In Pictures: Belgium 2021
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.
QUOTES FROM THE PODIUM:
““It is always good to win and the points are important but today is not how anyone wants to do it, especially on our 50th start with Honda. In hindsight, it was very important to get pole yesterday and although it’s a big shame not to do some proper racing laps, as I really love coming to this track, it was just impossible in these conditions. I thought maybe at 15:30 the conditions were a bit better than just now when we tried to re-start but the visibility was still very low and I understand why we couldn’t race today. For me in the lead the visibility was a lot better, even with the Safety Car ahead, but the guys behind me couldn’t see a single thing and if someone went off at Eau Rouge and bounced back onto the track they could have been T-boned at high speed which we do not want. It was also extremely low grip and because it kept raining all afternoon it just didn’t improve. I think today the big credit goes to the fans around the track who stayed here the whole day in the rain, wind, and cold. It must have been horrible to sit in those conditions so a big thanks go to them and they should be the real winners from today.””
““We don’t often get rewarded for great qualifyings but we absolutely did today. But first I want to say sorry to all the fans. It was amazing, their support, to stay out here throughout, and we were all in the same boat. It was a shame we couldn’t get this race underway but just from our side and the team’s side it is such an amazing result.
My whole team deserves it as there has been so much hard work going into it over the last few years and there has not really been anything to show for it or prove for it and we absolutely nailed it yesterday and here we are standing on the podium. I can tell you I didn’t expect that this year, that’s for sure.””
““I feel really sorry for the fans today. Obviously, it’s no one’s fault with this weather but the fans have been incredible today to stick with us this whole time and hold out for a potential race. They knew when they sent us out at the end there that the track wasn’t any better and they did it just so we could start two laps behind the safety car, which is the minimum requirement for a race. I really hope the fans get their money back today.
You couldn’t really see, like five meters in front of you the car disappears, so it was very difficult down the straights to even know where that flashing light was. You couldn’t even go flat out because you didn’t know what part of the track they would be on. It’s a shame because of course I wanted to race and it could have been a great race if it hadn’t rained so hard.””
