Belgian GP – Page 2 – Syndication Server

Verstappen storms to Belgian GP pole but Leclerc tops grid

Max Verstappen dominated qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix but an engine penalty will promote Charles Leclerc to pole position after a wet afternoon at Spa-Francorchamps. Verstappen was peerless throughout the afternoon in at-times treacherously …

Max Verstappen dominated qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix but an engine penalty will promote Charles Leclerc to pole position after a wet afternoon at Spa-Francorchamps.

Verstappen was peerless throughout the afternoon in at-times treacherously wet conditions. Heavy rain drenched the circuit ahead of qualifying, while intermittent showers prevented the track surface from ever truly drying, with intermediate tires used through all three segments.

The Dutchman’s Red Bull car had been plied with downforce for wet-weather performance, and it paid significant dividends through the twisty middle sector, though which he was comfortably faster than any other driver. It was the foundation of his ultimate lap time of 1m53.159s, set with his first lap and which proved untouchable.

But Verstappen won’t reap the rewards for his lap. A 10-place grid penalty for adding a new internal combustion engine to his power unit pool will drop him to 11th on Sunday’s grid.

“It was a nice qualifying,” he said. “Very happy. The car was working quite well in the wet. I could just do my laps and try to do clean lap times in the wet, which was always quite tricky.

“I don’t know how quick we’re going to be [tomorrow]. I hope we can be in the mix to try and move forward.”

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The penalty promotes Leclerc to pole position for the second year in a row, the Monegasque having likewise inherited top spot from a penalized Verstappen in Belgium in 2023.

Leclerc was one of the few drivers to meaningfully improve with his second lap of Q3, leaping from eighth to second in the order with a gain of more than a quarter of a second to slot behind Verstappen by 0.595s.

“I definitely did not expect that this weekend,” Leclerc said. “Obviously with the tricky conditions we could do something above our expectations.

“It’s a good day for the team. Now we need to focus on tomorrow and see what will happen when the rain is gone.”

Sergio Perez will start the race second — just as he did last year — after falling just 0.011s short of Leclerc’s best time. The Mexican is targeting a repeat of last year’s launch, which saw him take the lead from Leclerc with the help of the powerful slipstream out of the first corner.

“I think P2 is probably the best position you can wish for in Spa,” he said. “I was the same with Charles last year, so I’mg oign to be trying tomorrow to do the same.

“I’ve got a good feeling for tomorrow, so we’ll see.”

Lewis Hamilton will line up fourth in the best-placed Mercedes — he was 0.676s slower than Verstappen but only 0.081s behind Leclerc — alongside McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Oscar Piastri will be promoted to fifth on the grid ahead of George Russell, while Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso will share the fourth row on the grid.

Esteban Ocon was the slowest car in Q3 and will start ninth ahead of Alex Albon – who was knocked out in Q2 just 0.003s behind Perez — who will move up to 10th.

Verstappen will start 11th ahead of Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo, who was sent out too early for his final flying lap and missed the best conditions of Q2 with his fresh intermediate tires.

Valtteri Bottas will start 14th ahead of Lance Stroll, who qualified 15th after a mammoth repair job by his Aston Martin team following his crash in second practice. The team rushed to change the car’s front-left corner, front wing and floor, while precautionary power unit and gearbox changes were also undertaken in time for qualifying.

Haas teammates Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen were knocked out 16th and 17th.

Yuki Tsunoda qualified 18th but will start last with a penalty for taking a new power unit this weekend, promoting Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu to 18th and 19th on Sunday’s grid.

Zhou will be investigated after the session for blocking Verstappen through Blanchimont late in the session.

Norris and McLaren take command in second Belgian GP practice

Lando Norris led McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in a closely fought one-two FP2 finish in Belgium ahead of Max Verstappen. Norris used a second set of soft tires to rocket to the top spot after most other drivers had already completed their …

Lando Norris led McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in a closely fought one-two FP2 finish in Belgium ahead of Max Verstappen.

