The current world champion Sebastian Vettel managed to win today’s Belgian Grand Prix organized at Spa-Francorchamps, although F1 experts were saying before this weekend that Ferrari will win. Not only did Vettel win, but in second place came his colleague, Mark Webber. This result probably marks the end of the battle for this year’s drivers’ championships but also the confrontation for the manufacturers’ championship where the situation is pretty clear.
Although Vettel had a slow start and he lost the first place, he made a smart move in lap 14 when he decided to make a pit stop when the Safety Car was on the circuit. After that, he managed to overtake Webber and Ferrari’s Alonso, en route to his seventh victory of the season. Towards the end of the race, Webber recovered some of the lost terrain, but he was still too far to beat Vettel and probably the team orders wouldn’t have permitted this move anyway. It was a great race for the Australian, who although had a disappointing start where he dropped to eight place, he managed to cross the finish line in second place.
The last spot on the podium was grabbed by Button who although started the race in 13th place, in the second part of the race he was very fast, managing to overtake Schumacher, Sutil, Massa and Rosberg in just five laps. His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, wasn’t as lucky as he ended his race after only 14 laps. After his first pit stop he was fifth, right behind Kobayashi and he managed to overtake him. However, Kobayashi didn’t give up and there was a collision, from which Hamilton had to quit the race after serious damage to his car, which probably compromised his chances of hoping for the F1 title this year.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso had a rather disappointing race, finishing in fourth place, after being overtaken by Alonso, Webber and Button.
In my humble opinion, the best driver on the track today was Michael Schumacher, who managed to finish the race in fifth place, although he started it from the last position of the grid. This weekend marks 20 years since the multiple world champion joined the fabulous world of F1. Right behind him was his teammate Rosberg, who during the first five laps of the race he was in 1st place.
The next Grand Prix will be next weekend at the legendary Monza track, which will be the home of the Italian GP, where at least theoretically, Ferrari has the first chance to grab the victory. However, after seeing what Red Bull is capable of, it probably won’t be a surprise if Vettel or Webber will snatch the win once again.
Here are the full results of the 2011 Belgian Grand Prix held at Spa- Francorchamps:
Pos Driver Nat Team Time 1 Sebastian Vettel GER Red Bull 2 Mark Webber AUS Red Bull +3.7 3 Jenson Button GBR McLaren +9.6 4 Fernando Alonso ESP Ferrari +13.0 5 Michael Schumacher GER Mercedes +47.4 6 Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes +48.6 7 Adrian Sutil GER Force India +59.7 8 Felipe Massa BRA Ferrari +66.0 9 Vitaly Petrov RUS Renault +71.9 10 Pastor Maldonado VEN Williams +77.6 11 Paul di Resta GBR Force India +83.9 12 Kamui Kobayashi JAP Sauber +91.9 13 Bruno Senna BRA Renault +92.9 14 Jarno Trulli ITA Lotus +1 lap 15 Heikki Kovalainen FIN Lotus +1 lap 16 Rubens Barrichello BRA Williams +1 lap 17 Jerome d’Ambrosio BEL Virgin +1 lap 18 Timo Glock GER Virgin +1 lap 19 Vitantonio Liuzzi ITA Hispania +1 lap DNF Lewis Hamilton GBR McLaren DNF DNF Jaime Alguersuari ESP Toro Rosso DNF DNF Sergio Perez MEX Sauber DNF DNF Sébastien Buemi SUI Toro Rosso DNF
DNF Daniel Ricciardo AUS Hispania DNF
After 12 races so far, here are how things look in the drivers’ standings:
