit by his teammate (Vettel) and slided into Verstappen.

Join our PREDICTORS LEAGUE!

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW, MH, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

2015 Belgian GP (Full Race)

The full race from Spa last weekend. It's in a smaller window again so it would be more "legal" for YouTube.

2015 Belgian Grand Prix preview

Finally the break is over!! Could not have taken one more weekend without a race.

Spa is one of my favorite tracks because in almost every race they host we see something unforgettable.

Everybody remembers what happend in the beginning of 2012 when Romain Grosjean caused a terrible crash and got banned from the next race. There was also a terrible crash in the beginning of the 1998 race which was one of the worst in F1 history. Check the video below. Jordan also took their first 1-2 in their race with Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher.



In 2000 Mika Häkkinen made one of the coolest moves on Michael Schumacher when he overtook him with Ricardo Zonta in the middle of them in full speed. See Hakkinen and Schumi from this video:



Spa is also the track where Giancarlo Fisichella took pole position for Force India in 2009 and Kimi Räikkönen won the race even though Ferrari had a lot of problems that season. See Fisichella's comments of the good qualifying session:



Here Kimi overtakes Fisichella:



Great memories! Speaking of Kimi Räikkönen did you know that every time he has finished the race in Belgium he has been 1st, 3rd or 4th? That's an interesting statistic because in 2009 Ferrari had a bad season and they won here. Will they do the same this weekend? IT WOULD BE NICE IF THEY DID! I'm tired of seeing Mercedes dominating every race.


Now it's time for my predictions!

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
3. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari

Surprise: Kimi Räikkönen will be the fastest Ferrari driver.

Post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE!

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW & MH. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

That's it for today and if you want to send me feedback then email me: f14lifeblog@gmail.com

FIA post-race press conference - Belgium

Drivers: 1 - Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull), 2 - Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), 3 - Valtteri Bottas (Williams)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Eddie Jordan)

Q: What a race. Exciting? You loved it? What about this man here? Let's hear it for him. Daniel, I have to say to you: you are responsible for keeping half of Australia up until this hour!
Daniel Ricciardo: Yeah, I think obviously back home there is a huge following, but this is nearly as many Australian flag as there were in Melbourne. It's impressive, a lot of Aussies or at least Aussie fans out this weekend, so thank you very much.

Q: We saw you for the first time… because with the previous two wins you just happened to get in there in the last three or four laps. This time you led from the front. Different task, different pressure? What was it like?
DR: Yeah, definitely a bit different. When you lead the race, I guess, for that long it's more about composure, just looking at your lap times, just trying to be as consistent as possible and once I heard Rosberg came in for a third stop we knew he was going to be quick at the end, I just had to try to keep the lap times up and keep it clean.

Q: We'll be back to you, please don't go away. I've got to ask: where is the man? He's here - Nico Rosberg, ladies and gentlemen! (Responding to boos from the crowd) Hey, come on guys, steady on, steady, steady, Nico drove an unbelievably good race. Nico, I've got to ask you the all-important question: what happened up in Les Combes? 
Nico Rosberg: Well, I got a good run on Lewis and tried to go around the outside and yeah, we just touched in the end, unfortunately, so that hurt both of our races. From a team point of view of course that's very disappointing. And yeah, that's the way it is.

Q: Not that this is a question of apportioning blame but did you see blame either way or was it just a racing accident, a 50/50 situation? 
NR: I haven't seen it yet. It wouldn't be good of me if I would comment now. I need to look at it on TV and then I can comment afterwards.

Q: We know that you have a lot of fans here but there are obviously a lot of Lewis fans here. I'm just thinking myself about Mercedes. The one-two was there obviously, the domination of the qualifying. Did you actually think it would be a one-two today? 
NR: I was pretty confident, yeah, because we had very good race speed, as you saw at the end there, but unfortunately it didn't work out for us today.

Q: Valtteri, you're making a bit of a habit of this aren't you. We're going to have to make a special place for you up here. Four podiums out of the last five races, what's going on? 
Valtteri Bottas: Yeah, why not? The team has done such a good job, we are definitely on the right way: another podium, the fourth one in my career and the fourth one this season. We are still chasing for the highest step but for now, for this season, if we keep like this, it's OK because it's the future that matters.

Q: The highest step: how far do you think you're away from that, because Williams have got a really great turn of speed? Can you just get that little final extra piece? 
VB: I think this season it's going to be difficult. We definitely need to be lucky to achieve that. Mercedes is really strong and even on a track like this Red Bull was really, really quick, we couldn't really challenge Ricciardo, so we have still work to do but we are on the right way.

