Bizarre Belgian Grand Prix: After four hours of nothing formally finished

Hours of waiting finally yielded nothing. After several laps behind the safety car, the Belgian Grand Prix was finally abandoned due to the absolutely terrible and dangerous conditions. But how will this affect the rest of this season?

The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps was originally scheduled for 3pm. However, we already saw heavy rain during yesterday’s qualifying session, which intensified today.

At first it looked like a delayed start only, with the race directors toying with the idea of starting the Belgian Grand Prix at 15:30. However, looking at the radar images, it looked very bad.

In any case, the drivers went out for the safety car for the first lap. But there was so much water on the track that racing was out of the question. Given the aquaplaning problems, it would have been risky to give the green light to the teams and the drivers themselves.

After three and a half hours of waiting, there was finally a gap when the intensity of the rain was acceptable enough to allow the cars to take to the circuit, under the supervision of the safety car of course.

In fact, as far as F1 rules and sporting regulations are concerned, according to article 6.5 of the sporting regulations, if the race leader completes less than two laps and the race is not finished but restarted, no points will be awarded.

At least three laps must be completed for teams and drivers to be properly classified in the results. And now another rule needs to be introduced. If this condition is met while failing to complete at least 75% of the race length, the points the drivers receive for finishing will be halved.

So it can be assumed that this is what the race directors have been waiting for all along, because after two laps past the safety car (one additional lap was taken at 15:30) the red flags were again displayed on the circuit and after a few more minutes the race was terminated.

This means that the results are exactly the same as after the end of yesterday’s qualifying. Of course, you have to factor in the five-place grid penalty for Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll for causing a mass collision at the Hungarian Grand Prix. And also a penalty for Lando Norris. Why?

Because the 21-year-old British McLaren driver crashed badly at Eau Rouge in yesterday’s qualifying, damaging his car so badly that a gearbox change was necessary. And as we know the F1 rules, if there is a significant hit to a Formula 1 car between qualifying and the race, the driver will be penalised five places on the grid.

Therefore, half points must be taken into account, as no more than 75% of the race length was achieved. An absolutely fantastic result was thus achieved by George Russell in the Williams car, who thus celebrates second place. Max Verstappen won the race, with Lewis Hamilton completing the podium for both drivers.

“I feel the need to pay tribute to all the fans who stayed in the stands today and supported us, and also to express our thanks to them. It’s nobody’s fault for this situation, the track conditions were really unbelievable, you couldn’t see properly. We wanted to race, but we really couldn’t do it in these conditions,” Hamilton said in a post-race interview.

The final factor that shuffled the standings was Sergio Pérez’s accident on the run-in lap to the grid. Due to aquaplaning, he was unable to control his car and crashed at Turn 6. Although the severely damaged suspension was repaired, Pérez had to be the last one on the track.

1. Verstappen, 2. Russell, 3. Hamilton, 4. Ricciardo, 5. Vettel, 6. Gasly, 7. Ocon, 8. Leclerc, 9. Latifi, 10. Sainz, 11. Alonso, 12. Bottas, 13. Giovinazzi, 14. Norris, 15. Cunoda, 16. Schumacher, 17. Mazepin, 18. Stroll, 19.

So for first place Verstappen got 12.5 points, Russell 9, Hamilton 7.5. Fourth Ricciardo received six points, Vettel five, Gasly four, Ocon three, Leclerc two, Latifi one and the top ten is rounded off by Carlos Sainz, who scored half a point in this race.

All in all, this means that the championship situation has become dramatic once again. Verstappen has significantly reduced the gap to Hamilton to just three points. In a week’s time, we have a race in the Netherlands, where, according to the preliminary forecasts, it is also supposed to rain. Let’s hope, however, that not so much that the race has to be formally abandoned.

Source: F1 Live