Amidst the Spruces and Oaks of the Ardennes Forest, was running a sporting event not so calm.
With Andrea Kimi Antonelli in pole with Max Verstappen following in P2 and George in third, all set for the starting grid, the race began way before the lights went out at the Belgian grand prix. The challenge was truly set right at the starting grid when Lando Norris was pushed back from his original qualification of P3 due to a 10 place grid penalty. Norris,Sainz and Stroll each incurred a 10 place grid penalty. Hadjar, meanwhile, was hit with a whopping 30 place grid drop, therefore starting from pitlane.Alonso on the other hand suffered a 20 place drop.
Right in the beginning of the race we saw George Russell spin into the gravel posing a major threat to his championship campaign. Resulting in a 5 second penalty for Lewis Hamilton as the stewards ruled him out as the perpetrator. Russell stated the crash only happened because a severe battery deployment issue left him completely underpowered on the straight, dropping him into the clutches of the pack. In lap 20 Leclerc led the pack during a fortuitous Virtual Safety Car period deployed to clear track debris.Antonelli reclaimed his win in lap 34 by overtaking the Ferrari.
The race therefore ended with the young Italian driver winning another 25 points, heading strong in his fight for the championship with the number 16 Ferrari following in second and the four time world champion in 3rd.
This year’s race at Spa really makes lovers of the sport question if they were still watching a battle of engineering and driving or a simple quarrel between computer softwares. The iconic track, meant to be tackled with full throttle left the drivers and viewers disappointed this year.Cars rapidly lost speed at the end of straights because the batteries simply ran out of juice, experiencing horrible superclipping. The main reason for it was the fact that there are minimal ‘heavy braking zones’ meaning the drivers didn’t have enough zones to recharge the hybrid battery. Verstappen commented that it felt like driving F3 cars with F1 downforce.
Another incident that left F1 fans in a frenzy was Colapinto’s double overtake. Leaving them questioning the true nature of what the broadcasters would show on TV. It further supported their belief that there’s rarely any screen time for the back and midfield cars despite those areas having terrific driving.
Overall this year’s Spa wasn’t as iconic and left everyone hungry for its infamous instances.