Q: Daniel there's a lot of flags, a lot of well-wishers here for you. Your third win of the season. Just tell everybody here what was it like for those final couple of laps, just as you must have known that Nico was closing in on you. What was going through your head? 
DR: The first thing obviously that you hope everything holds together. You hope mechanically everything gets you to the finish line. Then it's just trying to hit your marks and keep consistent but always the last few laps the chequered flag can't come quick enough. 

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Daniel, you're a three-time grand prix winner now. Obviously the passes early on in the grand prix on Alonso and Vettel were fundamental in setting up the platform for the win today and from there obviously you had to cover Nico off for the rest of the race but tell me, did the boy from Perth always dream of a Spa win? 
DR: Yeah, I guess so. You dream of… there's definitely a few on the calendar that stand out more than others and Spa is one of them, but to be honest any win is special in Formula One. Yeah, the first part of the race: we had pretty good pace. On lap one I actually had the inside of Alonso at five but then I locked up and went off so he got me back and then we were able to get in front a few laps later. And then Seb, looked like he just dropped a wheel on the astroturf exit of Turn 10 and obviously with the rain overnight and this morning it was still a bit slippery, so I was able to get him and then I think Nico came in for a front wing change and we were able to get into the lead and then the pace was pretty good. We were happy with what we were doing and the consistency was there and we were making the tyres last. Yeah, it was just really up to me at the end to stay consistent and stay focused. Yeah, it was good fun.

Q: Nico, obviously there is only one real talking point for you at this stage: the incident with Lewis early on in the grand prix. We've obviously seen the crowd's reaction to it. In making history and fighting for championships there are always going to be difficult moments. This is your chance to explain how you saw it. 
NR: To be honest I'm not in a position to comment on it at all because I haven't seen it and, in the heat of the moment… I need to see it on TV before I say an opinion or anything as such. Of course very, very disappointing from the team's perspective, for sure, because we could have done a lot better than just finish in second place, you know, with the car that we have, because our car is really… has been very, very special this weekend.

Q: Valtteri, your fourth podium in five Grands Prix, quite a streak for you. And a similar story really, a recovery for you after quite a disappointing qualifying session, I imagine, yesterday. Starting sixth on the grid and, again, some big overtakes in the story of your race today.
VB: Yeah. It was, again, a really nice race, nice to be in it. Obviously yesterday the weather played a role in the qualifying and we knew that in the dry we would have better pace than in the wet, so we were really hopeful for today. I have to say that we are little bit surprised by the pace of Red Bull and Mercedes. They were quite a bit far away. Of course our race was a bit compromised after the poor start. I was quite a long time stuck behind some other cars and couldn't really go at the pace we had. But yeah, had some good overtakes. We had good pit stops and good strategy by the team and that allowed us to come up a few places and again to the podium. 

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Ian Parkes - PA) Nico, Niki Lauda has made it absolutely clear that he feels you were to blame, he's gone on record saying that already. Toto Wolff has turned around and said that what happened was "totally unacceptable" - that something like that should not have happened on lap two of the race. What you did, was that deliberate? Because we've seen before that when a front wing collides into a tyre it causes a puncture. Just give us your thoughts on that please.
NR: First of all, I haven't heard it myself from the people that you have mentioned but of course I respect and I will respect their opinion. I myself, I don't have an opinion yet because I haven't seen it on the TV. All I know is that I was faster and I gave it a go. The inside was blocked so I gave it a go around the outside. Of course it is very, very disappointing from a team's point of view.

Q: (Dan Johnson - Daily Telegraph) Nico, whatever happens in a race, no-one likes to see people being booed on the podium. I just wonder how that felt from your point of view, given that, whatever happened between you and Lewis, it wasn't a blatant thing. 
NR: As I said, I respect the opinion of the British spectators. They definitely were not happy, so that doesn't feel good. That's very clear.

Q: (Dan Knutson - Auto Action / National Speed Sport News) Dan, where do you do from here. The car wasn't supposed to be fast here but how do you see the rest of the season unfolding for you and the team?
DR: I see good things, obviously good things ahead. If we can collect maximum points around here, you know it gives us a bit more hope for the circuits that are going to come later in the season: Singapore, Suzuka, just a couple to mention. Obviously it's great. We're really motivated right now. It's been a really good day for us on a track we didn't expect to get maximum points from, so yeah, it'll keep us smiling for a while. At the same time we'll stay grounded. Monza we know will be tricky again but obviously the package we brought here was pretty racy, so, try and take something from here to Monza and then I think, as I said, Singapore and Suzuka will be pretty good for us.

