Lewis Hamilton flew through the Ardennes, raced even closer to the Schumacher record with the next victory – Sebastian Vettel was meanwhile “eaten up” by men in middle-class cars far back in the field. The German and Ferrari have reached the low point of their last season together, on the high-speed straights in Spa the Reds were just a sluggish obstacle for the competition. In 13th and 14th place, Vettel and team mate Charles Leclerc missed the points at the Belgian Grand Prix with no chance, the Ferrari SF1000 could only keep up with the backbencher teams.
Right at the front, Hamilton drove confidently to a start-to-finish victory in the Mercedes, his team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen in second and third place could never endanger him. And the world champion also ticked off the 89th victory of his career, two more short of Michael Schumacher’s top score – which he can achieve in just two weeks in Mugello, when the former Schumacher racing team Ferrari has its 1000th Formula 1 race on the celebrates its own home route. In the World Championship ranking, Hamilton now leads even more clearly with 157 points, ahead of Verstappen (110) and Bottas (107).
The Scuderia has long since played no role in this rating. In Spa that became abundantly clear. Even with the first outings on Friday it was clear that something was brewing for Ferrari in Belgium. The Scuderia had struggled over the entire season, had to deal with midfield teams – but the crash followed in the Ardennes. In the free practice sessions the Reds slid to the end of the field, in qualifying Vettel and Leclerc made it with difficulty in the second section of the 15 best cars.
And in some ways that weakness in Spa was particularly revealing. A year ago they raced to victory here with puzzlingly superior engine power, but later accusations of cheating came up and Ferrari had to convert the engine at short notice. Since then, the racing team has not been able to keep up with the top – and not even with the midfield on the power track in Belgium. On the long straights alone, Vettel and Leclerc lost half a second each, which was already evident in qualifying, the impression solidified in the race.
Leclerc, equipped with the soft tires, shot up from 13th on the grid to ninth. After a few laps the advantage of the faster tires was already used up, Leclerc had no chance against the competitors in the McLaren, the Racing Point and also the AlphaTauri, they passed in rows. “I have such problems on the straights,” he radioed helplessly to the pits. And so Vettel soon reappeared behind him, starting with the medium-hard tires from 14th place. Little had happened at the top.
Hamilton initially only just defended his pole position from Bottas, but then had everything under control, and Verstappen also held third place. A new situation only seemed to result from a spectacular but mildly ending double accident: Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) and George Russell (Williams) flew off at the same point, the clean-up work was extensive and the safety car had to deploy.
Vettel passed Leclerc in the course of the tire change, and Monegasse then failed with a brisk attack on the German. A little later, Ferrari pitted Leclerc again, gave him faster tires, and started again from the back of the field – a model that Vettel also wanted. “The guys in front of me”, he radioed with a look at Kimi Räikkönen (Alfa) at the pits, “I won’t overtake any more anyway. Maybe you think about a stop. I tell you, I’ll be eaten. ”The command post saw it differently, Vettel stayed outside. And in the end it was at least enough to leave Leclerc behind.
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