Belgian GP driver ratings
By Matt Morlidge, James Galloway and Jonathan Green
Last Updated: 04/09/17 Ten:06am
Refreshed, rejuvenated and ready for the title fight, the Belgian GP found Lewis Hamilton at his sublime best.
Not only did he wrestle back the championship momentum at Spa, Hamilton also proved yet again that he can treat the intense on-track pressure from his closest rival.
“It’s taken absolutely everything of me,” the Briton admitted.
Kicking off his weekend by equalling Michael Schumacher’s historic pole record – out-qualifying Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas by more than half a 2nd – Hamilton finished it by holding off Sebastian Vettel in two wheel-to-wheel battles, even utilising a nifty race tactic in the process.
And all this in a W08 that both Hamilton and Vettel agreed is presently inferior to the Ferrari.
“From the very first to the last lap, plane out,” said Mercedes’ Niki Lauda as he heaped praise on a driver so crucial to Mercedes’ two thousand seventeen hopes. “There was no room for error and Lewis did a fantastic job.”
Hamilton now goes to Monza knowing that a race win will at the very least take him level with Vettel at the top of the standings. Game on…
Sebastian Vettel’s drive was almost as faultless as Hamilton’s but this is proving to be a title battle where the slightest error or misjudgement completes up being costly.
That was the case on Sunday as Vettel’s lil’ mistake on the Safety Car restart, whereby he got too close, too soon to the Mercedes, denied him his best chance of finding a way past Hamilton.
But the title fight is pushing both drivers to fresh levels, Vettel overcoming a relatively poor begin to the weekend to supply when it mattered in Qualifying to secure a front-row commence and then setting a fresh race lap record in his bid to pursue down Hamilton.
The German may have seen his championship lead cut to a mere seven points, but he took heart from just how close Ferrari were at a track where Mercedes had been predicted to predominate. “I don’t think we have a circuit we should fear going to from now,” Vettel said. And he will have the added motivation next weekend of having the chance to give Ferrari their very first home Grand Prix win at Monza since 2010.
Formula 1’s ultimate opportunist, Daniel Ricciardo has the exceptionally handy knack of being at the right place in the right time in two thousand seventeen – but crucially always supplies when it counts.
Sure, Ricciardo has been fortunate considering his Crimson Bull team-mate’s reliability fights, but he still had to be at his very best to very first hop a Mercedes following the race restart, and then cozily keep a Ferrari at bay.
“The elementary term is leaving with no regrets and then just attempting to capitalise on the moment,” he said.
The Australian was on for a lonely race in fifth before the Safety Car, but Crimson Bull’s aggressive tyre strategy paid off as fresh ultrasofts were bolted on. Ricciardo’s wheel-to-wheel combat this season has been impeccable and he was to prove that again up into Les Combes, surging down the inwards of Valtteri Bottas.
With thirteen laps left, a Kimi Raikkonen recovery would have been expected but Ricciardo never looked in danger despite Crimson Bull’s demonstrable rhythm deficit, and he was soon celebrating his sixth podium of the season. Only the top three in the Drivers’ Championship have more.
Ricciardo’s spectacles suggest he’s in the form of his life, particularly on race days, and he must be looking forward to high-downforce tracks such as Singapore which will surely suit the RB13’s package more.
Until his mistake on the final lap of qualifying on Saturday, it looked as however Kimi Raikkonen was the quicker Ferrari driver around Spa-Francorchamps. But the scene of the Finn’s last win in crimson eight years ago didn’t prove to be a glad hunting ground in 2017, with fourth place behind a Crimson Bull indicating a disappointing race result.
It was that Q3 miscue followed by Sunday’s 10-second stop-and-go penalty for speeding past double-waved yellow flags which cost Raikkonen a podium, albeit his post-Safety Car budge on Bottas was among the best overtakes of the race.
“I guess the result of today could have been worse, but for sure I was looking for more,” conceded Kimi about a fourth place which does little for Ferrari’s fading Constructors’ Championship hopes.
While Valtteri Bottas is still poised to go after Vettel and Raikkonen in being rewarded with a fresh two thousand eighteen contract, he has had far more astounding Mercedes race weekends than this one.
