That’s the lot from me. Thanks for reading and for emailing in, always a pleasure. Goodbye!
F1 constructors standings
McLaren 516pts
Ferrari 248pts
Mercedes 220pts
Red Bull 192pts
Williams 70pts
Sauber 43pts
RB 41pts
Aston Martin 36pts
Haas 35pts
Alpine 20pts
Oscar Piastri won the Belgian Grand Prix with a dominant drive at Spa for McLaren, comfortably beating his teammate Lando Norris into second and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc into third. Max Verstappen was fourth for Red Bull in the team’s first race without their recently dismissed team principal Christian Horner, while Lewis Hamilton made the most of the changeable, wet-dry conditions to move from 18th on the grid to finish seventh.
After a delayed start of almost an hour and a half due to heavy rain in the Ardennes mountains, when racing finally began in earnest Piastri pounced to take the lead from Norris with an opportunistic and decisive move into Les Combes. Having hit the front he was absolutely relentless in grinding out a victory and even a counter-tyre strategy from Norris could not bring him quite back into contention.
F1 drivers' standings: top 10
1) Piastri 266pts
2) Norris 250pts
3) Verstappen 185pts
4) Russell 157pts
5) Leclerc 139pts
6) Hamilton 109pts
7) Antonelli 63pts
8) Albon 54pts
9) Hulkenberg 37pts
10) Ocon 27pts
Updated
“It was a hard day … Mega first lap by Oscar,” says Zak Brown on Sky Sports F1. “It was an exciting day. We had a small battery issue, which we’ve got to look at … At the start there, it was a battery issue.
“That could have been costing him the win there today, so that’s a real tough one,” says Nico Rosberg.
Brown smiles, and says nothing.
Naomi Schiff asks: Was it a mistake for Norris to use the hard tyre?.
“We weren’t sure if Oscar was going to carry the medium … Lando started to catch him, then made a mistake there … was it a mistake, when two cars end three seconds for each other … There were a couple of untidy errors there [by Norris].
“We’ve all been in this sport too long,” Brown says of the title race and the risk of complacency. “To start dancing before you’re in the endzone is a very dangerous thing to do.”
“Lively, very lively,” Piastri says of the first lap, when his overtake of Norris proved the decisive move. “I knew that lap one was probably going to be my best chance of winning the race. Yeah, I got a good exit out of turn one, lifted it as little as I dared through Eau Rouge, and then it was enough.
“The rest of the race we managed really well. I struggled a little bit at the end, maybe the medium wasn’t the best for the last five, six laps. But no, we had it mostly under control, which is what I wanted. I was pretty disappointed with myself after yesterday, but turns out starting second at Spa is not too bad, after all.”
“I was a bit disappointed with the rolling start, because I thought that would take away some opp … but I got a good exit out of turn one, I was able to stay close. And when I was that close, I knew I was going to lift [off the accelerator] a little bit less than Lando did, and try to keep it on the track. A bit lively, up over the hill … proud of my first lap.”
Updated
“Oscar just did a good job. Nothing more to say,” Norris says of being overtaken by his McLaren teammate on the first lap. “He committed a bit more through Eau Rouge, had the slipstream, and got the run. So nothing to complain of. He did a better job in the beginning, and that was it, nothing more I could do after that point. So yes, I would love to be up top, but Oscar deserved it today.
“It’s shoulda, woulda, coulda,” Norris says of the mistakes that cost him time when he was chasing. “Oscar deserved it. I’m sure Oscar made a couple of mistakes … I’ll review my things.
“I’m so happy for the team, I think it’s our first one-two here for many, many years. So a nice result for the team, and for Oscar too.
“Budapest [next week] is one of the best ones for me in terms of what I’ve done there in past years … it’s where I started my Formula One career, always good memories, and normally one that suits me a bit better than Spa. Happy with today, slightly disappointed, but looking forward to next week.”
