The start was pretty close between Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel but nobody got overtaken so nothing sweet about that. Also the two Finns Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen were extremely close but same thing as with the two drivers ahead.
Very dangerous driving from Sergio Perez when pushing his teammate Esteban Ocon into the wall like that! He admitted after the race that it was his fault and maybe a bit dangerous but defended himself by saying that Ocon has also done stuff like that in the past. Still not a good excuse Checo!
Fernando Alonso's overtake on Nico Hulkenberg was fantastic on lap 2 but the Hulk got his position back a lap later. I love to see Alonso do good but frustrating when it hasn't got any meaning. Starting to feel like Alonso has retired already. I know he has probably negotiated with Williams also but would that bring him a championship? I mean that's why he left Ferrari after 2014. He wanted to win again because in his opinion Ferrari couldn't give him that. Now he drives a car that retires almost every race.
Another driver who retires a lot is Red Bull's Max Verstappen. He did so this time also. Really starting to feel sorry for this very talented driver. I have always seen him as somebody who will fight for the championship and maybe win it some year.
When Verstappen retired there was yellow flags and Räikkönen didn't slow down. This brought him a 10 second stop and go penalty and it basically ruined his chance to fight for the win. It was pointless to slow down when the retired car was behind a fence basically, but if there are yellow flags and you ignore them then you deserve a penalty.
The two Force Indias of Perez and Ocon touch again on lap 29 and Perez took the blame of this as well. He also suffered a puncture and was forced to pit. Ocon on the other hand lost half of his front wing and was pissed off. He almost sounded like Vettel on the radio "honestly..... what the fuck is this guy doing?!". The safety car was deployed due to some debry on the track from the Force India.
When the safety car pits we see maybe the most interesting moment in the race when at the same time we see Vettel trying to overtake Hamilton and behind them both Daniel Ricciardo and Räikkönen overtake Bottas at the same time!! Fantastic entertainment but a pity to see Bottas lose points because I really want him to stay in the championship fight as long as possible.
The drivers cross the finish line in this same order and that's it for the 2017 Belgian Grand Prix!
Now it's time for my predictions and the results!
Pole position: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - WRONG. Hamilton took pole again.
The race:
The race:
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
- Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - WRONG. Had one of his worst races this season and was 5th. Vettel was 2nd.
- Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. He was 4th and Ricciardo was 3rd.
Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. His teammate Vettel was fastest.
Surprise: Keep an eye on Kimi Räikkönen - He had pretty good moments but the penalty ruined his race pretty much.
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!
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That's it for today!
