2013 Belgian Grand Prix – Sebastian crushes field in Belgian bore

By Simon Wright - Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

Sebastian Vettel produced a perfect performance this afternoon to crush the opposition in a thoroughly disappointing Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.

The reigning world champion took the lead from the pole position man Lewis Hamilton on the fifth corner of the race and led throughout to take a massive step closer to a fourth consecutive world championship.

It is also his 31^st Grand Prix victory, equalling Nigel Mansell’s career total, and taking him a massive 46 points ahead of his nearest challenger, his biggest lead so far in 2013.

Fernando Alonso produced his usual battling quality drive to finish second after starting down in ninth on the grid.  Hamilton took the final podium spot, followed by his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Jenson Button pitted twice and had his most competitive weekend of the championship, starting and finishing sixth, but Paul di Resta failed to finish after contact with the Williams of Pastor Maldonado.

After the summer break, there was hope that Vettel’s contenders for his crown could close in on his points lead.  However Alonso, Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen continue to take points off one another, and time is fast running out to catch the second dominant German in the last decade.  

With almost two wins in hand, eight races left and the Asian leg where he is normally unbeatable to come, any hopes of a title thrilling finale in Brazil look as unlikely as One Direction suddenly becoming unpopular with the British public.

It had been a belting qualifying session with the unpredictable microclimate in Belgium mixing up the grid and leading to a sensational climax to the final part, with Hamilton snatching his fourth successive pole with the final lap of the day.

A fifth win of the season in Spa takes Vettel closer to a fourth title

Therefore, there were high hopes of this being a real classic, but that disappeared pretty quickly.  Vettel’s pace on Friday had threatened this dominance and today, he was simply unstoppable.  Hamilton did lead into La Source, but the Red Bull man got an excellent tow up the climb through Eau Rouge and breezed past in a straight line as they approached Les Combes.  From that moment on, the wiser thing to have done would have been to put the kettle on, make a coffee and sit outside in the garden, as there was no catching Vettel (pictured).

Even Alonso admitted on the podium: “We had to recover some places, we were not okay yesterday.  But today it was a little bit boring, we get second place but no threat to Sebastian Vettel and had no threat from behind.”

Alonso made a great start to charge upto fifth spot, and used the Ferrari’s low downforce setup to get by Button, Rosberg and then Hamilton after the first round of pitstops.  Hamilton revealed in the cool down room when the top three refresh before heading for the podium that he had let Alonso through at La Source to DRS him back down the Kemmel back straight.  This tactic backfired as Fernando managed to stay infront.

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn spoke to Sky Sports F1 and was disappointed with the lack of race performance from the team.  He said: “Perhaps the balance could have been better and the car didn’t look too bad at the end, but I am not sure why we struggled so much in the opening laps when we were sitting ducks.  But that is where the car is and we are half a second slower than where we need to be.”

It was a poor day for the former Spa master Raikkonen.  Four times a winner here in the past, Kimi lost places to Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber at the start and from as early as lap six, was in dire brake trouble with plumes of black dust coming out of the front-left brake disc.  The Lotus team checked the brake at the pitstop and gave him the all-clear to carry on.  

However the brakes failed when he tried to pass Felipe Massa into the Bus Stop chicane on lap 25.  All the Finn could do was to avoid contact with his former team-mate, then come into the pits and retire the car.  It ends Raikkonen’s record run of 27 successive races in the points, and 38 consecutive finishes in F1.  His last DNF came with Ferrari at the 2009 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.  What it does mean is his world championship hopes for 2013 lie in tatters.

The most spectacular exit of the race came from di Resta.  The Scot was the innocent victim in a four-car scrap that always looked like it was going to end in tears on the 26^th circuit.  After his second stop, di Resta was behind his team-mate Adrian Sutil, who was chasing Esteban Gutierrez and Maldonado.  Gutierrez passed the Venezuelan off the race circuit in Blanchimont, and as Maldonado went to dive into the pits, Sutil swept into the final corner ahead and broke part of the Williams front wing.  As Maldonado attempted to carry on into his destination, di Resta arrived and contact was inevitable.  Heavy damage was inflicted, taking the Force India man out of the race.  Maldonado was blamed and got a 10 second stop-go penalty, and Gutierrez received a drive-through penalty for passing off-track. 