Updated
“Max was behind, all race, it’s never easy,” says Leclerc after his third place. “I knew the first part of the race was the trickiest one for us, because we didn’t have the downforce [of the other teams] … then it dried up and the pace was good, but Max was always behind, so I’m pretty happy we got that third place.
“The pressure is high, especially in those conditions … if you are 10, 15 inches out of the racing line, it’s very slippery and greasey, and you can do a big mistake
“So at one time I asked Bryan [Bozzi'] to leave me alone [on the radio].”
Result: Belgian grand prix
Piastri
Norris +3.4sec
Leclerc +20sec
Verstappen +21sec
Russell +34sec
Albon +39sec
Hamilton +40sec
Lawson +52sec
Bortoleto +56sec
Gasly +72sec
Bearman +73sec
Hulkenberg +73sec
Tsunoda +75sec
Stroll +79sec
Ocon +86sec
Antonelli +86sec
Alonso +87sec
Sainz +92sec
Colapinto +95sec
Hadjar +1L
Updated
“Absolutely perfect execution from Piastri there, championship material,” writes Reinoud.
“And there can be no criticism for race control, they absolutely delivered their job which is a full race distance finishing just in time to finish over to the Euros final.”
“Let’s go,” says Piastri calmly on team radio. “Let’s BEEEEP go.”
“It was a brilliant drive,” says Brundle in the commentary box. “Well deserved.”
Updated
Leclerc third, Verstappen fourth, Russell fifth, Albon sixth, Hamilton seventh, a great result in the end after a terrible qualifying.
Oscar Piastri wins the Belgian grand prix
The McLaren driver stretches his lead in the drivers’ standings in a dominant one-two for the team. Norris pushed him, but it ultimately wasn’t enough. The British driver comes in 3.4sec down.
Updated
Lap 44/44: Piastri has just set his two fastest laps.
“He was saving some grip in case he needed it,” says Brundle on commentary. “He didn’t.”
Updated
Lap 43/44: Piastri’s lead is back to 5sec. He’s been cool, calm and collected here and deserves his win …
Lap 43/44: Down the start/finish straight, Norris has Piastri in his sights, but the gap remains around 3sec. Norris locks up in the turn at the end of the straight, and suddenly the gap is over 4sec. Piastri is going to make it!
Updated
Lap 42/44: It’s 3.2sec … Norris made a couple of errors earlier, that cost him a couple of seconds, and he may reflect on those as being ultimately decisive.
Updated
Lap 42/44: It’s 3.6sec between Norris and leader Piastri.
Updated
Lap 41/44: Norris has Piastri in his sights. Will Piastri’s tyre gamble blow up in his face at the very last? The gap is 3.8sec.
Updated
Lap 41/44: The gap is 4sec!
And it edges under 4sec now!
Updated
Lap 41/44: “My goodness … it is going to be close, isn’t it?” says Brundle.
Lap 40/44: Norris is behind the backmarker Hadjar.
“He’s lost a lap of gain here,” says Brundle of Norris trying to get past the Racing Bulls.
Updated
Lap 40/44: Now 4.7sec between Piastri and Norris! Are Piastri’s tyres going from bad to worse? It seems so.
Hadjar, Sainz and Norris are now on hard tyres. The first two are 20th and 18th respectively, mind you.
Updated
Lap 39/44: Piastri leads Norris by 5.143sec.
Lap 39/44: Leclerc seems to have a bit of a pop at his team for the information coming at him over the radio, regarding the gap to Verstappen behind him.
Updated
Lap 39/44: Norris is within 5.5sec now!
Lap 38/44: Ted Kravitz says there are more rain clouds looming. That could spice things up.
Lap 37/44: Hamilton is more than a second behind Albon. Even the great British driver, who embarked on a thrilling charge early on, has had the wind taken out of his sails.
Lap 36/44: This really threatened to be a fascinating race for a while there, but nothing much of note has happened for a while now, and it looks like Piastri is going to win quite comfortably.
“He probably should be within five seconds now,” Brundle says of Norris’s attempt to catch his teammate Piastri. “But he isn’t.”
