Here is the race report, if you can call it that.
Verstappen wins Belgian GP
Four hours after it was due to start, the race has been abandoned, to conclude a very tantric day of F1. Verstappen does win it, however, after the completion of two laps. He will get half points, as will the rest of the top 10. It could be worse: you could be one of the cold, wet fans in cold, wet Spa. Thanks for reading!
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Race stopped
Two laps have been completed, with the safety car still leading the way, but the red flag is back out. Race control have decided to go back to the pit-lane – and surely that will be that. Although there’s been no official decision just yet. Faintly ludicrous, really, that the prospect of making people drive around at 200mph in these conditions has remained all day.
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Certain parts of the circuit look seriously treacherous. The drivers are reporting aquaplaning and there is an almighty amount of spray behind each car – more than earlier, if anything. One lap has been officially completed, which means we’re halfway to being able to deliver a classification and half points. We’re still behind the safety car.
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We're back under way!
The light goes green and Bernd Mayländer in the safety car leads the drivers – including Sergio Perez – around the Spa circuit. These are not formations laps: the one-hour countdown has begun.
So, three hours after the drivers were last on track, they will get back into action. It looks like it’ll be a one-hour race. Whether it will be a Safety Car start or a standing start we don’t yet know. Alpine’s Marcin Budkowski lays it out: “The only question is are we going to do some racing, or do two laps behind the Safety Car and give half points? That would be a shame, but if the conditions are the same as earlier, we won’t be able to race.”
The race will resume in 10 minutes' time!
That’s the word from up high. In what form? We don’t know - more as we get it.
Eeek
1640BST UPDATE: Teams apparently just being advised that rain is expected to stop by 1805hrs local, with gradual easing beforehand.
— Ian Fergusson (@fergieweather) August 29, 2021
Medical car driver Alan van der Merwe report back from his lap around Spa: “The track is OK on your own, there is not a lot of standing water. But the minute you are behind somebody, you can’t see anything - literally everything is grey.”
And the weather update is … [drum roll] that there will be another weather update in 10 minutes.
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Organisers confirm that “the event countdown clock has been stopped to try and complete a one-hour race today”. And the FIA have told that the teams to stand by for a weather update in 10 minutes. Light at the end of the tunnel?
“Hello. I’m freezing and I need to go and warm up,” says Mercedes’ Ron Meadows to race director Michael Masi. The pit wall are given 10 minutes’ stand-down time. Meanwhile, the ‘hard limit’ of 6pm Belgian time (ie half an hour from now) to finish the race seems to have now been overruled by the organisers. Which is all well and good, but at some point it’s going to get too dark.
Not the worst suggestion in the world, from Vince Barreto: “Perhaps they could settle this by seeing who can do the fastest lap in the medical car? Worth a go.”
Right then. With the rain continuing to tumble from the skies above Spa, it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting a race anytime soon. Some ludicrously, there seems to be disagreement over whether or not the race has started. The bizarre technicality at play is that the occurrence of the formation laps means that, officially speaking, the race – which has a three-hour time limit – has started, and therefore points must be given out. There appears to have been no definitive ruling on this from the organisers. There’s very little precedent for this, but here are the options are we understand it:
- The cars go out for two laps behind a safety car. This would deliver a classification, and half points, but leave the fans and competitors underwhelmed to say the least.
- The race goes ahead in truncated form. Exactly how truncated, we don’t know: it could be a four-lap dash, for example. This depends on rain, which shows no sign of abating.
- The race is postponed until tomorrow. The most ostensibly sensible option, but one that throws up various logistical problems: as well as broadcasting schedules and staffing at the circuit (the marshals for instance tend to be volunteers), the teams are all working on tight schedules ahead of next weekend’s race, with their garages ready to be broken down and packed off into lorries this evening.
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Perez has been reinstated! “Good news - Sergio will be in a pit lane start,” is the word from the Red Bull team radio. So he would, in theory, rejoin the race a lap down, without having completed a formation lap. Weird.
Whether or not he will have a race to rejoin is another matter. Toto Wolff says: “It is not going to get better for the next 45 minutes. And we are limited by the [race duration of] three hours.” Michael Masi has confirmed that the race started at 2pm, so would have to be finished by 5pm. So this race will definitely finish in just over an hour and a half … but will it start?
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George Russell is getting antsy: “It was definitely the right decision to stop but as it stands, there wouldn’t currently be a classification, which is obviously frustrating for everyone. One way or another we need to get this race started, even if it was for two laps behind the safety car. Then there could at least be a classification, and half points awarded.”
Not the day they’d envisaged…
“If we can start before 6pm let’s run it!” says Aston Martin principal Otmar Szafnauer, rain pelting down around him.
Meanwhile, Kanye West has just released his long awaited album Donda. Will our long wait be similarly rewarded? Who knows. Here’s he and Jay-Z racing around an industrial lot in a customised Maybach 57:
Christian Horner reckons we could be in for another hour delay, possible more. “The is set in for the next hour or so at least. The problem is not the grip, it’s the visibility between the marshal posts and the drivers. Anybody behind the leader just cannot see.” Could he foresee the race happening tomorrow? “It’s a bank holiday isn’t it - what else are we going to do?”
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Michael Cosgrove writes: “So Verstappen says of the teeming rain that “It’s really not that bad”? Well he would wouldn’t he, seeing as if the race does go ahead he’ll start on pole and may well stay there until the finish line so he wouldn’t have to worry too much about having to constantly tackle the blinding spray chucked up by cars in front of him. As for some other drivers though, they may well disagree.”
