Here’s Giles Richards’ report on a grand day for Mercedes.
Constructors’ championship
1. Red Bull 404pts
2. McLaren 361pts
3. Ferrari 340pts
4. Mercedes 284pts
5. Aston Martin 71pts
6. Red Bull 33pts
7. Haas 27pts
8. Alpine 10pts
9. Williams 4pts
10. Sauber 0pts
Drivers’ championship standings
1. Verstappen 275pts
2. Norris 197pts
3. Leclerc 174pts
4. Piastri 164pts
5. Sainz 160pts
6. Hamilton 143pts
7. Russell 141pts
8. Perez 129pts
Toto Wolff: “Today we were clearly ahead of everyone. We didn’t think it was possible so we thought he should stay out and he made it last!”
Lee Carney makes a good point: “So did Oscars 4.4 second pit stop cost Lewis the win there? If he’d been closer they probably would have let Lewis through but not sure if it would have been enough for Piastri to win”
Top ten positions
1. George Russell
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Oscar Piastri
4. Charles Leclerc
5. Max Verstappen
6. Lando Norris
7. Carlos Sainz
8. Sergio Perez (+fastest lap)
9. Fernando Alonso
10. Esteban Ocon
George Russell speaks: “Amazing. The car feels really awesome. Well done to Lewis, he really controlled that race. It was a team effort, the strategy guys did a great job. we rolled the dice. I want anther race next weekend. The team has been working so hard.”
Lewis Hamilton speaks: “We had such a disaster with the car on Friday, we were nowhere. I was trying to get closer but George did a great job in going long on the tyres. We just gotta keep pushing.”
Piastri speaks: “I thought I could get them, once I got clean air. You needed to keep going as George showed. Happy with the race. Not sure we could have done more. We just didn’t have enough pace to mow them down.”
“Amazing strategy, you guys are the best..tyre whisperer,” says Russell who sounds joyous.
Russell stage dives into his mechanics. Great race. That’s three races from four for Mercedes. Perez got the fastest lap. Hamilton might have had it. But Russell drove so well.
George Russell wins the Belgian GP
44/44 Final lap. Hamilton locks up and that seems to have let in Russell. Piastri keeps on their tail, ready for any mistakes. But Russell speeds away, with Hamilton settling for second, Piastri third, Leclerc fourth, Verstappen fifth. The one-stop plan paid off.
Updated
43/44 Great drive by Russell. Is this letting in Piastri? Good stuff by Team Merc, letting them do battle. Norris sets a fastest lap. Who will chase the point on offer for that?
42/44 Russell’s hard tyres doing their job. Hamilton, down the main straight, can’t get close enough. Piastri is within touching distance.
41/44 Piastri is flying, so what do Mercedes do? Hamilton is close to his teammate now. “Give each other plenty of space,” says their race radio.
40/44 Sainz overtakes Perez. Too easy. Norris has a fastest lap as he chases Verstappen hard. Verstappen is chasing Leclerc himself. Five laps to go…
39/44 Carlos Sainz chases Perez for sixth. There’s a constructors’ championship between McLaren and Red Bull to worry about.
38/44 Norris and Verstappen is under a second, and McLaren are the speedier option again. Mind, Piastri has a rather slow lap after getting past Leclerc.
37/44 What do Mercedes do here? Launch Hamilton ahead and use Russell as a buffer, a defensive role?
36/44 Piastri has another go, and blasts past Leclerc. Now for the Mercedes? Hamilton may have a battle on his hands to keep hold of this win. The McLaren is flying, The gap to the leader is nine seconds and five to Hamilton.
35/44 Piastri is chasing down Leclerc, and sees daylight, only to get that closed down, The Aussie, such a talent, fancies a podium place.
34/44 Hamiltom is lapping far quicker than Russell.
33/44 The battle is between Verstappen and Norris, who is trying to show the Red Bull who has the better car. Verstappne has been told he can let it all out and go for it.
32/44 Russell is on a one-stop strategy. Can he hang on to the lead?
31/44 Piastri pits, and it takes a while. Only for him to emerge past Verstappen and blaze past Perez. Russell and Hamiltom are 1/2 now.