Updated
Lap 35/44:
Piastri
Norris +7.5sec
Leclerc +18sec
Verstappen +21sec
Russell +31sec
Albon +35sec
Hamilton
Lawson
Bortoleto
Gasly
Tsunoda
Bearman
Stroll
Hulkenberg
Ocon
Antonelli
Alonso
Sainz
Colapinto
Hadjar
Lap 34/44: So the question is, clearly, can Piastri get enough pace out of these intermediate tyres in the next 10 laps, to hold off a charging Norris?
If I was a betting man I’d say yes, he can. But we may yet see drama.
Updated
Lap 33/44: Norris narrows the gap a little further to Piastri, it’s 7.3sec now.
Lap 33/44: Hamilton is now right on Albon’s tail … He’s just 0.3sec behind.
Lap 33/44: Piastri leads his teammate Norris by 7.7sec.
Lap 32/44: I remain sympathetic to the race director regarding the decision taken to delay the start. It was too dangerous. However, Brundle did make the point that they probably could have started 15min sooner than they did after the rain. And that’s probably a fair point too.
Updated
Lap 31/44: “Looking at Lewis’s position shows how the race has been completely neutralised by starting so late,” emails Reinoud. “Pitting now would put him in a DRS train outside the top 10 – no one will take that risk, so no one is pushing for overtakes on track.
“If we’d started 15-30min earlier we’d have had more actual racing on inters, probably a pit stop for a second set of inters, and a flat-out sprint on slicks for the last 15 laps. Oh well, at least Spa is a beautiful track to look at for the next 25 minutes or so.”
Lap 30/44: Things have stabilised after the rain and all those pitstops earlier in the race. We’ll have a full points race unless something dramatic happens.
Norris narrows the gap to Piastri to 8.3sec, but it feels like Piastri is in a good rhythm and is feeling confident of staying out for another 14 laps to claim the victory.
Updated
Lap 29/44:
Top 10:
Piastri
Norris +8.6sec
Leclerc +9.2sec
Verstappen +2.3sec
Russell +6sec
Albon +3sec
Hamilton +1.2sec
Lawson +11sec
Bortoleto +1.6sec
Hulkenberg +5sec
Updated
Lap 28/44: Sainz, in 19th place in the Williams, gets a final warning for track limits.
Lap 27/44: Piastri’s lead grows to 9.2sec after, I think, a mistake by Norris. Antonelli takes Alonso and moves into 14th place.
Updated
Lap 26/44: Hadjar, in last place, has gone on to hard tyres. He and Norris are the two with them, everyone else has intermediates.
Lap 26/44: The most significant time gap, between leader Piastri and second-placed Norris, stands at 7.8sec.
Hamilton is 1.9sec down on Albon in sixth.
Lap 24/44: During the Tour de France stage the other day, Luke Rowe was saying that wet-dry conditions are the most dangerous for riders, because the amount of grip in a corner on a descent can fluctuate wildly.
These driving conditions aren’t super dangerous for the drivers, at least not anymore, but it does make the tyre strategy very interesting.
Lap 24/44: The gap between Norris and Piastri holds at 8.3sec.
Leclerc, in third, is another 8sec behind Norris.
Piastri produces the fastest lap of the race.
Updated
Lap 23/44: Piastri leads Norris by 8.3sec.
Lap 23/44: “How is it his call?” asks Ted Kravitz of the Piastri tyre conundrum. “These teams have got strategy super computers that put Deep Blue to shame.”
Deep Blue being a chess super computer.
Updated
Lap 22/44: “No one knows if the hard compound tyres will go to the end, because they haven’t been running them all weekend,” points out Brundle on commentary. “In theory they should.”
Lap 22/44: “It’s your call if we do another pitstop or try to get to the end,” Piastri is told over the radio. “At the moment, we try to get to the end.”
