Spa-Francorchamps 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 When Romain Grosjean isn’t running the No. 51 Honda for Dale Coyne Racing w/ Rick Ware Racing, Pietro Fittipaldi will be running the oval races this season. The current Haas F1 Team reserved driver will make his NTT IndyCar Series return after three years, slated to compete in the Texas doubleheader, Gateway and that elusive Indianapolis 500. Why elusive? In 2018, Fittipaldi was supposed to run for DCR’s No. 19 team until a career altering injury at a FIA World Endurance Championship event in Spa-Francorchamps dashedRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer From Spa-Francorchamps to Indianapolis, Ben Hanley and his entire DragonSpeed squad has had an extremely tumultuous 2020 campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 35-year-old racer out of Manchester, England didn’t found out that he was going to compete in his second Indianapolis 500 until August 5th – four days before opening day of practice. Where exactly was Hanley when he got the news? Competing in the 4 Hours of Spa with DragonSpeed as the race marked Round 2 of the European Le Mans Series whereRead 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 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 FIA Sebastian Vettel closed the gap on championship leader Lewis Hamilton with a controlled drive to the flag after overtaking the championship leader on a chaotic first lap defined by a Turn 1 collision that took out Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Sauber’s Charles Leclerc. Max Verstappen took the final podium spot Red Bull Racing. At the start, Vettel got away well to immediately put pole-sitter Hamilton under pressure. But behind chaos was unfolding. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, starting fro P18, locked up massively on the approach toRead More

By FIA Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen set the fastest time of the second free practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix, edging Drivers’ Championship leader Lewis Hamilton by 0.168s. In the early part of the session Hamilton led the way on medium-compound Pirelli tyres and the Briton headed the timesheet with a time of 1:44.369. That left him just three thousandths of a second clear of Räikkönen, who ran on soft tyres during the opening phase of the 90 minutes, Räikkönen was the first of the frontrunners to move to supersoftRead More

By FIA Sebastian Vettel went quickest in opening practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, edging Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen by just over a tenth of a second, with championship leader Lewis Hamilton three tenths off the pace in third place. As the first half hour of the 90-minute session came to a close Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas rose to the top of the order with a time of 1:44.998s, set on soft tyres. Hamilton then moved ahead of that mark by more three tenths of a second and that timeRead More