Q: (Heikki Kulta - Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, how was your fight with Kimi for the podium in the last laps? What was your feeling, was it something special?
VB: I think it was a nice and fair fight. First I nearly had a go into Turn 5 but wasn't really quite as close, so then I just had to wait for a couple of laps to really prepare for it, then went for it and it was nice, clean racing with him. So, yeah, really enjoyed it.

Q: (Oana Popiou - F1 Zone) Nico, we saw the incident when something got stuck on your antenna; can you tell us something about it? 
NR: It was a big piece of... I don't know what it was and it just got stuck right in front of me, it was flapping in front of my eyes which made it difficult and I couldn't get rid of it either. I tried, because it was just stuck on the front but then after a while it came loose but it was really difficult to see at that time. Sometimes I couldn't even see where I was going because it was in the wrong place so that was not good.

Q: (Sven Heidinger - Sport Woche) Daniel, did Red Bull change the philosophy of the car because usually you were very bad at those circuits and now the speed on the straight was very good?
DR: Yup, we pretty much came here with a low downforce setting. We knew it would maybe affect us a bit in the second sector but we believe the car has a good base of downforce to sort of get through the second sector good enough and then what we lose naturally on the straights, running this type of wing, was something that put us back in with a fighting chance for sector one and two. Yeah, I guess on TV you could see by the images that the rear wing was pretty simple, there wasn't much to it but obviously it was a good package here and we'll see if the Monza wing can get any smaller - I don't know, otherwise we'll just run with DRS open all the time!

Q: (Alexander Levit - Sovetsky Sport) Nico, do you honestly think that you can keep up the harmony inside the team after what happened today? 
NR: Yeah, I'm confident that we can, yes. It is always going to be an intense battle, that's clear, it was clear from the onset and there will always be difficult moments and just as we did after Hungary, we had a discussion and moved on. I'm sure again we are going to have to discuss today for sure and we'll review it and then we'll move on.

Q: (Leigh O'Gorman - Walker Watson) Nico, the early incident with Lewis, did that dramatically change your tyre strategy today? You had to pit on lap eight or was a three stop with an early change always the plan?
NR: No. My strategy was all over the place because of the various things happening so completely changed everything.

Q: (Daniel Johnson - Daily Telegraph) Daniel, you're 35 points behind Lewis now and I think about maybe 65 behind Nico. With double points at the last race, do you consider yourself firmly in the championship hunt now? 
DR: If I'm within fifty coming into Abu Dhabi then yeah, but there's still a few races to go. While it's still mathematically possible, yeah, we'll keep fighting. Today was a big day for that. To come and steal some points on a circuit where let's say we weren't supposed to is nice but I think what's important, looking ahead, is to capitalise on the circuits that we should be strong on and if we can take maximum points, let's say, at a couple of those then it's never over.

Q: (Ian Parkes - Press Association) Nico, you talked about Hungary and the meeting that was held there. I think this weekend we've seen different body language from yourself: you've clearly suggested that you weren't happy with what was expressed in the meetings that you've had with the team personnel and with Lewis. Was there any suggestion today that for once you went into this race with perhaps an uncool head, perhaps, an unclear mind? 
NR: I can't agree with any of your impressions that you've got this weekend. We had a very good discussion after Hungary and it was reviewed and clarified who did what, what was wrong, what was right and then we adapted our agreement to move forward. And that was really behind us. To be honest, I was very relaxed this weekend and just looking forward to it, because with this awesome car that I have at the moment, it's such a pleasure to go to a track like Spa where I know that I can be on pole on Saturday and win the race if I do a good job. I was very much with that frame of mind, not thinking about the championship either, just really this race, wanting to win here in Spa with the Silver Arrow and that was it for the weekend.

Q: (Livio Oricchio - Universo Online) Daniel, 12 races is a representative number of races and you've won three times and your team mate not once, being a four time world champion. What does it mean for you? 
DR: Yeah, obviously for me it's great, it's what I wanted to achieve, to get some race wins. To have three in twelve races I think has exceeded a few expectations. Let's say the in-team battle has gone really well. Obviously I've showed speed throughout qualifying and also races now. I've demonstrated good racecraft and good consistency so I think let's say the team has been really pleased and I've been pleased so we're in a good place. I'm enjoying it more than ever. Each race that goes on I'm having more and more fun so yeah, just having a good time.

Q: (Livio Oricchio - Universo Online) Nico, in the discussion you had with the team after Hungary, did you predict situations like you faced today with Lewis? 
NR: I'm sorry, I don't want to go into more details. It's not a good idea. You asked what was agreed and things like that.