Lap 21/44:
Piastri
Norris +8.1sec
Leclerc +15sec
Verstappen
Russell
Albon
Hamilton
Lawson
Bortoleto
Hulkenberg
Gasly
Bearman
Alonso
Colapinto
Antonelli
Stroll
Sainz
Hadjar
Ocon
Updated
Lap 19/44: Piastri leads Norris by 8.2sec. Can Norris continue to reduce his teammate’s deficit?
Updated
Lap 19/44: Hamilton’s momentum has slowed slightly. He was absolutely flying for a while there but Albon is now holding him at bay from sixth position.
Lap 18/44: Norris is the only driver in the race with hard compound tyres on. However, he is eating into Piastri’s lead slightly. The gap is 8.7sec now.
Lap 17/44: Hamilton is right on the tail of Albon, in sixth, 0.8sec behind.
On team radio, McLaren say they are going to aim for both cars to make it to the end without another stop.
Updated
Lap 16/44: The track is now drying out nicely. Piastri leads Norris by 9sec.
Piastri’s overtake of Norris, on the first lap raced in anger, is shaping up to be decisive.
Updated
Lap 16/44: Piastri, at the front, leads Norris by 8.8sec.
Hamilton’s Ferrari seems to be the fastest car on the track.
Updated
Lap 15/44: Hamilton nabbed six places with that early stop.
He said his mistake in qualifying was “unacceptable” but it appears to have motivated him all the more.
Updated
Lap 15/44:
Top 10:
Piastri
Norris +9sec
Leclerc +15sec
Verstappen +16sec
Russell +17sec
Albon
Hamilton
Lawson
Hulkenberg
Bortoleto
Updated
Lap 14/44: Hamilton is up to seventh! The early stop for slick tyres seems to have worked out beautifully.
Updated
Lap 14/44: Norris pits! Piastri leads him by 6.6sec. Leclerc is a further 16sec back.
Lap 13/44: Piastri is 2.4sec faster than Norris, according to commentary.
Lap 13/44: There are plenty of cars coming in for slick tyres now. No fewer than 10 cars now on slicks, with four more about to change.
Lap 12/44: Piastri pits! He’s gone on to intermediates.
DRS has now been enabled.
Updated
Lap 11/44: Hamilton pits and goes on to slick tyres. He is back down to 17th as a result.
“That is going to give everybody a lot of good information,” says Brundle on commentary of Hamilton’s new tyres.
Updated
Lap 11/44: Hamilton is racing like a man possessed. This is some great entertainment for the fans who had to wait during that rain delay.
Verstappen has a look, but can’t get past Leclerc on the straight after Eau Rouge.
Updated
Lap 10/44:
Top 10:
Piastri
Norris
Leclerc
Verstappen
Russell
Albon
Tsunoda
Hadjar
Lawson
Bortoleto
Lap 10/44: Hamilton takes Gasly and is up to 13th. Could he fight his way into contention?
Lap 9/44:
Top five:
Piastri
Norris
Leclerc
Verstappen
Russell
Lap 9/44: Norris trails the race leader, Piastri, by 1.4sec.
Hamilton takes another place! He’s past Hulkenberg. This is great racing from the seven-times world champion. He is up to 14th, having overtaken three cars in the space of one lap.
Updated
Lap 8/44: Hamilton up to 15th! He edges past the Alpine of Colapinto. This is a brilliant charge by the Ferrari driver.
Updated
Lap 7/44: “If it’s not going to rain again, they will need dry tyres soon,” says Brundle. Tyre strategy is going to be key.
Hamilton moves up to 16th after a good move against Sainz.
Lap 7/44: Now a suggestion that Piastri may have a battery issue, too? Anyway, second-placed Norris is 1sec down, then Leclerc is 2.3sec behind Norris.
Updated
Lap 6/44: Verstappen is right on Leclerc’s tail. The battle for third.
Updated
Lap 6/44: Piastri is already 1.1sec clear of his teammate at the front.
Russell overtakes Albon! He’s up into fifth.
Updated
Lap 5/44: Piastri overtakes Norris! That was a superb move by the drivers’ championship leader. Does Norris have a problem? It looks like it, it seems like he’s lost a lot of speed … Is it a problem with his battery?