Norris used a second set of soft tires to rocket to the top spot after most other drivers had already completed their single-lap qualifying simulation runs, going purple in the final two sectors on the way to a headline time of 1m42.260s. That edged teammate Piastri by 0.215s, the Australian having topped the timesheet with his first set of softs despite dipping into the gravel exiting Malmedy on the run down to Bruxelles.

The Australian radioed his team warning of possible floor damage, but it wouldn’t be the last time he would flirt with the stones, running wide on his long run at Speakers corner.

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Max Verstappen was a close match for Piastri, lapping just 0.002s slower than the McLaren driver in the fight for what had been top spot after the first qualifying simulation laps. There was little to pick between him and Piastri in any of the three sectors, but the McLaren was the faster of the two in the second and third splits, as Norris would go on to demonstrate.

Ferrari put in a relatively strong showing, with Charles Leclerc fourth and 0.577s off the pace. Carlos Sainz followed a further 0.261s back.

George Russell was Mercedes’s lead representative in sixth but was 1.03s off the pace.

Esteban Ocon made up for time lost in FP1 to a power unit water leak by getting out on track rapidly at the beginning of FP2, and though the Frenchman’s lap count was modest in the circumstances, he surprised with a midfield-topping seventh, 1.1s off the pace. Kevin Magnussen followed him closely in eighth, 0.084s further back.

Sergio Perez’s struggles from FP1 continued, with the under-pressure Mexican well off the pace of teammate Verstappen on his way to ninth in the order. Perez was 1.244s off the ultimate pace and 1.027s slower than Verstappen. Down in all three splits, he was particularly poor in the downforce-dependent second split, losing more than 0.6s to Verstappen in that sector alone.

Lewis Hamilton completed the top 10, 1.259s off the pace after complaining of significant degradation on his long run. He finished ahead of Aston Martin teammates Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso and Stake Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas.

Daniel Ricciardo’s session ended early after reporting that his car felt “wobbly” during his race simulation. The team replied that it could see a problem in the data and recalled him to his garage, where he ended the hour.

Pierre Gasly was 15th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Alex Albon, Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu down to 19th.

Yuki Tsunoda was slowest of all, lapping 2.088s off the pace, but the Japanese driver was focused largely on race pace given he will be starting at the back of the grid anyway owing to a penalty for a power unit change.

Interestingly, Tsunoda was the quickest of any driver in the flat-out first sector and highly competitive in the second, hinting at a setup that will facilitate overtaking on Sunday. Ricciardo, who carries no penalty, was similarly quick in the same two splits.

10-place grid penalty confirmed for Verstappen in Belgium

Max Verstappen will take a 10-place grid penalty at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix as a result of a power unit change. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner had previously admitted it was inevitable that Verstappen would require an extra power …

Max Verstappen will take a 10-place grid penalty at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix as a result of a power unit change.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner had previously admitted it was inevitable that Verstappen would require an extra power unit at some stage, and the team has now opted to take a fresh internal combustion engine (ICE) at Spa-Francorchamps. The track offers overtaking opportunities and Verstappen has climbed through the field from similar penalties at each of the last two years at the same venue, winning from 14th on the grid in 2022, and sixth last year.

However, the championship leader has not won in three races and will face a tall order to do so again on Sunday, admitting that the current competitive picture makes it unlikely that he can repeat the success of the last two years.

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“If you look at our last few races where we haven’t particularly been the fastest, I wouldn’t say that with 10 places extra we have a chance of winning,” Verstappen said.

As it is the first component that Verstappen has exceeded limits for this season, it carries a 10-place grid penalty.

The Dutchman is not the only driver taking a penalty this weekend, with Yuki Tsunoda set to start from the back of the grid after RB took a complete new power unit. As well as the ICE, Tsunoda has a new MGU-H, MGU-K, turbocharger, energy store and control electronics.

