Luke’s Weekend Review – Belgian GP 2024

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Drama at Spa: Russell Disqualified, Hamilton Wins Belgian GP; Piastri and Leclerc Podium

Belgian GP 2024 4

Round 14 is done and boy oh boy was that a good race with a lot of action all across the grid, we saw action all throughout the race and you wouldn’t believe the ending on what happened in the end.

At the start we see most drivers opt to take the mediums as a starting tyre apart from 3 drivers, we see Carlos Sainz take on the hards as Ferrari decide to split the strategy between Sainz and Charles Leclerc, Zhou Guanyu starting in 19th also opted for the hard tyres while Daniel Ricciardo opted for the soft tyres starting in 13th hoping to make some early moves.

After the standard formation lap we see all drivers line up for lights out and at the start we see both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton get an amazing start as Leclerc managed to stay in the lead while Hamilton from 3rd was able to get side by side with Sergio Perez and by Turn 1 managed to make the pass on him to get into 2nd. Perez attempted to get back at Hamilton on the Kemmel Straight but despite a good run on him, Hamilton was able to secure 2nd place. All this was also helping Leclerc stay ahead as usually person who starts on pole here ends up losing the lead at the end of the Kemmel Straight. A bit further behind we see that Lando Norris got a bit of a bad start as on Turn 1 he ended up going wide losing 3 places and ended up behind Carlos Sainz in 7th. Norris tried to undo some of his mistakes as on Lap 2 he goes for a move on Sainz and outbroke himself and goes wide again into the chicane after the Kemmel Straight and settles behind Sainz once more.

Max Verstappen who started in 11th found himself in the points by the end of Lap 1 as he managed to get 2 overtakes done without the aid of DRS and was on his way to try and win this race in Spa like he did last year. Back in the front, despite Leclerc being able to hold the lead on Lap 1, he wasn’t able to get Hamilton out of DRS and on Lap 3, Hamilton makes a move on the Kemmel Straight and taking the lead early on in the race. On the same Lap we see Zhou Guanyu going slow saying he is losing power and attempting to limp back to the pits, however on his way back to the pits he gets the greenlight from his team to keep going but this was all for nothing as on Lap 5 he was already a minute behind everyone else and on Lap 6 the issue seemed to come back as we see him pit to retire the car. On the same lap we get a worrying message from Hamilton as he says that there is something moving near his legs which could have potentially hindered his race but luckily this was not something to worry about as Hamilton was able to keep going on with his race.

On Lap 8 we see the first wave of pitstops happening as Nico Hulkenberg comes in to get rid of his medium tyres to attempt the under cut on some of the drivers ahead of him and a lap later we see Williams respond by double stacking Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant and VCARB also pitted Daniel Ricciardo to also get rid of his softs and stick him on the hard tyres. Out front Hamilton reports that the tyres are still ok, but the rears are definitely dropping. And on Lap 11 we see Red Bull pull the trigger to undercut Lando Norris as Max Verstappen was stuck behind him and wasn’t able to pass him. George Russell also comes in on Lap 11 to do the same thing to Sainz, Russell comes out behind Yuki Tsunoda in 13th and clears him straight away to not waste any time and hinder any tyre performance. At the end of Lap 11, Hamilton was also called into the pits from the lead and Oscar Piastri and Perez follow suit. At this stage we see the Ferrari pair running in 1st and 2nd but both yet to pit.

Lap 12 is when Leclerc was called into the pits and seems like staying out a bit longer didn’t help so much as he still came out behind Hamilton in 5th. At this stage of the race, all eyes seemed to be on Piastri as he seemed to be on fire overtaking quite a few cars with Sergio Perez being one of them on Lap 13 putting himself in a better spot for the 2nd stint of the race. On Lap 15, only 4 drivers were yet to pit and that was Sainz and Norris running in 1st and 2nd and Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda in 9th and 10th who were trying to extend their stint as much as possible to give themselves a tyre offset for later in the race.

Belgian GP 2024: Mercedes 1-2 After Russell’s Disqualification Drama

On Lap 15 we see a brief Yellow Flag as we see Sainz going wide in Stabilo for a bit, but he manages to get the car back on track and keep going. This however hurt his hard tyres a bit and lost him some time to the runners behind him that he was trying to overcut by starting on the hards. His old teammate, Norris pits on Lap 16 and comes back out in 8th behind Verstappen showing that the undercut is strong here however Norris had a good offset to Verstappen with tyre age. Verstappen however didn’t seem to be that bothered about Norris as he was focusing ahead as he comes on the radio saying that he think he should race the cars ahead and asks his engineer what they think and his engineer said the magic words “Go Get Them” as the pair were talking about George Russell ahead of him who was also behind Perez at the time. At McLaren, Norris also got similar instructions to go ahead and push and not conserve these tyres.