Q: The question was did you envisage situations like today in your meetings? 
NR: Not in specific detail but of course the battle between us is something that we have discussed many many times, yes of course, and the guidelines from the team... we know what they are and they're quite clear. In fact it wasn't that specific to Hungary at all, just generally, of course, it's been discussed, yeah. Especially after Bahrain, for example. That was a discussion topic.

Q: (Silvia Arias - Parabrisas) Nico, you haven't seen the incident but anyway, I think maybe you can feel good because there was no FIA investigation, the incident was not under investigation, that means something. Maybe it was just because it was a racing accident. 
NR: I don't know. I haven't seen it. I'm sorry, I don't want to... I need to watch it on TV before I... because really, when you're in the moment, it's very difficult now, afterwards, with where I was sitting, to comment.

(source: f1.com)

2014 Belgian GP review

It's always great when the F1 break ends and the series continues with the Belgian GP. Spa has always hosted very interesting races and it didn't let us down this time either.

Before the formation lap Fernando Alonso stayed for too long in the grid and got himself a 5 second penalty. It was clearly Ferrari's fault but this time Kimi Räikkönen wasn't the victim.

Sebastian Vettel had a super start and almost overtook both of the Mercedes drivers. He lost his position when he went of the track and had to let the Mercs go by him.

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were fighting for the lead as usual until they touched. In my point of view Rosberg put Hamilton in a position were he had to choose between letting him pass or touching. Hamilton drove over Rosberg's front wing and destroyed his tyre. Racing incident yes but this was the kind of situation Ayrton Senna usually put his rivals in and Hamilton admires that. Now when Rosberg did this to him he realizes that even his hero sometimes did things that wasn't ok. Or maybe he still admires Senna's every move but doesn't see the similarity?

Hamilton was forced to pit and got stuck in the back for the rest of the race. Rosberg on the other hand managed to stay in front, finished 2nd and scored some valuable points. Sometimes it seems that Hamilton is playing mind games with Rosberg but truth is that Rosberg is doing the same thing and seems to be better at it. Hamilton should keep his mind cool and don't let nothing distract him in and outside of a race.

Lotterer had his first race ever in F1 even though he had tested for Jaguar over 10 years ago. He drove one lap and that was it. If he doesn't drive anymore it was a very short F1 career.

Valtteri Bottas was flying again and even overtook Rosberg at one point. He also overtook Kimi Räikkönen for third and finished the race in the same position.

Kimi Räikkönen on the other hand had a great race as he always does in Spa. This was actually the first time he finished outside of the podium in Spa. He has always won the race, retired or finished third once. He would have finished third on Sunday as well but Bottas' Williams was too quick for his Ferrari. Great race from him though!

The star was Daniel Ricciardo. He has been better than his 4 time world champion teammate the whole season and took his 3rd victory! He is the only driver who has been able to challenge the Mercedes boys. I have troubles to believe that he is better than Sebastian Vettel but at the moment it looks like it. Maybe this kind of cars are better for Ricciardo and the cars we have seen in the past 5 years have been better for Vettel. The cars are pretty different so this could be the reason. I am not an expert on the technical side but this is the best solution I have come up with.

On the podium Nico Rosberg got a lot of negative feedback from the spectators. I understand that the Hamilton fans were angry but Rosberg drove a fantastic race even though what happened and I don't respect behavior like that from F1 fans. Very stupid!

Here are my predictions and the results:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. It was the other Mercedes again.

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. His teammate was 2nd and Lewis got hit by him.
2. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull - WRONG. One step higher.
3. Valtteri Bottas, Williams - CORRECT!

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. Nico Rosberg was the fastest.

How many cars will retire before the second lap? I'm saying 4 cars - WRONG. No cars retired on the first lap which is strange if you ask me.

Surprise: Kimi Räikkönen will find new speed - CORRECT. I knew he would be good in Spa.

Post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE!

The rules:

POINTS:  1st - 3  2nd - 5  3rd - 10 

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. If you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points same if you get 1 correct. eg. 2nd you get 5 points. If a driver wins the race and you said he would come 2nd or 3rd no points would be awarded. Same if he came in another position, and you predicted that wrong. A table will be posted up every race weekend. The point scoring system will change once the cars become more competitive. Everyone will say a merc 1,2 so it won't be close or fun. 

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick! like the Mercedes. 

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side JT, AE, MW & MH. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway. We may also come up with some other prize if it helps. 