Verstappen comfortably ahead in first Belgian GP practice

Max Verstappen easily topped first practice at the Belgian Grand Prix although that early momentum was offset by confirmation of a grid penalty for the Dutchman after his Red Bull entry took a new internal combustion engine. The world champion was …

The world champion was peerless on the soft tire around the 4.4-mile circuit, setting the benchmark at 1m43.372s and putting himself 0.531s at the head of the field. His time in the downforce-dependent middle sector was particularly impressive, clocking in at 0.629s quicker than anyone else.

Oscar Piastri, first-time winner from last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, was next best in his McLaren. The Australian was also closest to Verstappen — albeit more than 0.1s adrift — in the flat-out final sector.

Alex Albon was a surprising third for Williams, only 0.196s slower than Piastri. His Williams was quickest of any other car in the first and final splits, including 0.429s quicker than Verstappen in the first sector, pointing to a radical lack of downforce on the FW48. Conversely, his time in the middle sector was among the worst in the field and a whopping 1.361s slower than Verstappen.

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Mercedes teammates George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were dissatisfied in fourth and fifth, 0.853s and 0.907s off the pace respectively. Russell complained of a lack of rear downforce, while Hamilton was troubled by severe bouncing around the aerodynamically demanding circuit.

Charles Leclerc was sixth in the quickest Ferrari, lapping 0.934s slower than Verstappen.

Sergio Perez, under pressure to save his Red Bull Racing seat with a big result this weekend, struggled markedly through the session. While he was fractionally up on Verstappen in the first sector, an apparent lack of confidence saw him lose 0.849s to his teammate through the middle stint and more than 0.15 in the final sector.

“I’m really struggling to know what the car is doing on entries,” he radioed. “All speeds. Low speed and medium, I don’t have the feel of what’s going on.”

Lando Norris was eighth after locking up on his fast lap, costing him more than half a second through the middle sector and leaving him 1.043s adrift. Carlos Sainz followed in the second Ferrari at 1.2s off the pace, with Lance Stroll completing the top 10, 1.3s adrift.

Pierre Gasly, equipped with a new gearbox, was the sole Alpine in the session, finishing 11th, after teammate Esteban Ocon was withdrawn from FP1 on his installation lap, with the team citing a water leak in his power unit for the absence.

Fernando Alonso was 12th ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who was lucky to see out the session after a spin on the wet exit curbs at La Source that took him perilously close to the inside concrete barrier before he came to rest.

Valtteri Bottas was 14th ahead of Logan Sargeant in 15th.

Yuki Tsunoda was 16th fastest and equipped with an entirely new power unit that will force him into a back-of-grid start on Sunday.

Nico Hulkenberg was 17th ahead of Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen and Zhou Guanyu, while the lapless Ocon ended the session last without a time.

Verstappen downplays Spa win chances as engine penalty looms

Max Verstappen admits he’s likely to be in damage limitation mode rather than in the mix for victory in the Belgian Grand Prix as he’s set to take a power unit penalty. Red Bull has been weighing up when is best to take new power unit components as …

Max Verstappen admits he’s likely to be in damage limitation mode rather than in the mix for victory in the Belgian Grand Prix as he’s set to take a power unit penalty.

Red Bull has been weighing up when is best to take new power unit components as Verstappen has already used the maximum number allowed of his internal combustion engine, MGU-H, MGU-K, energy store and control electronics. Spa-Francorchamps has been a venue where Verstappen has taken similar grid penalties in the past and still fought through the field to win, but he says the competitive picture this season makes that scenario unlikely to be repeated.

“[A penalty is] likely, but I knew of course that it is coming,” Verstappen said. “It’s not a surprise to me. We’ll find out on Sunday how good that is going to be. Some tracks naturally are a bit better than others. Of course on a street circuit, you wouldn’t want to have an engine penalty. So yeah, most likely it will be here.

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“Probably yes [damage limitation will be the goal]. If you look at our last few races where we haven’t particularly been the fastest, I wouldn’t say that with 10 places extra we have a chance of winning. But again, a race can always be turned upside down with moments. We have to be open minded and try to make the best of it. That’s what we’ll try to do.