Considering their one-lap superiority over Ferrari, the Silver Arrows may have been expecting Bottas to keep Vettel off the front row in qualifying, but Bottas finished some three tenths down on the German.
Bottas, along with Raikkonen, was then outclassed by his team-mate come race day, scarcely able to join a fight for victory which could have ignited his own title challenge.
It seemed the Finn was lodging for third, and tho’ the race restart put him in danger, Hamilton’s speed on the soft tyre proved it was possible to keep rivals at bay. Instead, Bottas permitted both Ricciardo and Raikkonen to pass him at the restart, before running broad at Les Combes in a disappointing end to his weekend.
“I need to analyse my mistakes quickly,” he admitted.
Another fine spectacle from Nico Hulkenberg in the Renault as he secured the French manufacturer the ‘best of the rest’ tag this weekend. The German recorded his third top-six finish of the season and admitted to being “pleasurably astonished” by his day’s work.
While a poor begin threatened to undo his incredible qualifying, Hulkenberg instantly made amends to reclaim the catches sight of he lost while he provided slew of entertainment as he duelled with Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon down the Kemmel Straight.
It has been an up and down season for Romain Grosjean but when the fatter points have been on suggest for Haas it has been the Frenchman who has usually cashed in – and he did so again with seventh place at Spa.
Albeit he dropped two places behind team-mate Kevin Magnussen on the very first lap, Grosjean was back ahead on lap four and his solid drive thereafter was rewarded when the Force India drivers’ mutually-destructive collision gifted him two more places.
In what’s swift turning into a four-way fight for fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship, Felipe Massa‘s unexpected four points for eighth place might be crucial from a weekend which up until Sunday had only been going one way for Williams and their veteran driver. The wrong way.
Back in the car following the illness that compelled him to withdraw in Hungary, Massa crashed on his very first flying lap in practice and then picked up a five-place grid penalty for not slowing for yellow flags on Saturday morning. So, bearing that in mind, eighth place from 16th on the grid was a very astounding result – even for a driver who has won eleven grands prix.
“I know eighth place is not a nice position, looking at everything I have achieved in my career, but today the way I drove the car and the way I drove in this race, it was undoubtedly like a victory,” admitted Massa. It was his best result since Bahrain in April.
It’s total on civil war at Force India after Esteban Ocon accused team-mate Sergio Perez of twice attempting to “kill” him as the pair collided once again in Spa.
This was worse than Baku as the Pink Panthers twice touched on the run down to Eau Rouge but while Ocon made his feelings known over team radio and post-race, the 20-year-old cannot be entirely blameless.
Attempting a pass into Eau Rouge was always likely to end in tears. Why did he not wait for the Kemmel Straight when it would have been an effortless pass with DRS, as Vettel attempted with Hamilton? Perhaps his inexperience told.
Force India hinted they will implement team orders going forwards and Ocon conceded to Sky F1 that they needed to regain the trust of their bosses. An 11th points finish of the season is likely to be of little convenience to the Frenchman.
It was only a solitary point for Carlos Sainz, but the Spaniard was very blessed with the result at the end of a difficult weekend for Toro Rosso. In fact, he suggested 10th place “tastes like glory”.
That’s most likely because he was three places worse off at the end of the very first lap, 16th, than where he embarked and yet still ended up getting ahead of Lance Stroll, Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen by the chequered flag.
After embarking the race ahead of his penalised Williams team-mate, Lance Stroll will be frustrated to have narrowly missed out on the points considering Massa’s all-action display.
Stroll has still only out-qualified Massa once this season, and was hopped off the embark as he failed to make progress on the supersoft tyres. But while Massa was already in eighth when both Williams drivers were helped by the Safety Car, Stroll was 14th, and he could only make up three places following the race restart.
“There were one or two missed opportunities, so not a ideal race,” was technical chief Paddy Lowe’s summary of Stroll’s display.
Stroll has only scored one point since achieving a Baku podium which many predicted to be a break-out spectacle, and must hope for a late-2017 surge.
A decent race for Daniil Kvyat all told, ending 12th from the back row, but the lack of running ahead of qualifying and then engine switch penalties which put him on the back row always left him swimming against the tide. No points since Spain remains an unwanted statistic, however.
