The 2024 Belgian Grand Prix - A Mercedes One - One?

There was a lot at stake and excitement going into the Belgian Grand Prix with 4 constructors and 7 drivers (sorry Checo) looking for a race win. Could Lewis Hamilton add to his 4 wins at Spa, could Lando Norris become the first home winner at Spa, could Oscar Piastri be the first to get his second win immediately after his maiden win or could Verstappen extend his run of Belgian Grand Prix wins to four in a row. There was so much to play for as we went into the weekend.

Practice

Practice 1 showed some serious issues for the Mercedes duo with complaints from both drivers about the balance of the car. Max Verstappen showed that the high-downforce Red Bull is still very dominant at this track topping the time sheet by over half a second from Oscar Piastri who showed a glimpse of the pace he had to offer over the weekend. The surprise package of Practice One came in the Williams of Alex Albon who looked pleasingly quick in a car that hasn't shown to be competitive in many years. The remainder of the top ten was made up of the usual suspects with both Mercedes, both Ferraris and the remaining Red Bull and McLaren making up the spaces.

Practice 2 had most drivers test the soft compound tyre where the Papaya McLaren was dominant, and the Mercedes continued their Friday form looking well off the pace. There were some signs of midfield pace with Ocon who has a lot to prove after his confirmed move to Haas for next season and the man he is replacing Kevin Magnussen, both finding themselves in the top ten ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez.

Not much to report from Practice 3 as torrential rain and Lance Stroll finding himself at home in a wall at the top of Eau Rouge causing 2 red flags. Only Verstappen and Piastri seemed to find any pace at all in the rain which was not promising for the rest of the field as it looked likely that qualifying would take place in similar conditions.

Qualifying

A prerequisite going into qualifying as Max Verstappen took a penalty for the second year in a row at Spa, last year he lost only 5 places which didn't affect the result too much at a track that suits the high downforce Red Bull exceptionally.

Qualifying was looking to be wet all the way through with many teams looking to take advantage of the Verstappen penalty at the front of the grid and we went into Q1.

Qualifying 1 went as expected with the McLarens and Red Bulls leading the pack on pace and the grid settled into normality after a series of shock Q1 exits in recent weeks. Zhou Guanyu was slowest on the grid followed by Logan Sargeant, Yuki Tsunoda, and the Haas's of Magnussen and Hulkenburg as they all dropped out of the session. Following this however Tsunoda had clearly had enough of the VCARB as he took a 60 place penalty for replacing his entire engine unit so he established his place at the back of the pack emphatically.

Q2 had a lot more to play for as the midfield look to sneak into the top ten to have the best chance at finishing in the vital points positions. VCARB and Alpine were two teams who introduced upgrades coming into the weekend and would be looking to close the gap to Aston Martin in 5th in the Constructors Championship. The session however was nothing particularly interesting as the top 4 teams continued to look clear of the rest, so it really was a fight for 2 places. These were picked up by Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon with the Williams of Albon missing out by just 1 hundredth of a second. He picked up P11, with Gasly behind him followed by Ricciardo, Bottas and Stroll in P15 meaning he misses out on a third consecutive Q3 appearance.

Qualifying 3 began and Ocon and Alonso had already resigned themselves to P9 and 10 as it became an all out dogfight between the other 8 drivers. Max was clearly the fastest man on track however with his grid penalty it was still all to play for. The Ferrari's looked the slowest of the teams and Mercedes had seemed to find some pace that was missing on the Friday. As the timer ticked down it looked like we were going to see Sergio Perez take over for Max Verstappen's permanent fixture at the front of the grid despite having not seen Q2 in the last two races. Then out of nowhere Charles Leclerc put in a storming lap that not even the Ferrari garage thought was possible. It left our order in Q3 as P10 - Ocon, P9 - Alonso, P8 - Sainz, P7 - Russell, P6 - Piastri, P5 - Norris, P4 - Hamilton, P3 - Perez, P2 - Leclerc, P1 - Verstappen.

This means that for the second year in a row we would have Leclerc picking up a P1 start due to a Max Verstappen grid penalty. And Leclerc picks up his 3rd pole at the track in 6 years with the Ferrari team.

Race

The Belgian GP is always highly anticipated with it being unique with the highest elevation change on the calendar at 102.2m and it being the longest track on the circuit at 7,004km. Spa also often brings early drama with 9 safety cars in the opening 3 laps within the last 15 editions of the Belgian Grand Prix and Lewis Hamilton himself having 3 first lap retirements at the track, a record he will not be keen to add to.