On Lap 20 we finally see Sainz come into the pits from the lead and manages to come back out in 8thy which was exactly where he started the race so the hard strategy hasn’t been so effective at this stage for Ferrari with Sainz. After a few laps of battling we see Russell finally managing to overtake Perez and after this happened, I don’t think it would take Red Bull long before they pull team orders to swap drivers once Verstappen catches up with Perez. This however didn’t take us long to find the answer as at the end of Lap 21, Perez is called into the pits to get him out of the way from Verstappen, however could this be a bit too early to pit him? Perez comes back out in 8th from 5th and gets going for his final stint of this race.

On Lap 22 we see Norris close in on Verstappen as he manages to get into the DRS and at this stage, Norris seemed to be the fastest man on track and was gearing up to make some moves on Verstappen. Norris attempted 2 laps in a row to attack Verstappen but seemed to be a bit harder to overtake than he expected as on Lap 23 he locks up a bit and cuts the last chicane of the track getting his tyres a bit dirty while also losing some momentum.

On Lap 25 Ferrari attempt the undercut on Lewis as they pit Leclerc from 2nd, unfortunately for Leclerc we see him get a bit of a slow stop and come back out in 7th. Mercedes seeing this, didn’t waste any time and took the opportunity to capitalize on this and pitted Hamilton on lap 26 and Hamilton makes it back out on track ahead of Leclerc as Mercedes had a good stop. On Lap 27 we see that Oscar Piastri started clocking in fastest lap after fastest lap as it seems that he was holding back a bit earlier in the race, but it could have been due to the lack of fresh air to his tyres as oat this stage he was running in the lead.

Leclerc seemed to had start the 2nd wave of pitstops for the front runners as on lap 29 we see both Verstappen and Sainz come into the pits for the last time in this race, on Lap 30 we also see Norris pit from 3rd and still comes back out behind Verstappen in 7th. On Lap 30 we also see Red Bull do the swap we were expecting as Norris seemed to be catching up behind them and they were on different strategies as well. Oscar Piastri pits at the end of Lap 30 and comes back out in 4th from the lead.

On Lap 31 Norris was able to clear Perez on the Kemmel Straight and is now up in 6th and ready to get on the hunt for the other Red Bull. On Lap 32 we also hear Norris’s engineer letting him know that they are happy for Norris to push till the end now on these tyres as they are quite robust and wanted him to go after Verstappen but Max clocked this and told his team that he thinks Norris is pushing and asked them what they wanted him to do and Verstappen got the greenlight to also push in order to defend from the overtake. George Russell who at this stage of the race found himself in the lead was telling his team to consider the one stop and on Lap 32 he does confirm with the team that the tyres feel good, and he will be staying out taking the hards he put on Lap 11 to the end.

Into the closing stages of the race now we see Piastri closing in on Leclerc in 3rd and get into his DRS on Lap 35 and one lap later we see Piastri go for a move into Les Combes, but Leclerc defends well and keeps the driver from down under behind him. This however was all in vain as on Lap 36, Piastri was able to get a better run out of Raidillon and by the end of the Kemmel Straight, Piastri found himself on the podium positions. Leclerc at this stage seemed to be going backwards a bit as on Lap 38 we also see Verstappen closing in and nearly get into the DRS zone but to aid Leclerc, Norris was also in the DRS of Verstappen so Max would have Lando to worry about fore a bit.

Carlos Sainz manages to clear Sergio Perez on Lap 39 to get into 7th and gain another spot to get some additional points. And on Lap 40 we see Lewis Hamilton finally catch up with his teammate Russell and get into the DRS of his teammate and we were wondering if Mercedes will order a driver swap or if they will let them fight and risk Piastri catching up and get them both. On Lap 41 we got our answer as both drivers got the message to make sure to leave each other space meaning they were free to fight. Hamilton has a look on Lap 42, but Russell manages to cover him off and stay ahead of Hamilton. Hamilton tries again on both Lap 43 and 44 but George Russell had saved enough tyres and made the one stopper work taking the chequered flag after starting in 6th, Lewis Hamilton comes in 2nd making it a Mercedes 1-2, Oscar Piastri followed in 3rd and then came Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon formed the Top 10.

Sergio Perez pitted on lap 43 to have an attempt for the fastest lap to take it off Lando Norris to help with Max’s driver championship lead and he does manages to get the fastest lap of the race from Norris and Lewis Hamilton takes the driver of the day for a brilliant drive and a well-controlled race despite that he wasn’t able to get his teammate on track at the end of the race. This wasn’t the end of it as after the race we hear that Russell was under investigation by the stewards for potentially having an underweight car. After some investigation it was indeed announced that Russell got disqualified from the race as his car was 1.5kg underweight so Hamilton inherited the win, Piastri got promoted to 2nd and Leclerc onto 3rd while Daniel Ricciardo got promoted to 10th to get the final point of the race.

Who do you think were the biggest winners and the biggest losers of the Belgian GP? Let us know down in the comments. We now head into the Summer break and we will return back in Zandvoort for the Netherlands GP which will be Verstappen’s home race and he will be hoping that he can end this winless streak in front of his home crowd.

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