30/44 Norris comes out, and behind Verstappen, who is following Perez in sixth.
29/44 Lando Norris is going to pit, to hold off Verstappen.
28/44 Sainz tries his best to hold up Hamilton. But then pits, as does Verstappen. Hamilton has Norris, Russell and Piastri up ahead.
27/44 Oscar Piastri leads, Russell is second, and Piastri gets a faster lap/
26/44 “Think about the one stop,” says Russell’s garage. Hamilton makes a quicker stop, and Hamilton is in front of Leclerc. The other ahead, five of them, including Verstappen, will still need to change their tyres.
25/44 Hamilton is sitting well in front, as Leclerc pits. It’s a two-stop strategy for everyone. And Ferrari, making a slow stop, go on the hards.
24/44 Hamilton leads, Leclerc in second, Piastr in third. Norris attempts to chase Verstappen but makes a mess of a chicane. Russell in fourth is holding off Verstappen.
23/44 Russell has the DRS to overtake Verstappen.
22/44 Perez pits, letting Verstappen come through, and then puts on hard tyres. Problem solved, though Norris on on Verstappen’s tail
21/44 Russell overtakes Perez, and that puts him in fourth, and Red Bull now have to ask Verstappen to be allowed past Perez.
20/44 Hamilton waits on Sainz pitting, which hasn’t happened yet. The Ferrari will go in at the end of this lap.
19/44 Footage inside Ricciardo’s car shows him doing up to 300 km/h as he chases Alex Albon, a battle of 10th v ninth. The top eight all have the possibilities.
18/44 Russell is in front of Verstappen and the champion is being chased by Norris, the fastest lap at the moment.
17/44 Verstappen asks whether he should go for it. And his team give him the nod.
Sainz has a wobble.
16/44 Norris comes in, after 2.3 seconds, he drops behind Verstappen to eighth. But he has the right tyres. Sainz, in the lead, almost comes off on the gravel. He gets away with it but loses three seconds.
Updated
15/44 Norris’s tyre change is imminent. Verstappen is told the medium tyre will be ok for him later in the race.
14/44 Piastri sets a fastest lap. The McLarens are flying these days. Good to see. He’s chasing Leclerc. Verstappen is in eighth again, Russell up ahead of him.
13/44 Leclerc says he’d prefer to go long rather than undercut on pits but still ends up pitting. Sainz, the other Ferrari, now leads, Norris is second, Alonso third and Hamilton fourth. Verstappen is lapping quicker than anyone.
Hamilton pits, so does Perez
12/44 The tyres are moved to hard, and Hamilton comes out fifth. Russell manages to overtake Piatri but then has to give up eighth. Good driving from Piastri.
Verstappen pits
11/44 The aim is Red Bull to try and undercut Norris. Russell’s Mercedes' has made a quicker stop. Verstappen is back in 14th, behind Tsunoda, with Russell ahead. How will those hard tyres do?
10/44 Hamilton – two seconds clear – is making it known his tyres are beginning to decay. Verstappen is still behind Norris. The top eight are covered by nine seconds.
9/44 Lots of pitting, soft tyres being replaced. Oscar Piastri is offered option on tyres – he goes for a two-stop strategy.
8/44 Hulkenberg goes into the pits for Haas, and changes tyres. Other teams will be looking at him in the hards. Also on the hard, Sainz, and he’s all over the back of Russell in fifth.
7/44 Norris in seventh, is doing a good job in holding up Verstappen. The Mercedes has a jump on the Red Bull, and there’s a tyre conundrum, with RB not having two sets of hard tyres.
6/44 Zhou Guanyu looks to be out. Perez is complaining about his battery.
5/44 Sergio Perez is not making much of an impression, the suggestion being his battery is weakened. He’s in third.
Updated
4/44 Zhou Guanyu is back in the race. Hamilton, setting a fastest lap, flies away. The gap is only just over five seconds to Verstappen. Time to use all that open road.
Lewis Hamilton leads!
3/44 Hamilton, on the medium compound tyres, is chasing down Leclerc, and goes past him, Verstappen is all over the back of Norris. Out of the race, Zhou Guanyu, whose car looks to have stopped. Can he crawl to the pits?