We lined up and the expectation was similar to last year, an early move by Perez on Leclerc from the advantageous P2 start and Max Verstappen working off the penalty to find a position to compete. However, as the lights went out it was clear that history would not repeat itself as Hamilton's launch is far better than Perez's and they go side by side behind Leclerc into La Source and Hamilton ends up in front off the exit and holds off the Mexican up the hill and down the Kemmel Straight. Other notable Lap 1 changes were Norris dipping his front left into the gravel out of Turn 1 and finding himself behind the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz in 7th. Verstappen picked up a few early positions easily finding himself ahead of Albon and Ocon and it didn't take him long to pass Alonso either to join the remainder of the leading 8. It also didn't take long for the pace of Mercedes to show itself as Lewis Hamilton made a Lap 3 move on Leclerc into Les Combes to take the race lead.

Perez was causing issues for the rest of the field with a reported battery issue causing a 6 car DRS train behind him ending with his teammate who couldn't pass the McLaren of his championship contender Lando Norris in front of him.

Lap 7 saw our first and only retirement of the race as a hydraulic issue that plagued Guanyu Zhou's weekend gave the Sauber team no choice but to end his Sunday early to compound the misery of the teams season being the only team to pick up 0 points at the half way point of the year.

The back of the pack made the early move to the pit lane in lap 8 and 9 with long lap times and very hot conditions burning through the medium compound tyre and the undercut being so effective in this particular track. It didn't take long for the cars at the front of the pack to start following suit with Russell and Verstappen coming in on Lap 11. Hamilton, Perez and Piastri reacted quickly but it was too late for Piastri who had already looked to be undercut by Russell but managed to regain his position down the Kemmel Straight in our first showing of the pace the McLaren had on the hard compound tyre. Perez put on a new set of mediums but found himself lodged behind a stubborn Lance Stroll until the Aston Martin pitted a couple of laps later, but he had lost enough time by this point and Piastri had lit up his new tyres and made a successful move to take a net P3. Leclerc's pit stop left him in front of this battle but further behind his teammate for next season as Hamilton continued to look quick.

Sainz had a small moment at the front of the pack, being the only driver to start on the hard tyres, as he takes a trip into the gravel between turn 15 and 16 but he recovered quickly only losing a second of time. This loss of time pushed McLaren to box Norris as they looked to secure points with a poor strategy and Lando looking off the pace this weekend. Verstappen had gained position on him with the undercut leaving Norris in no man's land, 5 seconds behind the dutchman and 5 seconds clear of the impressive Albon in ninth.

Norris however, showed that despite not quite being up to scratch the McLaren on the hard compound is a force to be reckoned with as he started taking 7 tenths a lap out of the pack of Verstappen, Russell and Perez in front of him.

Sainz finally comes into the pits on lap 21 and found himself in a nice gap behind Norris and in front of the midfielders and as he leaves the pits we watch as Russell make a move on Perez with DRS to break out and leave the Red Bulls to battle it out with a quick moving Norris gaining on both of them. Red Bull evidently couldn't be bothered to give Perez team orders to get Verstappen in free air instead choosing to pit him out of the way and off the medium tyres that just were not working for him at all, but it could be too late as Norris gets within DRS range of the championship leader Verstappen out of Turn 1.

There were then quiet few laps which is actually worth noting in this Grand Prix with the VCARBS, Williams and Haas cars the only ones making moves, however during this Ricciardo finally overtook Alex Albon on strategy, undercut the Thai driver to put himself into contention for the points places.

The first bold move from the front came from Leclerc who pitted early on Lap 26 in an attempt to undercut Hamilton to regain the race lead that he lost in the early laps. Mercedes responded, immediately pitting Hamilton who came out ahead of his future teammate but behind Sainz who may have looked to hold up the Brit to assist his teammate in closing the gap. This series of stops left Piastri in the lead and he shows how much pace was hiding in the dirty air behind the other runners as he puts in a fastest lap on 16 lap old hard tyres.

Sainz and Verstappen were the next to flinch on Lap 29 with the latter holding off Lando Norris for the last 10 minutes and a view to undercut Russell for P4 and Sainz proving that an alternative strategy is alternative for a reason, a lesson we would unlearn in 15 laps time. Interestingly Verstappen this time around changed back onto a medium compound as one of the few drivers who did not have a spare fresh hard tyre left. Norris follows suit a lap later and returns to his position attached to the rear of Max Verstappen's Red Bull after quickly dispatching Perez on Lap 31.