Pos Driver Nationality Team Points 1 Sebastian Vettel German RBR-Renault 259 2 Mark Webber Australian RBR-Renault 167 3 Fernando Alonso Spanish Ferrari 157 4 Jenson Button British McLaren-Mercedes 149 5 Lewis Hamilton British McLaren-Mercedes 146 6 Felipe Massa Brazilian Ferrari 74 7 Nico Rosberg German Mercedes 56 8 Michael Schumacher German Mercedes 42 9 Vitaly Petrov Russian Renault 34 10 Nick Heidfeld German Renault 34 11 Kamui Kobayashi Japanese Sauber-Ferrari 27 12 Adrian Sutil German Force India-Mercedes 24 13 Sebastien Buemi Swiss STR-Ferrari 12 14 Jaime Alguersuari Spanish STR-Ferrari 10 15 Sergio Perez Mexican Sauber-Ferrari 8 16 Paul di Resta British Force India-Mercedes 8 17 Rubens Barrichello Brazilian Williams-Cosworth 4 18 Pastor Maldonado Venezuelan Williams-Cosworth 1 19 Pedro de la Rosa Spanish Sauber-Ferrari 0 20 Jarno Trulli Italian Lotus-Renault 0 21 Vitantonio Liuzzi Italian HRT-Cosworth 0 22 Bruno Senna Brazilian Renault 0 23 Jerome d’Ambrosio Belgian Virgin-Cosworth 0 24 Heikki Kovalainen Finnish Lotus-Renault 0 25 Timo Glock German Virgin-Cosworth 0 26 Narain Karthikeyan Indian HRT-Cosworth 0 27 Daniel Ricciardo Australian HRT-Cosworth 0
28 Karun Chandhok Indian Lotus-Renault 0
And here’s the situation in the manufacturers’ standings:
Pos Team Points 1 RBR-Renault 426 2 McLaren-Mercedes 295 3 Ferrari 231 4 Mercedes 98 5 Renault 68 6 Sauber-Ferrari 35 7 Force India-Mercedes 32 8 STR-Ferrari 22 9 Williams-Cosworth 5 10 Lotus-Renault 0 11 HRT-Cosworth 0
12 Virgin-Cosworth 0
Post tags: Tags: belgian gp, belgian grand prix, belgium gp, belgium grand prix, formula-1, red bull, sebastian vettel, spa francorchamps
It was a very exciting Q3 this Saturday at Spa, where current world champion Sebastian Vettel managed to grab the pole position in the dying moments of the qualifying session, beating Lewis Hamilton’s time only by a little . Vettel did his fastest lap in 1m 48.298s while Hamilton came in second with 1m 48.730s, followed by Mark Webber that managed to complete a lap in 1m 49.376s.
The big surprise of this qualifying session was Felipe Massa how will start tomorrow at Spa from the fourth place of the grid, thanks to its fastest lap in Q3 of 1m 50.256s. In fifth place we shall see Nico Rosberg that did a lap in 1m 50.552s, while right behind him is Jaime Alguersuari with his time of 1m 50.773s.
On the 7th place of the grid tomorrow will start Bruno Senna who did a lap of the track in 1m 51.121s while Fernando Alonso from Ferrari only managed a very disappointing 8th place with a time of 1m 51.251s.
Here are the full results of the qualifying session for the Belgium Grand Prix held at Spa- Francorchamps:
POS DRIVER NATIONALITY ENTRANT TIME 1. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 1:48.298 2. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes 1:48.730 3. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 1:49.376 4. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari 1:50.256 5. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes GP 1:50.552 6. Jaime Alguersuari Spain Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:50.773 7. Bruno Senna Brazil Renault 1:51.121 8. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari 1:51.251 9. Sergio Perez Mexico Sauber-Ferrari 1:51.374
10. Vitaly Petrov Russia Renault 1:52.303
Q2 11. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2:04.692 12. Kamui Kobayashi Japan Sauber-Ferrari 2:04.757 13. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes 2:05.150 14. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Williams-Cosworth 2:07.349 15. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 2:07.777 16. Pastor Maldonado Venezuela Williams-Cosworth 2:08.106
17. Heikki Kovalainen Finland Lotus-Renault 2:08.354
Q1 18. Paul di Resta Britain Force India-Mercedes 2:07.758 19. Jarno Trulli Italy Lotus-Renault 2:08.773 20. Timo Glock Germany Virgin-Cosworth 2:09.566 21. Jerome d’Ambrosio Belgium Virgin-Cosworth 2:11.601 22. Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy HRT-Cosworth 2:11.616 23. Daniel Ricciardo Australia HRT-Cosworth 2:13.077
24. Michael Schumacher Germany Mercedes GP No Time
Post tags: Tags: belgium gp, belgium grand prix, formula one, formula-1, red bull, sebastian vettel, spa francorchamps
