ITV.com/F1 recounts the stories of success and failure from the action-packed Belgian Grand Prix weekend, and picks this week’s winners and losers.
The Belgian GP was a GOOD weekend for…
Lewis Hamilton
Whenever the track was wet last weekend, it was often next to Hamilton’s name that you found the green and purple fastest sector times. At the start of Q2, on slick tyres on a damp track, he was over a second a lap faster than his team-mate and Fernando Alonso. And although his only lap on new tyres in Q3 was mis-timed, he found more grip than anyone else and came within a whisker of beating Mark Webber’s pole position time set on a drier track. He was similarly impressive during the race. The only hiccup came when he slithered off the track at Rivage as the rain fell heavily late in the race. But there was to be no repeat of Shanghai 2007. This time he (just) coaxed the McLaren out of the gravel trap and the healthy lead he’d built up allowed him collect a worthy win.
Mark Webber
When Webber got off the line badly at Valencia it was the prelude to a disastrous race that ended in a violent accident. This time he kept his cool and minimised the damage. He picked off Adrian Sutil on the first lap, and drove around the outside of Felipe Massa at Rivage on the second. The three other cars between him and Hamilton took care of themselves, and Webber was always close enough at hand to claim the reward.
Renault
Another impressive step forward for the yellow cars. They ran their F-duct for the first time, found it worked exactly as planned, and Robert Kubica used it to great advantage. It speaks volumes about the team’s progress that the Pole was slightly disappointed to qualify third – a fuel pick-up problem keeping him from a front-row start. He duly collected his third podium finish of the year. Remarkably, that’s as many as Felipe Massa has managed with an F10 at his disposal. Vitaly Petrov’s crash at the start of qualifying on Saturday was a setback, but he made up for it with a calm run from 23rd into the points. It included an inspired pass on Nico Rosberg around the outside of Les Combes. If he can keep that up Renault might have a chance of overhauling Mercedes to be fourth-best team by the end of the year.
Adrian Sutil
An excellent race has moved Sutil ahead of Michael Schumacher in the drivers’ championship. The Force India driver picked off Nico Hulkenberg early on, then took Kamui Kobayashi, Rosberg and Schumacher later on to finish fifth. And on his last lap he took 1.3s out of Massa to finish in the Ferrari’s wheel tracks.
But the Belgian GP was a BAD weekend for…
Sebastian Vettel
Again. Vettel’s lap 16 collision with Jenson Button ticked off all the usual criticisms of his performance this year. Impetuous? Check. Can’t overtake? Check. Throwing the world championship away? Check. It’s clear from the start of the season that you can’t take finishing races for granted in a car designed by the mercurial genius of Adrian Newey. All the more reason why Vettel can’t afford to keep making these mistakes.
Ferrari
Fernando Alonso’s troubles were bad enough. Taken out by Rubens Barrichello on the first lap, it was remarkable that his F10 was able to keep going afterwards. But it was not able to withstand Alonso’s spin into the barriers seven laps from home. However, as Stefano Domenicali admitted on Sunday evening, of even greater concern to the team is its apparent loss of pace. It has scheduled a straight-line test at the Vairano track in an effort to understand why the aerodynamic changes did not produce the desired result. With that and the World Motor Sport Council meeting to prepare for, it’s going to be a busy run-up to the Maranello squad’s home race.
Toro Rosso
No points for the fourth race in a row. Jaime Alguersuari finished 10th on the road, but was docked 20 seconds by the stewards after he was found to have cut the Bus Stop chicane and gained an advantage. In its first year as a full-blown constructor the team is, not surprisingly, struggling to keep up with the development race, and finds itself rooted ever more firmly to the lower end of the midfield. It didn’t help that Sebastien Buemi had yet another first-lap collision, this time suffering a cut tyre and a damaged diffuser. He said it made the car “undriveable”, which was a pity as during his GP2 career he shone in the kind of damp conditions we saw on Sunday.
Jenson Button
He was blameless in the collision with Vettel that ended his race. But that doesn’t lessen the damage done to his hopes of retaining his championship, which he admitted had suffered a “massive blow”.
By itv.com/f1 guest contributor Keith Collantine, editor of F1 Fanatic