“At the moment, I also don’t know how competitive we’re going to be here. In a few places there’s new tarmac, so we need to see how the tires respond to that as well. So, still a lot of unknowns. Obviously with the weather, quite a bit of rain expected on Friday and Saturday. So we just need to follow the weather and just progress through the weekend, and see how competitive we are.”

McLaren’s one-two in Hungary sparked debate about whether Lando Norris should have been given priority in order to try and close what is currently a 76-point gap in the drivers’ championship, and Verstappen admits he has considered that Norris could be able to make it a close title fight later in the year.

“Yeah, naturally of course if they are the dominant force and they keep winning, then for sure. But at the end of the day we just need to focus on ourselves, as we can do things better as well in terms of optimizing the car performance. So that’s where my attention goes.

“Of course you have it in the back of your mind, the championship, but I think we first need to focus on just trying to find a bit more performance in the car.”

Verstappen was frustrated by Red Bull’s strategy in Budapest as he finished fifth, and his radio comments came under scrutiny as well his pre-race schedule of competing in a sim race until the early hours of the morning. On both fronts, the three-time world champion says he’s unfazed, with Red Bull sharing his disappointment at how the race played out but not questioning his extra-curricular activities.

“Yeah, I raced until 3am, it’s not something new,” he said. “For me, it’s something very important in my life. Now there are not any other sim races coming up anyway, so no one needs to worry about that. It’s always when you don’t win the race, you will blame it on, ‘Ah, you were staying up until 3am, oh he’s one kilo overweight,’ there is always things to make up that you know you can argue about when you don’t win a race.

“But, for example at Imola, I do win the race, both of them. For me, this is not something new — I’ve been doing this since 2015. So for me, this is not something that is any different in my preparation.

“I’ve won three world championships. I think I know pretty well what I can and what I cannot do, and I’m always very hard on myself what is allowed and isn’t allowed. I think with all the experience that I have in Formula 1, I think I know quite well what is possible.

“We talked about it. I said [to Red Bull’s Helmut Marko], ‘You don’t need to worry.’ I said there’s no other race coming up. But no, it’s not like I have a ban or whatever. I also don’t need to tell them what they do in their private time and during the weekends. That’s the same for me.”

More Mercedes upgrades coming at next two races

Team principal Toto Wolff expects Mercedes to make a bigger step forward at the next two races in Hungary and Belgium as a result of planned upgrades, following its win at the British Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton won at Silverstone for a record ninth …

Team principal Toto Wolff expects Mercedes to make a bigger step forward at the next two races in Hungary and Belgium as a result of planned upgrades, following its win at the British Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton won at Silverstone for a record ninth time last Sunday, having started second to teammate George Russell who was forced to retire with a mechanical issue. The performance level from Mercedes came at a race where it had introduced largely circuit-specific developments, and Wolff says the next round of upgrades was actually targeted at the final two races before the summer break.

“When you consider five races ago we weren’t even contenders for the podium, which looked like the third year of non-performance… and then it clicked,” Wolff said. “Suddenly, everything which didn’t make sense made sense. The development direction, or the results of the development directions are like in the old days — we are finding performance and we are putting it on the car. It translates into lap time.

“That wasn’t the case for the last two years. And there’s more to come in terms of performance. We are bringing upgrades to Budapest and Spa.

“But on the other side we mustn’t get carried away. We had the win [with Russell in Austria] benefitting from them [Max Verstappen and Lando Norris] tangling but [at Silverstone] we had an honest win. We had the real pace. You could see George and Lewis in the lead and almost under all conditions we were in the lead. We are there.”

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Wolff agrees with Russell’s assessment that Mercedes has proven itself to be firmly in the mix with Red Bull and McLaren with its Silverstone performance, rather than being overly reliant on track conditions.

“Yeah, it does feel that way. Because last weekend [in Austria] we were not far off, when you look at the gap we had before they crashed. It was nearly two-tenths a lap, a bit more. And that is the closest we’ve been for a long time on a track we didn’t like so much in the past. That kind of gave us hints that it could be getting much better.