Updated
Green flag!
The race is on … when the cars cross the start/finish straight. And there they go! We’re racing, finally, at the Belgian grand prix!
Updated
Lap 4/44: Confirmation, it seems, that it’s a rolling start via a TV graphic. But still the safety car remains ahead of Lando Norris in the McLaren.
Updated
Lap 3/44: There is some standing water on the track in places, but sections of it look almost completely dry now. Perhaps it’s deceptive on TV and it’s all still very wet.
Updated
Lap 3/44: The safety car remains out on track for a third lap.
“We are very cautious, aren’t we?” says Brundle on commentary.
Lap 2/44: Driving an Aston Martin around Spa, in front of a load of F1 cars, must be quite fun. Although you might feel a bit hurried by all those F1 cars behind.
Updated
Lap 2/44: The drivers are accelerating and braking on the straights, which looks a bit treacherous with the cars at close quarters, but there you have it.
Updated
Lap 1/44: Norris was just asked about the visibility. He said it’s better, but still bad at Eau Rouge and on the straight (or straights).
Updated
Lap 1/44: There’s plenty of spray, still, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it was nearly an hour and a half ago. We’ll have two laps under a safety car, as stated.
The safety car rolls out of the pits … duly followed by the F1 cars.
Five minutes until we get going. The race will start behind the safety car.
“A minimum of two laps behind the safety car,” says someone or other on team radio.
Updated
“You get your adrenaline going … then you’ve got to go and have a coffee,” McLaren’s Zak Brown tells Sky Sports F1 of the rain delay.
“It will be interesting to see how quickly the track dries, if no more rain comes.
“It’s going to try quickly now the sun’s out. I’m going to need my sunglasses.”
Craig Slater asks: Has the relationship between Norris and Piastri cooled with them both fighting for the drivers’ title?
“I think they clearly smell that both of them have a chance of being world champion this year,” says Brown. “I’ve not noticed any difference between them, but the stress will ramp up as it gets closer. The relationship between them and the team is just awesome.”
Lastly, a question about Horner’s departure.
“There’s been a lot of noise … You never like to see it end like that for anyone, competitor or not,” says Brown. “But things move on quickly in Formula One.”
Updated
Sarah Rendell has the Women’s Euro 2025 final right here:
Fans on the start/finish straight, who must be in the VIP section, are pictured clutching unfeasibly large glasses of rosé wine.
Rosberg, on commentary, says he used to do “keepy-uppys” to get his brain going, and for the reaction time, when warming up after a rain delay.
Updated
Race to resume at 3.20pm (4.20pm local time)
Or, a little under 15 minutes, 15.20 UK time. It’s on!
Updated
The medical car has gone for a spin. It’s looking much brighter and the fans are even happier than when it was bucketing down a while ago.
“If driving in the rain is a problem,” emails Peter. “Then don’t go to Belgium in July!”
“Visibility is the main issue,” says Tsunoda of Red Bull. “I hope we can race soon. Fingers crossed.
“I feel good about the car. Looking forward to the race, more than usual … let’s see how it goes.”
There is blue sky, and sunshine! Perhaps we’ll have a race soon …
The crowd at Spa are absolutely loving life, despite the rain, and the rain delay …
Updated
An email about wet tyres, from someone who knows.
“They do move a lot more water than the inters [intermediates],” writes Andy. “But they also have a habit of overheating and going off very quickly if/when it starts to dry out.
“So the teams and drivers are happier to sit it out on the inters which don’t shift as much water and offer as much grip when it’s wet, but then don’t go off as soon as it dries a bit.
“Plus as soon as it’s wet enough for full wets, the race gets red-flagged anyway.”
Thank you.
Updated
There is a large amount of sport on today.