That's it for today and if you want to send me feedback then email me: f14lifeblog@gmail.com

This is how it feels like to drive in Spa!

The next race is going to be in Spa so here's an exciting video for you. I will probably post some more videos from Spa before the next race.

2013 Belgian Grand Prix -review of the race

I shall start by saying that Lewis Hamilton has really shown us all that he is going to fight for the championship till the end. Mercedes is performing a lot better than Lotus and they are now number 2 in the standings.

Both Hamilton and Alonso passed Räikkönen in the championship points when the Finn retired for the first time since the 2009 season. His record of back to back point finishes was now stopped at 27. It will take a while for somebody to break that record. Even Michael Schumacher couldn't do that in his "dream team Ferrari" years.

Usually the Belgian GP is one of the most exciting races of the year but for some reason I found this race quite boring. Maybe it was because Sebastian Vettel dominated the race from the start and nobody really had a chance against his Red Bull. I'm almost starting to feel sorry for Hamilton, Räikkönen and Alonso. It seems that Sebastian Vettel is going to take his fourth title this year unless something really dramatic happens.

But now let's see what I said before in my preview and did it come true?

"It seems that Räikkönen is very good every time the F1 circus goes to Spa, and every time he manages to finish the race it's with a very good result."
-Yes he does get good results when HE FINISHES THE RACE but unfortunately for his sake he didn't.

"It seems that this is an unlucky track for Fernando Alonso and a very lucky track for Kimi Räikkönen."
-This time the tables had turned and Kimi was the unlucky one and Alonso wasn't.

"Lotus is a very reliable car and it's almost impossible for him to retire with it."
-Yes it's true. ALMOST impossible but clearly not impossible.

"Lotus has also announced that they are probably going to use the double DRS on Räikkönen's car at Spa."
-They decided not to use the double DRS device so it was obviously a bad thing for Lotus.

My top3 guess was:

1. Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus
2. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

The only man that didn't stand on the podium of these three retired. If Räikkönen wouldn't have had those problems I believe that my predictions would have been extremely close. He has won in Spa from the 10th place on the grid before so why couldn't he had been on the podium today as well?

In the previous race I guessed the three drivers correctly but now I only got two right (on different podium positions though).

I forgot to say who is going to set the fastest lap but it wasn't that hard to say Sebastian Vettel on that one.

I have seen that some F1 pages list their tops and flops after a race. I'm going to start with that also. So here goes..


TOP-5

1. Sebastian Vettel - He overtook Hamilton in the beginning and dominated the race after that till the end. Perfect result for him.

2. Mercedes - They managed to jump to second place in the constructors title with a very strong result. It seems that they are now Red Bulls number one contender.

3. Fernando Alonso - He managed to take second position at the track where he usually has bad luck. The start was great even though it was from 9th on the grid and he drove with great confidence till the end.

4. Jenson Button - McLaren has not been that good this season but I believe that Jenson did the maximum that is possible with his current car.

5. Lewis Hamilton - Great performance ones again but he lost his lead right in the beginning and that was the end of his chances for victory. He should anyway be proud that he is now third in the points.


FLOP-5

1. Lotus - They act like a top team but the truth is something totally different. They have had a tire advantage before but that isn't a reality anymore. Their biggest advantage has still been the reliability but that didn't do them any favors this time either. Räikkönen overtook a lot of cars as he usually does in Spa but it doesn't matter what you do if you can't finish.

2. Pastor Maldonado's crash - Maybe he was at the wrong place at the wrong time but it was still a bit embarrassing. First he collided with Adrian Sutil and then he turned straight into Paul di Resta's car. He was probably trying to turn into the pits when he had the chance but didn't look in the mirrors.

3. Sergio Perez - Many drivers has complained about his driving style. He turns aggressively into the other cars in places where you should be very careful. Romain Grosjean has really made some improvement but now he was the victim. Perez was supposed to turn right at the corner but instead he turned first left and then right. This maneuver forced Grosjean to drive outside of the track instead of turn into the corner. Perez got a drive trough penalty for this reason.

4. The activists - They were trying to get their banderol up for the whole world to see. No TV camera filmed it so what they did didn't really matter that much. They just sat up their and watched the race like any other F1 fan even though they were protesting against it.

5. The race itself - Every year this race is very interesting but now it was extremely boring. The weather didn't even cause any drama to anyone this year.