The fastest man on track Oscar Piastri looks to pit as he can smell a race win, clearly getting a taste for it after Hungary, but he goes long in his pit box and loses 2 seconds in the pitlane only just squeezing out in front of Verstappen to find himself in P4 with Russell yet to pit for a second time.

It was around this time that it became clear Mercedes were executing Russell's earlier call to try a one-stop strategy as he is 7 seconds in the lead with 12 laps as he looked to be the first driver outside of a Red Bull to win multiple races in a season for the last 2 years.

Norris continued to chomp at the heels of Verstappen on faster hard tyres compared to Max's older, slower mediums but he can't quite make a move stick despite a couple of bites into Les Combes. It's Lap 36 when Piastri shows his teammate how it's done making a silky move round the outside of Leclerc into Les Combes to take the final podium place and he has the pace to push Hamilton and Russell for a race win, especially if they waste time battling each other. But with 5 laps to go a first Mercedes 1-2 since Interlagos in 2022 looks to be set in stone the only question being which way round they will be as Hamilton has completely closed the gap to his teammate now who's tyres are 30 laps old.

As a slight distraction from the drama at the front Sainz puts the final dagger in a miserable Sergio Perez performance, who looks so short of confidence at the moment, taking P7 off him and changing what looked to be a promising weekend for him turn into midfield mediocrity.

By Lap 41 we were looking at a straight dogfight at the front between the Mercedes with Piastri closing in very rapidly behind them and 4th, 5th and 6th separated by 1.5 seconds after Verstappen and Norris caught Leclerc in the midst of the madness, in what is really opening up as a Formula 1 season as it really feels like any of these drivers can win.

With 3 laps to go, Hamilton had a little peak at a move into Turn 3 but after praising Lando last week for taking orders he appears to do the team a favour and not risk a move that could've been detrimental to the team's performance so he chooses to wait another lap. But he goes very deep into La Source at the start of Lap 43 and loses so much time to Russell that he is still not close enough to his teammate and countryman by the end of the Kemmel straight. All the while Piastri looks like he will be in DRS range of Hamilton going into the final lap of an enthralling Belgian Grand Prix.

We head up the hill of the final lap with Lewis Hamilton in 2nd and Oscar Piastri in 3rd both with DRS and the gaps ever so tight down the straight but somehow, against the odds George Russell still goes through the chicane in the race lead. He holds off his teammate through the remainder of the track and there is nothing Lewis can do as they head around the bus stop and across the finish line for George Russell to take his 3rd win in Formula One, become the only driver other than Verstappen to have multiple wins this season and for Mercedes to pick up their 3rd win in 4 races. He called the strategy he managed his tyres to perfection, and he fended off his teammate brilliantly for a bold and deserved race win.

He was followed across the line by his teammate Hamilton for 2nd and the Papaya McLaren of Piastri finished the podium. The remainder of the top ten read Leclerc in P4, Verstappen in P5, Norris in P6, Sainz in P7, Perez in P8, Alonso in P9 and Ocon picking up the final points places beating Daniel Ricciardo in P11.

Red Bull had brought Perez in with 2 laps to go to put him onto the soft tyres to try and take the Mclaren's fastest lap away from them and he is successful in his mission to take two points away from Mclaren in their constructor's championship ambitions.

And then the FIA came knocking...

A notice from the governing body reported that George Russell's car weighed in at the end of the race at 798kg which is the exact minimum weight required for a car by the FIA. However, draining the remaining fuel left in the meant the car weighed in 1.5kg under the minimum requirement leaving a disqualification looming for George Russell.

Mercedes tried what they could to argue this decision including that a lack of a cooldown lap at Spa, where the cars pick up rubber by driving offline, would have changed the results on the scales as unsurprisingly his tyres were shredded by the end of his stint. But this came to no avail and the FIA had to uphold their decision for the integrity of the sport.

Harsh as it may seem, any drop below the weight results in a disqualification and despite a brave and excellent call and a strategy that many considered impossible, George Russell's race win was stripped from him and Lewis Hamilton took the race win to extend his record of most wins in history to Formula 1. The changes gave Leclerc a retrospective podium place and brought Ricciardo into the points places amid the question marks surrounding his potential return to Red Bull following Perez's poor form.

And thus concludes an exhilarating Belgian Grand Prix and leads us beautifully into the summer break to set up what could be the most open second half of the season we've seen for years.

We'll see you again at Zandvoort at the end of August.