It’s the last race before the summer break. This weekend, we are at Spa-Francorchamps for the 14th Grand Prix of the season.
Before starting the recap as we do at the end of each Grand Prix, let’s go over two penalties that significantly impacted the starting grid of this race.
As we warned you during the Hungarian Grand Prix: Max Verstappen received a 10-place penalty for this Grand Prix due to a change in the car, specifically the ICE (internal combustion engine). Thus, he started the race in 11th place instead of first.
As for Tsunoda, he received a 60-place penalty for the start of this Grand Prix. Indeed, the driver far exceeded the allowed engine change quota. He is now on his fifth internal combustion engine, a fifth turbo, a fifth MGU-H, a fifth MGU-K, a third battery, and third electronic control components.
At the start of this weekend, Lewis made an excellent start, moving from 3rd to 2nd place by overtaking Perez. On the other hand, Norris, who started 4th, had a poor start and exited the first turn in 7th place.
As for Max, he quickly gained three places early in the Grand Prix, moving up to 8th by the second lap.
Lewis took the lead of the Grand Prix on the 3rd lap and held it until the 12th lap. Sainz took the lead for a few laps by delaying his first pit stop until the 21st lap, at which point Lewis regained his initial position until his second stop on the 27th lap and rejoined in 6th place. Piastri then took the lead of the Grand Prix. He was called to the pits on the 31st lap, leaving the first place to George Russell, who stayed on track with only one tire change as he took the lead of the Grand Prix.
On the 32nd lap, we saw some nice battles between several drivers, notably between Verstappen and Norris, who were both pushing to take or maintain 5th place. Verstappen held his position against Norris and ultimately finished the race in 5th place. Norris finished this GP in 6th place.
On the 35th lap, there was a great battle between Oscar and Charles in front of us for 3rd place. Piastri won this duel on the 36th lap and finished the race in 3rd place.
On the 38th lap, it was finally Sainz and Perez battling for 7th place. Sainz managed to take the place and finished in 7th, leaving Perez to finish the Grand Prix in 8th position.
On the 41st lap, Lewis managed to catch up with his teammate George and started a battle for 1st place. The Grand Prix ended with a Mercedes one-two, with Russell in 1st place and Hamilton in 2nd place.
Charles Leclerc, who started this GP from pole position, thus finished in 4th place.
Bad luck for Zhou, who was out in the early laps of the race. Let’s remember that he also received a 3-place penalty for impeding the Dutch driver Verstappen during qualifying.
It could have been with the first Mercedes one-two of the season that we conclude this Grand Prix but the news came out at 7pm EST that George Russell’s car was 1.5 kilograms underweight and he was subsequently disqualified, rendering Lewis Hamilton victorious of this Grand Prix. A massive blow for George Russell who really came through courageously on the one stop strategy, however heavily challenged by Hamilton several times during the last few laps. These last few races have not been without excitement, leaving us uncertain if Verstappen will still be the champion at the end of this year. We eagerly await the end of this summer break and are excited to see who will assert themselves again in the second part of this Formula 1 season.