FIA post-race press conference - Belgium

Drivers: 1 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), 2 - Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), 3 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

PODIUM INTERVIEW (Conducted by David Coulthard)

Q: Sebastian, your 31st Grand Prix victory, you’re now just one behind the man who finished in second place. That looked pretty easy for you today.
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, it was fantastic race for us. From start to finish really very good tactics. Obviously it helped the first lap to have the tow off Lewis through Eau Rouge and then I was flying. Once I passed him we had incredible pace and really could control the race until the end. We were a bit afraid of the rain coming towards the end but I think it just passed the circuit. Great race. Thank you to the team, thanks to Renault. All the guys have been working very hard and… yeah, fantastic result, can’t be any better.

Q: You passed a milestone today if you’re into statistics. You seem to like to get the fastest lap towards the end of these grand prix but you’ve now led well over 2000 laps in your grand prix career. Were you aware of that one?
SV: Now I am. Thank You! Yeah, incredible. 

Q: Fernando, this must feel like a victory today. You’ve never won around the Belgian Grand Prix circuit, which is surprising given that you’ve got 32 victories in your career but that was typical attacking stuff from ninth place.
Fernando Alonso: Yeah, we had to recover some places. We were not OK yesterday and everything went OK from the start and then the car has the speed to overtake some cars and it was a little bit boring. After we get the second place we are nowhere near Sebastian and not a big threat from behind.

Q: Looking ahead to Monza, you must feel pretty much buoyed for Ferrari, going to what is the home grand prix for the Ferrari team.
FA: Yeah, definitely it’s an important weekend for us, for the team. Last year we were very close to repeat the victory that we get also in 2010, so we arrive fully motivated again and in Monza we would like to give some smiles and some satisfaction to the tifosi and we will try our best.

Q: Lewis, that’s your 54th podium, that equals you with Niki Lauda who is one of the senior management at the Mercedes grand prix team. Does that statistic mean anything to you and what do these points mean for you this afternoon?
Lewis Hamilton: We had a tough race, these guys were a little bit faster than us but the team did a great job throughout the weekend and I’m really happy with the results. Of course to be put in the same sentence as someone as legendary as Niki is a real privilege. I’m happy with the result we had, I’m glad to see so many great fans here this weekend. They made the weekend.

Q: Once again we heard you on the team radio saying you were taking absolutely everything out of the car and the tyres. You went off into the summer break as the victor, you’ve come on a roll of four pole positions. Looking ahead to the next grand prix, what do you think you’ve learnt from this Belgian race.
LH: I came in this weekend and when we started I felt that we perhaps didn’t have as good a package as these two here. I think we’ll go away after this weekend, we’ll try and see if we can improve for Monza. But definitely when we get to Singapore, I think we’ll have a much better chance there.

Q: [Sebastian] I believe your points lead is extended to the largest ever margin you’ve had. You must feel good looking to the second half of this season.
SV: Yeah. Obviously winning helps. Just really controlled. The car was much better than I think we expected going into the race. So we had a bit of pace on hand to control the race. I really enjoyed that a lot. I think the guys on the pit wall as well, it was not as stressed as at other times. Fortunately there was no rain, so in terms of critical calls there were none to make. It was a very good afternoon for us and obviously looking forward to Monza where we don’t expect, maybe, to be that strong but let’s see.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Sebastian, your 31st career victory - two less than Fernando - and your fifth this season. Clearly the decisive moment was the opening lap of the race. Tell us about that and how it set you up for the rest of the afternoon.
SV: Yeah, obviously very difficult around here to plan your start because first of all you need to have a good launch off the line and then there’s a long straight coming. A bit like Korea. I tried my best to line up behind Lewis and basically benefit from a massive tow through Eau Rouge. I think especially in the opening lap when the tyres are not yet completely there and the fuel tank is full, Obviously the cars are quite heavy up the hill and produce a lot of drag and I was able, in the tow, to make up a lot of speed and when I got side by side I had a lot of advantage over Lewis and was able to get straight ahead. So, yeah, it worked very well, what I was trying to, let’s say, plan at the exit of turn two. And after that I just tried to settle into the rhythm. I tried to open a gap to be flexible at the first stop and yeah, until the end we had incredible pace. We didn’t expect that. We knew, probably, going in that, in the dry, we should be able to beat Mercedes on the track but we knew other cars - Lotus, Ferrari - they looked very competitive in the dry, so in that regard yeah, we had massive pace and could control the race until the end.

