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We hit the seventh round of this year’s Formula One season this weekend, and the venue is one of the sport’s most iconic tracks, Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. Free practice was quite interesting: Renault finished FP2 and FP3 in second place, while Ferrari he was at unprecedented depths: Leclerc was 17th and Vettel 20th in the third free practice.
Then, in the time trial, the two Haas started spinning and then more and more people took to the field. After everyone completed their first lap, the trio of Hamilton, Bottas and Ricciardo were in the forefront, while Latifi, Räikkönen, Vettel, Grosjean and Magnussen qualified in the relegation places.
And the field was extremely tight: the difference between the third Ricciardo and the eleventh Norris was only 205 milliseconds, while the Mercedes had a slight advantage of a second over the others.
Before the final laps, there was a lot of traffic on the spa track, the drivers were ahead of each other to be in the best position when running their final laps. Eventually Leclerc led the field and of course everyone was in the soft mix.
The exciting final minutes came in Q1, and both Ferraris finally entered Q2: Vettel in 13th and Leclerc in 15th. Räikkönen, Grosjean, Giovinazzi, Latifi and Magnussen, who made the last lap, were eliminated.
Also in Q2, there wasn’t long to wait for the drivers to complete their first measured laps. George Russell was the only one who did not run a fast lap in the first half of Q2 and, unsurprisingly, the two Mercedes were leading the way, followed by Verstappen.
Stroll, Perez, Vettel, Leclerc and Russell were in the lead at the time: race points were 3, Vettel was 7th in the top 10, while Leclerc was 1 second slower in 10th Daniil Kvjat.
We also saw a big battle for places to advance at the end of Q2. Finally, Hamilton, Bottas and Verstappen advanced to the middle, while Kvjat, Gasly, Leclerc, Vettel, Russell had to say goodbye in the second round of the time trial.
Meanwhile, Norris’s heart could have fallen off a large stone, as he was only 8 milliseconds better than Kvjat, so eventually the two Mercedes, the two Red Bulls, the two Renaults, the two Racing Points, and the two McLaren could fight each other for the top 10.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W11 EQ Performance
Photo by Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
After the first few rounds of Q3, Hamilton took the lead with a huge lead of more than 5 tenths of a second, followed by his teammate Bottas. Renault continued in good shape, with Ricciardo in third place at the time, followed by Verstappen, Albon, Sainz, Ocon, Pérez, Stroll and Norris.
The two Racing Points did not even start at the end of Q3, but the others were trying to improve their time. Hamilton finally took pole with a huge lead of more than half a second, and Verstappen finished 15 milliseconds behind Bottas.
Ricciardo came in fourth, followed by Albon, Ocon, Sainz, Pérez, Stroll and Norris. Then, from the front row, the two Mercedes can wait for the lights to go out, and behind them Verstappen and Ricciardo can start.
In the 2020 Indy 500, surprisingly, Takuma Sato became the ultimate winner. Circumstances worked in his favor, as Spencer Pigot, among others, suffered a major accident late in the race, crashing into the pit lane entrance with great force after hitting the wall.
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