Belgian Grand Prix Tag

By FIA Max Verstappen scored his first Belgian Grand Prix victory after the race at the Spa-Francorchamps was red flagged after just three laps behind the safety car due to heavy rain that had delayed the race start for more than three hours. Williams’ George Russell took the first podium finish of his career with second place, while Lewis Hamilton finished third for Mercedes. With downpours regularly falling across the Ardennes circuit throughout the morning, conditions in the build-up to the were extremely difficult. The treacherous nature of the track wereRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer First seven rounds of the 2019 Formula One World Championship – underwhelming to the bordeom. Last seven rounds however – sheer utter chaos with minimal boredom. From the rise of Charles Leclerc at Spa and Monza to the beautiful rally by Max Verstappen at Hockenheim. There was a lot to digest during the second leg of the F1 campaign and it’s time to recap my seven most memorable moments. The Instant Classic That Was Hockenheim I’ve already said it awhile back, but the German Grand PrixRead More

By FIA Charles Leclerc took an emotional first Formula One win at Spa-Francorchamps and immediately dedicated his maiden victory to childhood racing rival Anthoine Hubert who tragically lost his life in a crash in Saturday’s FIA Formula 2 race at the Ardennes circuit. “On the one hand I’ve got a dream since being as child that has been realised. But on the other hand it has been a very difficult weekend since yesterday,” he said after defying late pressure from championship leader to take the win. “We have lost aRead More

By FIA Charles Leclerc beat team-mate Sebastian Vettel by seven tenths of a second to claim pole position for tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix as Ferrari locked out the front row ahead of Mercedes at Spa-Francorchamps. Quickest across the first two qualifying segments, Leclerc stretched the gap back to his rivals in the final top-10 shoot-out to claim his third career pole with a lap of 1:42.519, a massive 0.748s ahead of Vettel who chiefly lost out to his young team-mate in the middle sector of the 7km circuit. Mercedes’s LewisRead More

By FIA Ferrari continued to set the pace in practice for the Belgian Grand Prix with Charles Leclerc going quickest in FP3, almost half a second clear of team-mate Sebastian Vettel. Championship leader Lewis Hamilton failed to finish the session, however. The Mercedes driver crashed heavily midway through the session, bringing out the red flags. With Ferrari dominating the session’s opening exchanges, Hamilton, then nine tenths of a second off the P1 pace Sebastian Vettel, was pushing for an improvement when he put a wheel on the outside kerb onRead More

By FIA Charles Leclerc topped the timesheet in the second free practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix, eclipsing Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel by more than six tenths of a second and running more than eight tenths quicker than the third placed Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas. After being edged out of P1 by Vettel in the morning session Leclerc quickly moved to the top of the order in the afternoon, going quickest in the early phases run on medium-tyres. Vettel was the first to move to soft tyres and attemptRead More

By FIA Sebastian Vettel outpaced team-mate Charles Leclerc by two tenths of a second to head a Ferrari one-two in the opening practice session for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. Ferrari, which won here last year courtesy of Vettel, are again tipped as potential winners of this race and four-time champion Vettel established the team’s credentials midway through the morning session at Spa-Francorchamps, edging out Leclerc after the Monegasque racer had earlier displaced Red Bull’s Max Verstappen from top spot. Vettel’s 1:44.574 was 0.210 clear of Leclerc’s best time andRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer PORTLAND, Ore. – Marcus Ericsson has been given the nod to be Alfa Romeo Racing’s reserve driver in Formula One for the Belgian Grand Prix, forgoing IndyCar’s Grand Prix of Portland. With the sudden news coming out of left field, ARROW Schmidt Peterson Motorsports issued a brief statement regarding Ericsson’s absence at Portland. “Following a request from Alfa Romeo Racing of Marcus Ericsson to be on the ground at this weekend’s Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix, ARROW Schmidt Peterson Motorsports has granted Marcus a release fromRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Red Bull Racing are no strangers of making midseason changes to promote a Scuderia Toro Rosso driver. Despite rumors of both teams retaining their drivers for the duration of 2019, that all went out the window Monday with a bombshell announcement. RBR confirmed during the summer break that Alexander Albon has been promoted to the team. This meant Pierre Gasly’s tenure with the team ends after 12 rounds as he’ll head back to STR for the final nine rounds. “Red Bull are in the unique positionRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Fourteen rounds done, seven to go, and since my first installment, there’s been so many changes across all 10 Formula 1 constructors and its 20 drivers. A few would-be contenders have gone by the wayside like Fernando Alonso and Red Bull, and others have flourished after a quiet or abysmal opening leg such as Kimi Raikkonen and Haas F1. We even saw a hot mess behind closed doors, resulting a new constructor and have so far been tremendous. In my latest installment of “Heptagon Viewpoints,”Read More