Q: You’ve increased your championship lead as well, now over Fernando, almost two race wins clear. How are you feeling about it at this stage?
SV: For sure a positive message today but I’m honestly more happy to win the race today: it’s a fantastic track and especially when the car works well, you don’t want the race to stop. The car is getting lighter and lighter and I was very comfortable at the end on the Primes. The car, as I said, was just a pleasure to drive. You don’t… I didn’t think about the championship or points. Obviously I know the higher up you finish the better it is: ideally ahead of everyone else, which worked today. But yeah, such a great circuit. We’ve had good races here in the past so it’s nice to have another one, another great memory today. So, that’s what honestly I was focussing on most. For sure, regarding the championship, it’s a bonus.

Q: Fernando, obviously for you also the start was pretty decisive. Ninth on the grid, up to fifth on the opening lap. You passed Rosberg, Webber, Button, Hamilton to come through to second place. That’s quite a recovery from what must have been a very disappointing qualifying performance yesterday.
FA: Yeah, I think the weekend was more or less good for us with recovering some feelings that we lost in July with the car especially. We were a little bit more competitive - or we felt a little bit more competitive this weekend. Not for sure maybe for pole position but to be in the first four or five positions on the grid, maybe that was possible but yesterday I think were extremely unlucky with the situation in Q3 with weather and the track: where we were, in the place we were, at the time we were was wrong. So, unfortunately some times in these changeable conditions you are lucky, sometimes unlucky. I remember Malaysia very well in Q3, we were in the right place in the right moment and we were second and third of the grid. Yesterday was a little bit the opposite. So we had to plan a perfect race from the start to the pace of the car, to the strategy and everything worked fine and we could recover some places and extremely important for the championship also to get some good points again after three races not so good.

Q: Lewis touched on it yesterday in the press conference here, that throughout the practice and qualifying as well the Ferrari looked quite quick and looked like it had taken a step forward. Do you feel that over the course of this weekend? Is that giving you encouragement? Obviously we’re going to some very different kinds of circuits in the next few weeks but are you taking encouragement from this weekend?
FA: I’m happy. I’m happy with the feeling that I had this weekend. I’m happy with the parts that we brought here, seems that they are working fine. We need to take things very carefully because, as you say, this is a very specific circuit and we are not first and second in any practice or any qualifying or any race. We are ninth and tenth in quali and now we are second and seventh in the race. At the moment it is still work to do.

Q: Lewis, great getaway from pole into the first corner but describe the remainder of that first part of that first lap from your perspective.
LH: It was not particularly exciting or anything. It was pretty straightforward. Half-decent start and I felt like I got a good exit out of turn one but these guys… Sebastian just caught me massively, particularly through Eau Rouge. There was no defending really. I could only move once, so I moved once and just had to watch him glide by. After that it was very, very difficult to hold onto him. And also when Fernando came by, particularly down the straights, he was just pulling away.

Q: At one point on the radio you were saying “I’m getting everything I can out of the car.” Obviously finishing around 27 seconds behind at the end of the race. Is that a concern for you, given the way you translated pole to victory before the summer break?
LH: Not really. I think every year you come here - here and Monza - you come with a new package, new front and particularly rear wing and sometimes you hit the nail on the head and sometimes you don’t. I think we’ve done a decent job but obviously these guys have done a slightly better job. Whether or not we can make an adjustment before the next race, we’ll wait and see but I think more importantly we’ll be back to being very competitive - or more competitive when we get to Singapore.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Oana Popoiu - F1 Zone) Fernando, definitely a good race for you, starting from P9 but is it also good for your championship, as Vettel finished ahead of you?
FA: I think it’s good; obviously we lost an extra seven points but when they are dominating the weekend, when they do everything better than us and they win the race, they deserve the win and we need to aim for maximum points. Weekends like this one we need to extract the maximum from the car. That is what we did this weekend, all we could in qualifying, all we could in the race. In the race, once we were second we were two to four tenths slower per lap. When you are the second fastest, you deserve to finish second. So we just need to congratulate Sebastian, Red Bull and try to get better for Monza, but in terms of the championship, as I said, we came from two fifth places in Hockenheim and Hungary, with a little bit of a not good feeling and not good performance from the car and today I think we recovered some of the optimism that we lost and I think it was a good weekend for the championship in terms of feeling and in terms of points as well.

