The 2021 Belgian Grand Prix will go down to history as an odd Grand Prix that was never raced.
Friday practices saw Max Verstappen trying his best to stay on top of things, but it was Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas topping the charts of FP1, and by some margin. FP2 was a Verstappen show, setting fastest times all hour long, until a few minutes before the end when he put his RB16B heavily into the barriers. FP2 ended in red flag situation.
Saturday practice saw Verstappen fastest with teammate Sergio Perez behind, and Lewis Hamilton the third fastest.
Then came Qualifying and everything started to complicate as it was wet, very wet. A surprising Lando Norris set the fastest time in Q1 for McLaren, Verstappen was close behind. Q2 saw Leclerc, Latifi, Sainz, Alonso, Stroll eliminated from Q1, but now it was Verstappen setting fastest time, ahead of the Mercedes duo. Rain intensified and a few seconds after Vettel suggested the session should be red-flagged, Lando Norris lost the car up the hill to Raidillon and crashed heavily into the barriers, bouncing back onto the track and spinning several times. Vettel was the first car behind and slowed to a stop to check if Norris was OK. Fortunately, he was.
The session was re-started with nine minutes remaining and with a few seconds on the clock it was George Russell setting the fastest time in his Williams FW43B only to be denied pole by Max Verstappen on the final seconds of qualifying. It was Red Bull’s first pole at Spa for 10 years in what is their 50th race with engine supplier Honda.
On Sunday, mighty Spa-Francorchamps was full of people waiting for a fantastic race, but it was also full of standing water and rain kept falling all afternoon long. Sergio Perez lost his Red Bull going to the grid, damaging the front right of his racecar. The Grand Prix was schedule to start at 3:00 PM local time but started the formation lap 25 minutes late and behind the safety car. After many, many more delays, the race finally resumed at 6:17 PM local time. Two more laps behind the Safety Car followed before another red flag, and Verstappen pulled back into the pits ahead of second-place Williams qualifier George Russell and third-place Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. At 6:45 PM the race was finally suspended and half points were awarded.