August 29, 2022
FP1: August 26, 2022
In true Spa fashion, we saw persistent light rain all morning. Luckily, when time came for Free Practice 1, the conditions quickly improved and intermediate tires were only needed for the beginning of the session. The rest of the session was spent with the drivers on slick tires.
The Ferraris led the session, with Carlos Sainz 0.069s ahead of Charles Leclerc. The Red Bull of Max Verstappen followed behind in P3 and George Russell put his Mercedes in P4.
Lance Stroll somehow managed to finish in P5. This is shocking considering the fact that he is driving an Aston Martin, but this could be a sign that Fernando Alonso made the right choice in switching teams for next season.
Alex Albon also shocked us by going P6. Maybe we’ll see another Williams podium at Spa if Albon can improve this pace.
Liam Lawson took over Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri in his first ever FP1 session, where he went P19.
With twenty minutes left in the session, Kevin Magnussen was instructed to stop his Haas on the side of the track due to high voltage or battery issues. It is unclear which issue caused the retirement. Since the track marshals needed time to clear Magnussen’s car, the session was Red Flagged. When the session started back up again, the rain had come back and many drivers struggled to improve their lap times.
Esteban Ocon spent most of the session in the garage due to an undisclosed issue with his car.
FP2: August 26, 2022
With rain predicted for later in the session, drivers were trying to get good laps in before the rain came.
Max Verstappen quickly set the pace on medium compound tires, with a 1m 46.850s lap. Charles Leclerc went P2 and was the only driver within one second of Verstappen. Lando Norris went P3, just ahead of Lance Stroll who managed to finish in the top five again. Something is going on with the Aston Martin.
Mercedes has been struggling with getting their tire temperatures up this weekend and their drivers only went P6 and P8, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of George Russell.
Alex Albon went P11. While this isn’t as good as his P6 in FP1, it is still pretty good for Williams. Albon is normally further down the grid, so Spa should hopefully be a good race for him.
FP3: August 27, 2022
Saturday morning saw mostly cloudy conditions, with light rain towards the end of the session. It wasn’t a significant enough amount of rain for it to affect the outcome of FP3.
The final practice session of the weekend was dominated by Red Bull. After being in P10 for FP1 and FP2, a late flying lap gave Sergio Perez the lead. Max Verstappen went P2 with the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz seven-tenths behind in P3.
Charles Leclerc caused a Red Flag when he hit the barriers and spun through the gravel at Turn 12. Luckily there was not any damage and Leclerc was able to recover the car to take it back to the pit lane.
Lando Norris went P4. I really hope this pace continues during the race because a good result for McLaren is a great way to restart the season.
George Russell was P6 and Lewis Hamilton was P12. It seems that Mercedes is still struggling with their car this weekend.
Lance Stroll went back down to P16. I’m not completely sure what was going on with Stroll in FP1 and FP2, but maybe the Aston Martin is better than we think it is.
Mick Schumacher was P20 after only completing six laps before a sensor issue forced him to go back to the garage.
Qualifying: August 27, 2022
Seven drivers – Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, Mick Schumacher, Valtteri Bottas, and Guanyu Zhou – are taking penalties this weekend for new power units. They all took new parts to have a fresh start to this next part of the season. Spa was a strategic move by the teams since the track historically gives more opportunities for overtaking. Starting at the back of the grid doesn’t necessarily mean that these drivers can’t make it into the points. With seven drivers out of the way, the other thirteen were vying for a top spot in qualifying. Sainz, Perez, and the two Mercedes had a good chance for pole with the championship leaders out of the way.
Q1:
Q1 was delayed by 25 minutes due to track repairs.
All seven of the drivers who were given penalties were still participating in Qualifying because their Quali position determines their position at the back of the grid.
Max Verstappen set an early benchmark with Sainz, Perez, and Leclerc all within one second of him. The top four ended up leaving the standings like this and didn’t go back out for a second run.
Mercedes still struggled with warming up their tires and were P10 and P11. But they went for a second push lap in a row and Russell got to P5 while Hamilton was in P7.
Alex Albon split the Mercedes and went P6!
Ricciardo dropped down to P13 after his second flying lap was deleted for track limits.
Eliminated: Vettel (P16), Latifi (P17), Magnussen (P18), Tsunoda (P19), Bottas (P20)
Sebastian Vettel missed Q2 by 0.002s.
Kevin Magnussen locked up at Turn 8 during his final lap and lost too much time to improve his position.
Yuki Tsunoda also locked up and was forced to abandon his final lap.
For the past 148 races, Valtter Bottas had gotten out of Q1. This streak came to an end with Bottas in P20.
Q2:
Verstappen topped the time charts again. This time, Perez was in P2 and Sainz was P3. Leclerc’s initial lap only got him P6 due to porpoising he experienced at the apex of slow corners. However, his second lap got him to P1 and Verstappen was forced down to P2. Red Bull chose not to go out for a second lap.
Alex Albon got to Q3! With four of the drivers in Q3 set to start at the back of the grid, Albon is guaranteed at least a P6 grid spot. Albon getting to Q3 also means that all twenty drivers have gotten to Q3 this season!
