by Ben Ayuko
contact info: benayuko@gmail.com
{image by GettyImages}
Formula 1 in 2024 has been nothing short of entertaining, even exhilarating at times, and the 44-lap race at the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps was no different.
After the previous week’s disappointment, Red Bull stripped Max Verstappen‘s car and added a new power unit. This would give him more power in his car, but it would so see him handed a 10-place penalty after qualifying. This saw the championship leader start the race in 11th (after qualifying in pole position).
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), who qualified in 2nd place, started in pole position.
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), who started in 3rd position, wasted no time going on the attack as he shot off the line and immediately got up alongside Sergio Perez (Red Bull) into the first corner. He eventually overtook him within the next couple of turns and it didn’t take him long before he caught up to Leclerc and overtook him too. After looking off the pace all weekend, the Mercedes had suddenly come alive on race day.
Verstappen had fought his way up the order and soon found himself dueling with non-other than Lando Norris (McLaren), his closest championship contender. George Russell was quietly going about his business in 5th place with the best seat in the house to watch Oscar Piastri (McLaren) as he tried to get past, a now 3rd, Sergio Perez.
The Spa track is a very high-speed track. With its high-speed corners and many different areas that encourage the drivers to test their cars’ speed limits, it made overtaking difficult as one would need to be very cautious with how they carry their speed into the corners. The best bet to overtake, therefore, was during the pitstops.
Verstappen used this strategy to great effect to launch himself ahead of Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Lando Norris into 5th place, where he finished the race. Piastri used it to get ahead of Sergio Perez who very quickly found himself falling down the order. Hamilton effectively avoided falling into Leclerc’s clutches by taking advantage of an error that occurred during the Ferrari stop. George Russell…had other ideas.
While everyone went in for their second pit stop of the day, including his teammate Hamilton, Russell made the decision to stay out. Taking the lead of the race from 4th place with about 15 laps to go, he consciously risked blistering his tyres beyond use and falling way down the order, knowing that if he pulled it off, he would have a chance of finishing on the podium.
Hamilton, being on fresher tyres, raced up the track in a bid to claw back the victory he thought he had earned, having taken the lead of the race 3 laps in. He caught up to Russell with 5 laps to go. Try as he may, he couldn’t find a way past his teammate as Russell held on for what would have to be a most-famous Spa victory that never happened.
Hamilton would have been (and probably still is) very disgruntled at being outclassed so efficiently by his younger teammate, but Russell will definitely be feeling considerably heartbroken after it transpired that his car had been disqualified from the race for an infringement in the weight criterion (his car was 1.5kg lighter than is allowed).
This means that Hamilton won the race after all.
What a shame.