The stewards were busy today.  Max Chilton collected a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags on his way to 19^th and last, whilst Sergio Perez also received a similar sanction for squeezing Romain Grosjean off track early on, though on television replays, it looked a harsh penalty against the Mexican.

It was the perfect day for Vettel, as he took the fastest lap honours, and led the whole race distance of 44 laps.  He also passed 2,000 laps in the lead of races in his career, becoming only the fifth driver to achieve this statistic after Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Mansell and Alain Prost.  He ended nearly 17 seconds clear at the end, with Alonso settling for second.

Vettel said afterwards to BBC Sport: “It was a fantastic race for us.  From start to finish really, very good tactics – it helped the first lap to have the tow off Lewis into Eau Rouge.  Once I passed him I had incredible pace and could control the race.”

This was the closest Lewis Hamilton got to Vettel all afternoon

Behind Hamilton (pictured chasing Vettel), Rosberg was a quiet fourth, and Mark Webber had a mediocre run to fifth, with Button having to settle for sixth after being forced to abandon Plan A which was to one-stop.  Massa fought back to seventh, but his race effort was hobbled by a sluggish start and intermittent KERS issues.  Grosjean stuck to a one-stop strategy but could manage no better than eighth with Sutil and Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso taking the final points on offer.

It was a quality podium of drivers, but sadly another race that will not be remembered fondly by the fans and the historical addicts.  The Fat Lady hasn’t quite sung yet on this championship, but she is clearing her throat and getting ready with the vocals.  Anything else but a fourth straight title for Sebastian Vettel would now be a huge shock as the F1 road show heads to Monza in a fortnight for the final European race of 2013.

	FORMULA 1 SHELL BELGIAN GRAND PRIX 2013
Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Reason	Grid
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault	44	1hr 23min 42secs	2
2	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	44	16.8secs	9
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes GP	44	27.7secs	1
4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	44	29.8secs	4
5	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault	44	33.8secs	3
6	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes	44	40.7secs	6
7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	44	53.9secs	10
8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	44	55.8secs	7
9	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes	44	1min 09.5secs	12
10	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari	44	1min 13.4secs	19
11	Sergio Perez	McLaren Mercedes	44	1min 21.9secs	13
12	Jean-Eric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari	44	1min 26.7secs	18
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber Ferrari	44	1min 28.2secs	11
14	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber Ferrari	44	1min 40.4secs	21
15	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault	44	1min 47.4secs	20
16	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault	43	1 Lap	14
17	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault	43	1 Lap	17
18	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth	43	1 Lap	15
19	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth	43	1 Lap	16
Retired	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes	26	Collision with Maldonado	5
Retired	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	25	Brake Failure	8
Retired	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault	8	Oil Leak	22

Drivers’ Championship: 1. Sebastian Vettel 197, 2. Fernando Alonso 151, 3. Lewis Hamilton 139, 4. Kimi Raikkonen 134, 5. Mark Webber 115, 6. Nico Rosberg 96, 7. Felipe Massa 67, 8. Romain Grosjean 53, 9. Jenson Button 47, 10. Paul di Resta 36, 11. Adrian Sutil 25, 12. Sergio Perez 18, 13. Jean-Eric Vergne 13, 14. Daniel Ricciardo 12, 15. Nico Hulkenberg 7, 16. Pastor Maldonado 1

Constructors’ Championship: 1. Red Bull Racing 312, 2. Mercedes GP 235, 3. Ferrari 218, 4. Lotus Renault 187, 5. McLaren Mercedes 65, 6. Force India Mercedes 61, 7. Scuderia Toro Rosso 25, 8. Sauber Ferrari 7, 9. Williams Renault 1

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