Emillia Hawkins has all the buildup to England v Spain in the Women’s Euro 2025 final:
Daniel Harris has England v India in the fourth Test at Old Trafford:
Meanwhile, Mavi García has won stage two of the Tour de France Femmes in Quimper and Michael Butler has the reaction here:
Tour de France stage 21, in the men’s race, will also be coming up soon.
“I just hope we can go soon, for the fans,” says Pierre Gasly of Alpine. “Here [at Spa] we’ve had a few situations where they’ve waited a long time in recent years.
“I’m pretty sure it’s going to start in the next 15, 20 minutes. Once this rain is gone it should be a good race, it should be exciting.
“It’s tricky conditions … I’ll fight as hard as I can. We are three positions away from the top 10 and I really hope we can make it.”
Brundle and Croft discuss Rosberg’s point about having the bravery to stay on the accelerator in bad visibility.
“If you’ve lost the willingness to keep your foot down, you need to get out of the car, and go and do something else with your life,” says Brundle.
An email from Philip entitled: “Wet Tyres?”
“How often do drivers actually use full wets? If races are red-flagged before the drivers even put them on, it begs the question - what’s the point in having them in the first place?”
Good question. They mentioned something about the teams going for intermediates. I don’t know the answer, regarding how often full wet tyres are used.
“I feel honoured to be alongside this legendary lineup,” says Nico Rosberg, with David Croft and Martin Brundle in the commentary box.
“So you should,” quips Brundle.
Croft asks: What was Rosberg’s worse race in the rain?
“There were so many,” says Rosberg. “Here, in Canada … You have to keep pedal to the metal. For 10 seconds, blind. You have to look at the walls to see if there is a braking marker … ‘Maybe the corner is coming up soon, maybe I should brake,’ – but you can’t brake too quickly either because the car behind you might run into you.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is pictured in the pits, headphones on.
“It’s a fine balance. F1 cars are good at clearing the water, but when the water levels are bad, we have to be careful about aquaplaning,” says Andy Cowell of Aston Martin.
“The strategy team are on their toes,” Cowell adds of the midfield battle on the F1 grid. “Let’s see what we can grab hold of.”
Updated
“Safe to race?” emails Alex. “No such thing! Spa has got all the required safety certificates. If a driver isn’t happy to race, they can withdraw. In the meantime, conditions won’t improve without cars circulating. This lesson is seemingly never learned.”
It is not safe to race as the conditions are now. Delaying the start, in my opinion, is the right call. As one of the Sky pundits just said, fans may insist they should just get out and race, but the people who actually make the decision have a responsibility to the drivers.
Updated
“This circuit is dangerous; there have been two fatal accidents in recent years at the same location (after the Eau Rouge steep slope) due to poor visibility,” emails Claude. “The rain makes this lack of visibility even more dangerous. Spa is one of those circuits from the past where little thought was given to safety, like the Nürburgring. The drivers love it, but can such precarious racing conditions be accepted today? I’m not sure.”
Beyond lap 33, full points would be scored. If fewer than two laps are completed, no points will be scored. Between that, there are few different permutations on scoring.
“I think a delayed start is probably the right thing to do, with the amount of spray form the cars the visibility is low and could result in crashes,” emails Asim. “On the flip side the rain-filled race at Silverstone this year was particularly exciting due to the amount of strategising, with cars changing tyres after the formation lap a first for me. It would be a shame if we didn’t see a full race!”
Apparently Verstappen also said: “We should just run, like, chillax.”
Now, they do play Verstappen Jr. on team radio, never slow to give his opinion.
“Way too cautious,” says the world champion. “Now the rain is coming, the heavy rain.”
Updated
The real rain is about to hit, too, that is what the forecast apparently says.
The TV director focuses on some enthusiastic fans in the stands, spirits undampened by the heavy rain.
There is some on-board footage of (I presume) the formation lap. There is no way it’s safe to race in these conditions. Visibility is utterly terrible.
Updated
“Having looked at the weather forecast I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this race won’t start,” emails Andy.
”This really doesn’t help Spa’s case of remaining on the calendar either.”