“Honestly, we didn’t think it would be Silverstone because there was barely anything [new on the car] — we were more expecting Budapest or Spa. But I agree with George, we justified what we do is right at the moment.”

Spa gets Belgian Grand Prix extension

The Belgian Grand Prix will remain on the Formula 1 calendar until 2025 after signing a one-year contract extension. The race at Spa-Francorchamps has faced an uncertain future for a number of years and still lacks a long-term deal, but has made …

The Belgian Grand Prix will remain on the Formula 1 calendar until 2025 after signing a one-year contract extension.

The race at Spa-Francorchamps has faced an uncertain future for a number of years and still lacks a long-term deal, but has made recent investments in infrastructure and changes to the track for safety purposes. F1 CEO Stefano Domencali suggests more focus on the track itself is required for a further extension but welcomed the work done so far.

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“Spa is synonymous with Formula 1 having been one of the circuits in our first ever season and is much-loved by fans and drivers alike, so I am delighted to extend our relationship with them until 2025,” Domenicali said.

“The promoter has taken big strides in the last few years to improve the fan experience and infrastructure, and work is ongoing between all the stakeholders with a clear focus on delivering safe and exciting racing. I would like to thank the promoter and the Government of Wallonia for their continued support.”

Willy Borsus, the vice-president and minister for the economy of Wallonia, says the race has been finding ways of being impactful for the local region despite reducing the amount of public money that is invested.

“We are proud and excited to announce that the Formula 1 Grand Prix will take place in Wallonia in 2025,” Borsus added. Our region will once again rise to the top of the international scene, thanks to its high-quality events and legendary sports infrastructure.

“Beyond the prestige, I would like to emphasize the considerable economic impact that this event brings to Wallonia and Belgium. According to a study carried out in 2021, the grand prix generates positive spin-offs of €41.8 million ($43.9m) for our region, after deduction of public funding, which is steadily decreasing.

“These figures constitute a solid indication of the financial impact, and the positive outlook means that we can expect even more positive results this year. The Formula 1 Grand Prix thus embodies both an emblematic moment in motor sport and a powerful engine of economic growth for our region.”

Swings of form nature of the 2023 beast in F1 midfield, Vasseur says

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says the inconsistent results of so many midfield teams in Formula 1 this year are a function of how tight the 2023 grid is – and so those teams need to be cautious about overreacting to each race result …

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says the inconsistent results of so many midfield teams in Formula 1 this year are a function of how tight the 2023 grid is — and so those teams need to be cautious about overreacting to each race result individually.

In the Belgian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc started from pole position — up from second in qualifying thanks to Max Verstappen’s grid penalty — and executed a strong race to hold off Lewis Hamilton for third place behind the two Red Bulls. Having finished seventh and eighth in Hungary and ninth and 10th at Silverstone, Vasseur says he’s not going to let the Spa result be overstated.

“I will stay very calm, because we had the same meeting one week ago and we were at the end of the world because McLaren was flying and we were stupid, and from one week to the other McLaren is at the back and we are at the front,” Vasseur said. “We have to take it easy race after race — we know that the pack is so tight that for one or two things, you can move from P2 to P11.

“It’s not the end of the season, we have a lot to do. But for sure it’s good to finish the first part of the season on the positive tone, at least we will have two weeks off with a positive race in mind.”

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Although he wants to ensure Ferrari does not get carried away with the podium finish, where Vasseur will take confidence is in how well the team responded to such challenging weather throughout the three days in Belgium.

“For sure, I’m happy that we did a strong weekend in every single condition — wet, slicks, long stints, short stints — that we were always there is good for us. Now we have to understand why we are more comfortable on some tracks than some others.

“But I think everybody is in the same situation — we are all a bit inconsistent. Because you have one or two tenths between P2 and P11, it means that the characteristic of tire management or level of downforce that you choose at the beginning of the weekend means — if you get it right — you can do a very strong one and we don’t have to draw any definitive conclusions.

