Verstappen wins Belgian F1 GP in rain and two laps Car News

“They knew when they sent us at the end that the track was not better and they did it just so that we could start two laps from the safety car which is the minimum required for a race. I really hope the fans get their money back today. I think the sport made a bad choice in doing these two laps.

Lewis Hamilton told Sky F1 what everyone thought after the washout at the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday. The so-called “race” consisted of two laps executed behind the safety car as the notorious Ardennes did their worst at Spa-Francorchamps, to make any frenzied action impossible due to a complete lack of visibility. But as Hamilton’s unvarnished “prank” verdict suggested, the show must still continue in a sport where money comes first.

Again, what a difficult week for F1. The non-Belgian GP could not have come at a worse time for promoter Liberty Media, who had been forced to release a hastily revamped schedule for the rest of the year now less than one. of the 23 races planned. . The pandemic, which has now cost F1 the Japanese GP for the second year in a row, is biting F1 hard exactly where it feels it most – so giving fans their money back for a race that took place technically (and cynically ) is the last thing Stefano Domenicali and his F1 team will want to do. Instead, they’ll want to sweep that memory away as quickly as possible as the teams head straight to Zandvoort for the first Dutch GP since 1985.

There were few positive things to take away from Spa, but George Russell’s marvelous qualifying performance on Saturday shone in the dark when he stuck his second Williams on the grid, barely overtaken on pole by Max Verstappen, which was automatically converted to second. place on the podium the next day. Harsh weather conditions tend to provide rising stars with opportunities to surprise – remember Rubens Barrichello grabbing a shock pole position on the same circuit for Jordan in 1994? – and Russell’s timing to recall his abilities was especially enjoyable. It seems almost certain that he will join Hamilton as a Mercedes-AMG driver next year in place of Valtteri Bottas, although team manager Toto Wolff insists on fixing the situation. The Austrian even admitted he made his decision. It’s not entirely clear why he refused to go public and put an end to what is turning out to be a long saga once and for all.

The other talking point of an unstable F1 weekend was the uncomfortable spotlight that fell on Eau Rouge and Raidillon, perhaps the most famous race track in the world. Lando Norris was the last to escape a serious crash during the uphill descent streak on Saturday, just after Sebastian Vettel warned the conditions were deadly, and a day after six F1 drivers backing the W-Series went downhill. experienced a terrifying stacking in the form of sudden rain grabbed them. No one wants to dilute the Eau Rouge – of course they don’t – but the pilots demand an improvement in safety and it would be a mistake to ignore them.

Just like F1’s decision to have a ‘race’ on Sunday, there was an inconvenient and impossible to avoid truth: doing the right thing is often also the hardest thing.