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Red Bull now seem hopeful of getting Perez back into the race. Can they do that given that the formation lap has already happened…? We’ll soon see.
Will the race go ahead? Certainly opinion seems split among the drivers. “It’s really not that bad” huffed Max Verstappen upon hearing about the red flag. Daniel Ricciardo said it was “the right call” and Fernando Alonso says “no way, we can’t race” according to Alpine engineer Marcin Budkowski.
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Start procedure has been suspended
… that the word from the organisers. How long for, we don’t yet know. The red flags are out and the cars are back in the pit lane.
Photograph: John Thys/Reuters
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“I really can’t see anything behind,” says Hamilton on his radio. “It’s pretty awful,” says Norris. “I can barely see the car in front. Quite a bit of aquaplaining as well.” Verstappen: “I have to leave a little bit more space from the safety car than normal as I can’t see anything.” And the driving on this lap is as tentative as you’d expect.
Right then. We’re in business. The safety car trundles away from the grid – and the formation lap is under way.
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Will all these delays mean a reinstatement for Sergio Perez? His team have been working on his car but there’s no indication he’ll be back on the grid. Perhaps this is the more pertinent question:
@A_Hess Will Sergio Perez get a bit of a gentle ribbing back in the pits for coming off the track out of competition? Must be a bit embarrassing for him, even with the heavy rain.
— Andrew Benton (@thangnangman) August 29, 2021
Another five-minute delay. Meanwhile, here’s our safety car driver:
Hi Bernd 👋#BelgianGP 🇧🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/quh6siYPfu
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 29, 2021
McLaren CEO Zack Brown: “I think the race is going to be total chaos. Hopefully we’re not part of it. But it’ll be good for the viewers … and some of the teams.”
“I would imagine we might get more of a delay,” says David Nostradamus Croft on Sky. He’s not wrong: the organisers immediately add five minutes to the delay, then another five. So that’s the formation lap at 14:20 as it stands.
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We’ll have a delayed start – the formation lap will start in 10 minutes – because the rain has just got heavier. “The rain intensity has got much too strong,” says race director Michael Masi.
Yep. Still wet. 💦 This could be fun, Team. pic.twitter.com/KlcBBdMgjy
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) August 29, 2021
“Come on Sebastian,” rites Ger Nugent. “Its horrible conditions, prove that you were always the better driver than that other guy.” Well, it is his highest start since Hungary last year. Meanwhile the midfield have as good a chance to spring a surprise as they ever will: watch this space.
“Difficult and dangerous” is the verdict of George Russell on the outlook for today. Meanwhile it’s been confirmed that the formation lap with go ahead with the cars behind a safety car.
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A remainder of how they start:
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2. George Russell (Williams)
3. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
4. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
5. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
6. Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri)
OUT. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
8. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
9. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
10. Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
11. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
12. Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
13. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes - five-place grid penalty)
14. Lando Norris (McLaren - five-place grid penalty)
15. Antonio Giovianzzi (Alfa Romeo)
16. Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri)
17. Mick Schumacher (Haas)
19. Nikita Mazepin (Haas)
20. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin - five-place grid penalty, qualified 15th).
Pit lane start - Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo, qualified 18th
In Spa the sky is grey, the ground is wet and it’s umbrellas wherever you look. Hamilton has already reported via the team radio that “there’s no grip out here” and Russell said “visibility is very poor”. We’ll likely see a safety car start. But should they even be racing in these conditions…?
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Here’s Williams principal Jost Capito: “I just told him [Russell] to enjoy every single lap he can. It’s important to react quickly. The whole grid could be upside down before the end of the race. With these conditions it’s so unpredictable.”
Sergio Perez crashes out on the way to the grid!
Oh dear. It’s tipping it down in Spa and the wet conditions have claimed their first victim before the race has even started. On the lap to the grid, Perez slides around Les Combes and ploughs into the barriers. His team report suspension damage – too much of it to repair in time for lights out: “That’s us done. Kill the engine.”
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Preamble
George Russell gatecrashed the party yesterday. The simmering rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen was rendered secondary in the Belgian GP qualifying session by the Williams driver who steamed into the front row ahead of his countryman – and came close to securing pole but for an almighty lap from Verstappen, completed in a near-perfect 1:59.765s.
The conditions in Spa were treacherous to say the least, with torrential rain throughout and Lando Norris suffering a huge accident at the high-speed Eau Rouge corner. Crucially, the wet weather that clearly favoured Russell’s Williams has also been forecast for this afternoon.
Hamilton, a three-time winner of the Belgian GP, holds an eight-point advantage over Verstappen heading into today’s race but has Hamilton has described the current campaign as the most tightly contested since 2016. He returns from F1’s summer break after pulling off a remarkable turnaround in Hungary, dropping to last place to finish third before being promoted to second.
Verstappen finished a lowly ninth on that day after collision with Norris compromised his race and, on the evidence of yesterday, appears on a mission to banish that memory as soon as possible. Whether he succeeds in doing so could, to an extent, be in the hands of the gods: today’s conditions may well dictate the race. “There are always things to fine-tune,” he said yesterday, “in the wet it’s never easy, it’s always moving around.”
One thing is certain: yesterday’s display has given Russell the confidence that he can spring a surprise. Asked about overtaking Verstappen on lap one, his response was hardly cryptic: “That’s the plan”
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