Q: (Heikki Kulta - Turun Sanomat) Sebastian, Kimi is now 63 points behind you. Do you think he’s out of this championship?
SV: No, there’s more than 63 points you can score before the end of the season. I don’t know what happened to him. It’s obviously a shame for him but these things can happen. I had a technical failure in Silverstone, we lost the race. It hurts but equally you have so many races that all of us we have these kind of things happening; surely the cars are - in terms of generation - at their end and it’s not a completely new car if you look at the previous years but still we are pushing. The cars are on the limit and you try to get everything out of them. Things that are built on the limit can also break.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri - La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, do you feel you are like in the situation of two years ago when you won the championship quite early in Japan? Do you think it’s going smoothly and you are relaxed with the situation around you?
SV: Well, I… maybe you have a different memory but what I remember from 2011 is that we had a fantastic season but we were working very hard, step by step, race by race and surely not working towards a certain race to seal the championship with a couple of races to go. I wasn’t relaxed at that time, I was as nervous as I am today, hopefully. Therefore, as I said, it’s really step by step and not trying to be too smart, too clever and think too far ahead.

Q: (Andy Young - Richland F1) Fernando, once again you were fast in the race but not so much in qualifying. Do you think this could affect your championship chances against Sebastian?
FA: Well, we need to improve the qualifying performance but to be honest, I’m doing what I can. I’m 8-3 against my teammate, I think. Yesterday was about qualifying but I was 0.6s quicker than my teammate, so in a way, it’s not that the races are good and the qualifyings are bad, it’s just the way it is and we are extracting the maximum from the car all the time. In the races there are more aspects, not pure performance of the car. There is the strategy, the management of the tyres, the characteristics of the cars and on that aspect, I think we are very strong. In the pure performance of the car, we are maybe lacking some performance compared to the others but as I said, I’m extremely happy with the performance we are achieving on Saturday and also on Sunday and the championship is open and we have the best example last year. I was leading with 41 points ahead of Sebastian after the Monza race and I arrived in Texas 15 points behind, so things can change very quickly. Our hopes are to keep developing, to keep improving performance and try to repeat what happened last year the other way around.

Q: (Livio Oricchio - O Estado de Sao Paulo) Lewis, after being on pole position, is this more of less what you expected in the race or did you expect to be closer to Red Bull?
LH: I think yesterday I said that I don’t think we generally have the same pace as these guys, or at least, not necessarily the Ferraris but more so the Red Bulls. But they were both too fast for us today. It’s the best we could have done. Yesterday, the weather helped us to get up to where we were. At the end of the day, we just need to work a little bit harder. I think we can do a better job, hopefully for Monza.

Q: (Jerome Pugmeister - Associated Press) Fernando, you said the team’s recovered some of its optimism. How far can that optimism take you; do you still believe you can mount a genuine title challenge with eight races left?
FA: Yeah, yeah. I think we cannot forget that in the first five races we were a very competitive team. We won two of the five races and we were in a position to fight for the podium all the time. At that point, we were a very few points behind the leader. Then there were some races in the championship where we went backwards in terms of a step in the car and we lost direction a little bit. We understood the problem, we analysed everything and all the things that we are now bringing to the races are delivering what we expected, finally, so this gives us the possibility to get our good form back but we still have to recover some of the gap, to fight for pole positions etc but the championship is very long, and as I said before, the example is what happened to us last year. If you have a competitive car and you win four or five consecutive races like Sebastian did last year in India, Japan, Singapore etc, you recover very quickly. If we are in the position to do that, we will find out very soon.

Q: (Peter Farkas - Auto Motor) Sebastian, I think unusually for Red Bull, your car was set up for quite a high top speed. Was it because you have taken into consideration that you expected to do some overtaking during the race, and how well does that look for Monza, with reasonably low downforce? You were very quick here.
SV: Well, ideally we try to set up our car to the optimum. I think we were maybe more competitive than we expected. Whether that’s us over-performing or the others under-performing, I’m not entirely sure to be honest. So in that regard, it’s always nice to have speed on the straights if you have to overtake, then it’s obviously easier to get yourself side-by-side with the other car and to lose something more under braking, whereas if you’re limited by straightline speed it’s very difficult to pass. We’ve had some bad experiences around here so maybe this year we were a little bit on the higher side in terms of speed. For Monza, I don’t know actually. It’s very difficult to predict. We had painful years in a way, where we just get hammered down the straights and we’ve had years where the loss down the straight was limited, so we could come back in the corners and for sure, if you look back the 2011 experience was great in that regard. How it turns out to be this year it’s difficult to say. I think we can be quite confident. We had a good race in Canada, we had a very good race here which are both medium downforce type of tracks, so I hope that our low downforce package goes in the same direction.

Q: (Michael Schmidt - Auto, Motor und Sport) Sebastian, when you attacked Lewis did you have some KERS left for it and then obviously to Lewis, did you have some KERS to defend yourself or was everything gone after the start?
SV: I had some left.

LH: I had some left but he was catching me so I didn’t use the rest of it, I saved it for the rest of the lap.

(F1.COM)