Eliminated: Ricciardo (P11), Gasly (P12), Zhou (P13), Stroll (P14), Schumacher (P15)
Ricciardo got a tow from Norris but could only improve to P11.
Q3:
Verstappen went P1 with his first lap and was SIX-tenths ahead of Sainz. He didn’t go out for a second run, making this Qualifying a one-lap-wonder.
Ferrari accidentally gave Leclerc the wrong set of soft tires for his first lap of Q3. Luckily the mistake didn’t hurt the lap as a very confused Charles Leclerc went on to take P3 from Perez with those tires.
Leclerc came out for a second lap but it was to tow Sainz. Unfortunately, the tow didn’t work and Sainz lost a lot of time in the first sector and kicked up gravel in the second sector. He couldn’t improve his time and stayed in P2.
Sergio Perez went faster than Leclerc with his second lap and pushed Leclerc down to P4
After the grid penalties are taken into consideration, Sainz starts on pole position with Perez next to him in P2. Fernando Alonso, who qualified P7, gets bumped up to P3 and shares the second row with Hamilton. George Russell (Mr. Consistency) is in P5 , and Alex Albon starts at P6! It was a good day for Williams.
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Max Verstappen got pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix but will start in P14 due to penalties. |
Race: August 28, 2022
Much to everyone’s relief, Sunday saw warm and sunny conditions. There was no chance of repeating the washout version of Spa that we had last year.
Both AlphaTauris started the race from the pit lane. Yuki Tsunoda took new power unit components and a new exhaust and had not cleared it with the FIA first. The penalty for this is to start the race from the pit lane. Pierre Gasly had a last minute technical issue that almost made him retire before the race even started, but luckily they were able to fix it and the team opted to start the race from the pit lane.
Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso had a good start to the race with Sainz maintaining his lead and Alonso taking P2 from Sergio Perez. Perez had gone to the left of the track to try and cover off Alonso, but ended up giving Lewis Hamilton and George Russel an open pathway to get ahead. Perez was bumped from P2 down to P5.
During the first lap, Lewis Hamilton tried overtaking Alonso into Les Combes but didn’t give Alonso enough room and the two made contact. Hamilton’s car was sent into the air and the damage sustained in this incident ended his race. Hamilton had his first retirement of the season. During this tussle, Perez just sailed by the two to retake his P2 position.
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Hamilton was airborne after a collision with Fernando Alonso. |
At the start of Lap 2 Nicholas Latifi spun and knocked Valtteri Bottas into the gravel. Latifi was able to continue on but Bottas’ race was over. Hamilton was stopping on the side of the track at this time too, so a Safety Car was deployed for the marshalls to clear the retired cars.
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Latifi's spin sent Bottas into the gravel |
Sainz led Perez, Russell, Alonso, and Vettel in the top five behind the Safety Car. Max Verstappen had come up to P8 from P14 within the first lap and Charles Leclerc had come to P9. However, he saw smoke coming from his front-right tire and had to pit on Lap 4 for medium tires. Leclerc was pushed down to P17 as a result of his pitstop.
On Lap 11, Sainz pitted for mediums and came out in sixth place with Perez now leading the pack. On the following lap, Verstappen overtook Perez to take first place.
On Lap 15, Verstappen pitted and came out behind Sainz, in second, but quickly retook and extended his lead. By Lap 21, Perez overtook Sainz for P2.
Ferrari called their drivers in for a double-stacked pitstop and Sainz came out in P4, behind Russell. About five laps later, Russell pitted and allowed Sainz to get back to the final podium position.
Verstappen won the race with a 17.841s lead and Perez completed the Red Bull one-two. Sainz held on to P3 while Russell hunted him down in the final stages of the race.
Leclerc made a pitstop on the penultimate lap of the race to get the point for fastest lap. He came out just ahead of Alonso, but Alonso managed to pass him and Leclerc’s fastest lap had to be scrapped as he drove like a madman to retake his position. By the time they reached the checkered flag, Leclerc had gotten back P5 and Alonso was in P6. However, Leclerc was found to have sped in the pit lane during that last pitstop and was given a five-second time penalty, dropping him to P6 and giving Alonso P5.
Albon got one point in P10 after leading a long DRS train. Albon, Stroll, Norris, Zhou, and Tsunoda were all within one second of each other and battling for P10 for much of the race. In the end, Albon was able to hold everyone off and got the final point.
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The DRS train that Albon led |
Honorable Mentions:
Spa is sticking around for 2023! There was speculation about whether or not Formula 1 would renew its contract with the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. On Sunday morning, it was announced that they had extended the contract for next year. Hopefully, Spa can stick around forever, because I don’t think F1 fans are ready to part with it yet.
George Russell hasn’t finished a race outside of the top five this season. His worst finish is P5 and his best is P3. That kind of consistency is incredible, but can we expect anything less from the man who preaches "Consistency is Key"?
I’ll be back in a few days to prepare everyone for the amount of orange they will see at Verstappen’s home race, the Dutch Grand Prix!
- Divya
Where I got these
from:
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1118/belgium/practice-1.html
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1118/belgium/practice-2.html
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1118/belgium/practice-3.html
http://formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1118/belgium/qualifying.html
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1118/belgium/race-result.html