In fact, Brundle isn’t sure about the three-hour window for the race, and another commentator (Kravitz I think) now says the timer has stopped under the red flag.
Lando Norris is asked if the problem is visibility, or standing water on the track.
“Visibility. The standing water is not too bad.”
“I possibly would have given it a couple of laps … to see if these tyres could wash away some rain,” says Kravitz on commentary.
Brundle suggests that Max Verstappen has called the decision “silly and way too cautious,” although I didn’t hear that on the radio or anything.
In my opinion, in view of the standing water on the track and the copious spray being thrown up by the tyres, delaying the start is the right decision.
Updated
Red flag - race start delayed
Visibility is deemed to be too poor, and the start will be delayed.
Up front, Lando Norris says he can’t see much “and I don’t know what it must be like for the guys behind.”
Brundle, on commentary for Sky Sports F1, points out that the three-hour window for the completion of the race is now open.
Updated
The formation lap has begun. It is extremely wet on track. Visibility will be terrible at full race speed. Ted Kravitz points out that the rain has stopped, for now, but there is more coming.
There are 16 cars on the grid and four starting from the pits. Sainz, Hamilton, Antonelli and Alonso all have new power units, I think they just said on the telly …
Belgian Grand Prix grid positions after qualifying
1 Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren 1min 40.562secs
2 Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 1:40.647
3 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1:40.900
4 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:40.903
5 Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams 1:41.201
6 George Russell (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:41.260
7 Yuki Tsunoda (Jpn) Red Bull 1:41.284
8 Isack Hadjar (Fra) RB 1:41.310
9 Liam Lawson (Nzl) RB 1:41.328
10 Gabriel Bortoleto (Bra) Kick Sauber 1:42.387
11 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Haas F1 1:41.525
12 Oliver Bearman (Gbr) Haas F1 1:41.617
13 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Alpine 1:41.633
14 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Kick Sauber 1:41.707
15 Franco Colapinto (Arg) Alpine 1:42.022
16 Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:42.502
17 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Williams 1:41.758
18 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Ferrari 1:41.939
19 Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Ita) Mercedes GP 1:42.139
20 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Aston Martin 1:42.385
We’ll have 44 laps. The drivers will cover 191.398 miles.
Are you happy to see a torrential downpour at Spa, with a view to racing excitement?
Do you think they should delay the start?
You can email me.
“Visibility is going to be a bit tricky,” says Yuki Tsunoda of Red Bull.
He suggests the start may be delayed.
“It’s a horrible situation to be in,” Rosberg says of the lack of visibility in the rain. “It’s a dangerous circuit.”
It’s absolutely pelting it down, by the way. Time for the Belgian national anthem, a few pyrotechnics and some sort of military fly-past.
Updated
Can Hulkenberg get on the podium again, Rosberg asks?
“It’s going to be hard to repeat that, but never say never.”
Rosberg asks Valtteri Bottas about a link with Cadillac for next year.
“I can’t hear you,” Bottas quips, avoiding the question.
Under 20 minutes to lights out.
Is Jos Verstappen pleased that Horner is gone from Red Bull?
“They decided to change. I’m fine with everything, as long as it works.”
Rosberg asks: “You said Horner has to go?”
“That was a year ago,” says Verstappen Sr. “It’s different. I have nothing to say.
Rosberg: “You’re quiet, now?”
“I’m always quiet.”
That was awkward.
“I loved days like this,” Brundle tells Jenson Button when asked if he would like to be out there racing in the rain. “It was a chance of nicking a few points.”
Lando Norris has always maintained confidence in his abilities even as the season has ebbed and flowed, a point he felt he made definitively in claiming pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix. While Norris soared Lewis Hamilton was left bereft, offering only apologies to his team for an “unacceptable” error that left him languishing in 16th place here.
Martin Brundle has recruited his colleague Nico Rosberg for his grid walk. Is nothing sacred? Meanwhile, it’s raining, and raining hard.
“It’s chucking it down now,” says Rosberg. “The teams will need to decide on tyres. At the moment, the decision will be towards the wets.