Updated
2/44 Verstappen overtakes Albon and is in eighth. Norris overtakes Sainz but immediately loses his spot. Verstappen is already on Norris’ tail. But which of the Red Bull or the McLaren has the pace?
Lights out at Spa, we are go!
1/44 Leclerc leads out, Norris drops three places. Perez tries to get after Hamilton who’s nudged to second. Leclerc is the beneiciary of that battle. Verstappen gains two places, going ahead of Fernando Alonso.
Off they go on the formation lap. It’s a hot day in the Ardennes region after all that rain. The talk, as ever, is of soft and hard tyres.
Lots of winners this season – seven – it’s far from the procession we expected at the start of the campaign. Verstappen has never won from 11th on the grid.
The pole-sitter hasn't won the last five races
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 28, 2024
Can @Charles_Leclerc break that run? 🤔#F1 #BelgianGP pic.twitter.com/NkwVCwfoTS
Martin Brundle is on his pit walk. Mark Webber, former driver, has high hopes for his client, Oscar Piastri. Anze Kopitar, LA Kings hockey legend is there, too. McLaren seem confident. Merc’s Bono sets aside worries about water coming off the back of their cars on the parade lap a few minutes back. There’s cup of ice on Sergio Perez’s car. Why? We’re not told. Christian Horner “we’re going to do our darnedest” on a Verstappen charge. Perez? “Best thing he can do is overtake at the fifth turn and bugger off.” “Lando Norris says he is “excited”. And here comes the Belgian anthem. It sounds a bit like Lloyd Webber’s A Different Suitcase In A Different Hall.
From 2016, a short video to show why Spa is one of the quickest, most beloved racetracks of all.
Despite being 11th, the fear is that Max Verstappen’s Red Bull’s new engine will blast through the pack.
Lando Norris: “We are in a good spot but Red Bull are clearly the quickest. It will be tough. Max is going to come through pretty quickly and most likely [we will] be fighting him for the win, and I’m sure he’ll be a threat for us at some point.”
Last time out, there was a soap opera taking place among the McLaren team.
Driver Standings
1. Max Verstappen - 265 points
2. Lando Norris - 189 points
3. Charles Leclerc - 162 points
4. Carlos Sainz - 154 points
5. Oscar Piastri - 149 points
6. Lewis Hamilton - 125 points
7. Sergio Perez - 124 points
8. George Russell - 116 points
9. Fernando Alonso - 45 points
10. Lance Stroll - 24 points
11. Nico Hulkenberg - 22 points
12. Yuki Tsunoda - 22 points
13. Daniel Ricciardo - 11 points
14. Oliver Bearman - 6 points
15. Pierre Gasly - 6 points
16. Kevin Magnussen - 5 points
17. Alex Albon - 4 points
18. Esteban Ocon - 3 points
19. Zhou Guanyu - 0 points
20. Logan Sargeant - 0 points
21. Valtteri Bottas - 0 points
Giles Richards’ report on qualifying.
Preamble
Beyond his 2021 battle with Lewis Hamilton, this has been far the hardest challenge for a title for Max Verstappen. The push of the McLarens in what looks a faster car hasn’t helped, and the temper and mistakes have followed. This time, he drove beautifully at Spa but a new engine meant a 10-place penalty. That means he starts 11th on the grid, with Charles Leclerc the beneficiary. That Lando Norris ran a shocker will be helpful, too.
Qualifying results:
1 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1min 53.159secs
2 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1:53.754
3 Sergio Perez (Mex) Red Bull 1:53.765
4 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:53.835
5 Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren 1:53.981
6 Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 1:54.027
7 George Russell (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:54.184
8 Carlos Sainz Jr (Spa) Ferrari 1:54.477
9 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Aston Martin 1:54.765
10 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Alpine 1:54.810
11 Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams 1:54.473
12 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Alpine 1:54.635
13 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) RB 1:54.682
14 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Kick Sauber 1:54.764,
15. Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:55.716
16 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Haas F1 1:56.308
17 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 1:56.500
18 Yuki Tsunoda (Jpn) RB 1:56.593
19 Logan Sargeant (USA) Williams 1:57.230
20 Guanyu Zhou (Chn) Kick Sauber 1:57.775
