In Pictures: Belgium 2020
The script didn't change much for the Belgian Grand Prix as the Mercedes dominated most of the sessions with Lewis Hamilton taking his 93rd pole position in F1. The biggest surprise was the lack of pace from Scuderia Ferrari. They finished P17 and P20 in the last free practice and were able to qualify P13 and P14 due to exceptional drives from their drivers.
On Sunday, on his way to the grid, McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. suffered an issue with his exhaust and was unable to start the race. The Grand Prix started as expected, with Lewis Hamilton racing into the distance followed by his teammate Valtteri Bottas. On lap 10, Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi lost control of his car coming out of turn 14 and crashed into the wall. One of his wheels came close which broke the suspension of George Russell's Williams forcing both drivers to retire from the race. This caused significant debris resulting in a safety car, and most of the drivers decided to pit, except for Pierre Gasly and Sergio Pérez.
The decision not to pit during the safety car meant that both Perez and Gasly had to take their scheduled pitstops during the race, falling down the order. Pérez pitted at the end of lap 18 for new hard tires dropping him to 17th. On lap 26 Pierre Gasly pitted from 10th position and put on a set of medium tires, he came out in 16th position, behind every driver other than Charles Leclerc who had been forced to make a second pit stop due to a hydraulics issue. Similarly to Pérez before him Gasly used his newer tires to start to make his way though the field, by lap 36 he was in 10th behind Pérez in 9th. Gasly passed Pérez on lap 39 before closing the gap to Lance Stroll whom he passed on lap 42 to take 8th position where he finished.
Hamilton won the race, having led for every lap, followed by Bottas and Verstappen who had also held second and third respectively for the entire race. Ricciardo completed the fastest lap, a 1:47.483, on the final lap of the race for an extra championship point and closing the gap to Max Verstappen to just over three seconds. He finished in fourth place. Pierre Gasly was voted Driver of the Day.
QUOTES FROM THE PODIUM
““Spa is such a special circuit, I could just drive around here for lap after lap. It’s not always been an easy one for me, so to come here and get pole and the win this weekend is fantastic.””
““The race was pretty straight-forward today; I was hoping to really get some good opportunities today in the first lap and at the Safety Car restart, but I couldn’t use the tow going up to Turn 5 enough today. I was actually really close to Lewis out of the first corner, but the tow effect was much smaller today than it was in previous years. I’m not quite sure why, maybe that’s because we had a tail wind going into Turn 5. I don’t think there was really any other opportunity to catch Lewis; he was on pole, drove a good race and deserved the win today. I was just told that this was my 51st podium – the same number of podiums that Mika Häkkinen scored in his career. He was my idol growing up, so it’s great to equal him in that way, although he is obviously mostly known for his two titles.””
““I love this track but the race was not really the most exciting from my side. It wasn’t really much of a fight and I just tried to do my own race and maximize the result. On the medium tyre I didn’t have a lot of grip and then on the hard I was initially trying to put pressure on Valtteri but he was told to speed up and was able to build a good gap, so after that it was a bit lonely. There was not much action up front unfortunately and the tire wear was quite high so we couldn’t really push. I had some vibrations towards the end of the race so I really had to manage my tires, I took no risks and brought it home. Overall, we had a good weekend and the car balance was nice so we can be pleased with that. We are not here to finish third and we want more but it is always good to be on the podium.””
2020 Belgian Grand Prix poster by Salracing