“It’s horrible, you won’t be able to see anything, unless you’re in P1,” Rosberg adds when Brundle mentions the spray in the air when it rains at this circuit.
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Plenty of time before lights out to read this superb piece by Nasra Abdi, regarding the threat of the iconic Spa-Francorchamps disappearing from the F1 calendar:
“At 7km long with 19 corners, Spa is the longest track on the calendar and home to some of F1’s most distinguished features. Nowhere is this clearer than at Eau Rouge and Raidillon, a sweeping blind uphill left-right kink that rewards precision and bravery in equal measure.
“Its difficulty is part of its charm – the unpredictable weather, the margin for error, the rawness that feels increasingly rare. As the sport moves further into new markets, the question is no longer just whether Spa should stay. It is whether Formula One can afford to lose what it represents.”
It’s raining at Spa right now. The fans are reaching for the rain jackets. And the forecast is for a big storm to hit later.
Max Verstappen has insisted that the dismissal of Christian Horner as team principal would not be a factor in deciding whether he remains at Red Bull.
The world champion also revealed that the shock move after the British Grand Prix was led by the team’s parent company Red Bull GmbH, which had been embroiled in a power struggle with Horner for a year and a half.
Nico Hülkenberg finished third for Sauber at Silverstone earlier this month, remarkably achieving a first podium in 239 grand prix starts. Sky Sports F1 have interviewed him.
“It was great. Opportunities came … we executed perfectly,” Hülkenberg tells Ted Kravitz.
“It’s been so positive, the aftermath, the amount of love, feedback from around the world, from fans, from colleagues, from ex-colleagues. It’s been pretty incredible, and really special.
“The aftermath was pretty overwhelming … by Tuesday, I had more than 700 messages. It took me the whole week to work through it and reply. It was quite a bit of work, actually.
“I’ve got a lot of those [strategy] calls wrong in the past. To get it all right is nearly impossible. It just played out beautifully … I had the right nose, the right feeling, and followed my instincts.”
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Amid a turbulent period for Red Bull, their new team principal, Laurent Mekies, is bearing the responsibility and the scrutiny, for the moment at least, with a smile.
After two weeks in charge since the dismissal of Christian Horner, Mekies and Red Bull are adjusting to a new era with a business as usual attitude even as the circumstances suggest it can be anything but, before this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
“The timing is bloody bizarre,” the pundit Martin Brundle says on Sky Sports of Horner’s departure. “You might have thought it was something to do in the close season. But it is what it is.”
“He was losing internal support,” claims Nico Rosberg. “Key people were leaving … so they decided to pull the trigger.”
“Verstappen will definitely stay next year,” says Naomi Schiff. “While Red Bull racing is a successful team, Red Bull [the drink] is at the core of it. This is their biggest marketing activity … they have clearly gone backwards, they need to go forwards, the whole team needs to rebuild, and rebuild their image.”
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Preamble
The buildup to the Belgian grand prix has been dominated by Christian Horner’s recent departure from Red Bull, and that hasn’t changed this weekend: although an actual grand prix will shift collective focus to the sport rather than off-track politics.
Lando Norris – having a mixed season to say the least – grabbed pole position for McLaren yesterday while Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who has won five times at Spa in his illustrious career, could only manage 16th on the grid after what he termed an “unacceptable” error. “Definitely a weekend to forget,” said the seven-times world champion. “I’ve got to look internally and apologise to the team.” Norris’s pole followed up victory at the British grand prix earlier this month when his teammate, Oscar Piastri, claimed he was unfairly denied by a penalty for braking erratically during a safety-car restart.
Max Verstappen of Red Bull, having won the earlier sprint race, took fourth on the grid while Piastri is second in a McLaren one-two. Charles Leclerc, Hamilton’s Ferrari teammate, starts third. There should be plenty of intrigue, not least in judging how Laurent Mekies, Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda’s new team principal, begins his quest to fill Horner’s shoes.
Lights out: 2pm UK time