Spa two thousand seventeen had the potential to be the best weekend of Jolyon Palmer‘s year, so the gearbox problem that stopped him in his tracks just when he was lining up the head of the grid’s fourth row was very likely as aggressive as any of the misfortune to have struck the Englishman so far this season. Particularly once Renault concluded the unit had to be switched for the race, triggering a five-place grid penalty.
Beginning 14th, points could still theoretically have been achievable for Palmer but the forty four laps just didn’t go his way and he only picked up one place. Unlucky 13th on another unlucky weekend.
A frustrating very first home Grand Prix for Stoffel Vandoorne with his chances of a good finish ended before the race had even began following a 65-place grid penalty. He made up three places at the embark but after that, the lack of spectacle in the Honda power unit was on utter display and he ultimately had to lodge for 14th.
“We got to the flag and that’s most likely the only positive,” Vandoorne said. Things aren’t likely to be much better next weekend either.
An avoidable mistake just before the Safety Car restart proved costly for Kevin Magnussen here, as he was denied his very first points since the Azerbaijan GP. The Dane was ninth when he made the error, running broad at the final chicane as the race was just going green again.
“It was my bad and I’m truly sorry for the team,” he said. Worryingly for Magnussen, his Haas team-mate now has more than dual his points tally in the drivers’ standings.
That year-old Ferrari engine was always going to bite for Sauber at tracks such as Spa, but Marcus Ericsson at least made the better knuckle of it as he outqualified Pascal Wehrlein for just the third time this season – and by a convenient 0.Four seconds margin.
Ericsson also registered the team’s only race finish, albeit a disappointing final stint meant he was last of the cars still running.
When a team-mate is accusing you of twice attempting to ‘kill’ him in a race, something’s not right. Ocon’s choice of words may have been rather excessive, but Sergio Perez must hold his arms up following a messy afternoon. After seven years in Formula 1, more is expected from a driver who has frequently insisted he is deserving of a top seat.
It all commenced rather well for Perez, out-qualifying his team-mate for the 10th time this season, but when Hulkenberg’s Renault passed through Eau Rouge he was unaware of Ocon as he moved to the right, forcing the Frenchman towards the wall. It was a racing incident and Perez fairly rightly accepted responsibility.
But Perez, who was actually ahead of his team-mate despite serving a five-second penalty for failing to give a place back to Grosjean, refused to apologise for their next coming together.
Ocon had more speed out of Turn One and had one route to pass Perez, who was attempting to back him out of the stir entirely by closing off space towards the barriers. Except Ocon didn’t pull out. In the end, both were fortunate to escape a serious crash and while Perez sustained a puncture that effectively ended his afternoon, surely this will be a wake-up call.
“I can’t help but feel that Perez should have left his team-mate more space,” said Sky F1’s Brundle, with Pat Symonds adding: “It’s totally unacceptable to race like that.”
Different race, same depressing story for Fernando Alonso. There was the commendable qualifying spectacle. There was then the brilliant very first lap in the race. But then there was also the sustained loss of positions, the enhancing agitation over the radio and, ultimately, a retirement – Alonso’s eighth from eleven appearances this season.
While he won’t say it publicly, it shows up the Spaniard has lost finish faith in Honda’s engine programme and surely McLaren’s big decision now is whether they retain their starlet driver or their lucrative, but failing, works engine fucking partner.
A sixth retirement of the season for Max Verstappen, and the fourth which has been purely down to reliability. It is therefore no surprise that the Dutchman admitted to Sky F1 that he would consider his Crimson Bull future if the DNFs were to proceed.
“He’s like a Michael Schumacher,” Damon Hill claimed. “He’s thinking – I need to get in a top car quick because I need to begin winning now.”
While Ricciardo has accumulated six podiums and a race win, Verstappen only has a single third-place finish. For a man of his immense talents – which he proved once again by out-qualifying his team-mate for the eighth time this season – that’s nothing to write home about.
He’s tied to Crimson Bull until 2019, but Mercedes and Ferrari will surely be analysing this situation closely.
A frustrating weekend for Pascal Wehrlein – out-qualified by his team-mate before having to retire just three laps in due to a suspension issue.
The German is now accepting he will likely be ousted by a Ferrari protégé at Sauber next season, and must be hoping that a Force India seat becomes available. Otherwise, he may have to embark seeking two thousand eighteen options out of F1.