“I think it will be like this until the end of the season and we have to be more consistent, to understand where we are weak, why we are weak and to try to minimize that kind of weekend.”

F1 wraps up first half of 2023 on ESPN with another record audience

All Formula 1 teams not named Red Bull may be winless in 2023 to date, but ABC/ESPN continued to enjoy a variety of firsts in U.S. TV audience for the sport during the first half of the season. ESPN reports that last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix …

All Formula 1 teams not named Red Bull may be winless in 2023 to date, but ABC/ESPN continued to enjoy a variety of firsts in U.S. TV audience for the sport during the first half of the season.

ESPN reports that last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix featured the largest U.S. television audience average on record for the event at 1.17 million viewers, up 12 percent over 2022. It also featured 492,000 average viewers in the 18-49 age bracket, making it Sunday’s most-viewed program in that demo on ESPN platforms.

Saturday’s sprint on ESPN2 also drew strongly with 555,000 viewers, while 405K watched Friday’s qualifying session on ESPN2.

Through the opening 12 races, the 2023 F1 season is averaging 1.24 million viewers per race across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. That average is slightly higher than the overall season average for 2022 of 1.21m, which was the highest ever for F1 in the United States.

The 2023 season has had three of F1’s four largest live audiences in history on U.S. television — the inaugural Miami GP in 2022 remains the largest at 2.6 million but this year’s races at Miami (1.96m), Monaco (1.79m) and Canada (1.76m) are now the second, third and fourth spots on the all-time list for live telecast audiences.

All but two of the races this year have averaged more than 1 million viewers. The outliers are Australia, which aired in the overnight hours and averaged 556K, and Azerbaijan, at 959K.

Mercedes analyzing whether update led to porpoising return

While recent developments have improved Mercedes’ competitive posture in Formula 1, they may also have played a part in the return of the porpoising problems that troubled the team so much last year, based on drivers’ feedback during the Belgian …

The race weekend at Spa-Francorchamps was mainly wet but throughout the three days there were signs that the Mercedes in particular was suffering from porpoising — or bouncing — at high speed. The drivers referenced it after sessions and the team’s chief technical officer Mike Elliott says work will take place to work out whether it was track-specific or a result of the recent upgrades.

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“We definitely had an amount of bouncing this weekend — both drivers were telling us that and we could see it in the data,” Elliott said. “We could also see an amount of bouncing on the other cars and I think some of it is the nature of the circuit at Spa. In fact we had huge amounts of bouncing last year, as did most teams.

“It definitely affects the performance of the cars because it affects the drivers’ ability to extract the maximum grip from the car, it affects their balance and it affects their ability to get their braking points right. So that is something we will be working on for the future.

“The question we need to ask ourselves is, how much of it is just the circuit we were at in Spa and how much is to be found in setup. Because obviously it was a weekend where we had no dry running up until the point we were actually racing. We will take a really good look at the upgrade kit and make sure that we’ve not introduced bouncing with that but at the moment our belief is it is probably a result of setup or the circuit itself.”

Russell and Hamilton unusually opened for different rear wings at Spa and while Hamilton proved faster, proposing problems affected them both. Steven Tee/Motorsport Images

Elliott also noted the weather conditions throughout the weekend led to the two drivers opting for different rear wings, with George Russell struggling to match Lewis Hamilton in every session.

“Like every race weekend, we go in by doing an amount of work in the simulator to try and get the general balance requirements of the car right, work out what downforce level we want to run, work out where we are going to place our mechanical balance, our aero balance, just to get ourselves roughly in the right window,” he explained. “So the two drivers did that program before the Spa race weekend — in George’s case he felt that the bigger rear wing gave him some options. He preferred the balance of the car driving with that, so he elected to start the race weekend with that. Normally what happens is the two drivers come together over the race weekend but obviously this weekend was pretty wet, there was no dry running and both of them quite liked the car they’d got so elected to stay where they were.”