F1 took its second breath for the season with a refreshing two week break from the last race, and the refreshment didn’t stop there, with this weekend’s track as far from the previous grand prix circuit as it gets, and to discuss all that happened is our 2020 Belgian Grand Prix Result Review.
Even if nothing happens at all, just watching the cars circulate on the fast, challenging and beautiful track is enough, but luckily for all (and especially those on the other side of the world)
Lewis Hamilton won, Bottas second, Verstappen third, decent midfield racing behind that. It was a real box ticker of a race. Another one down, another ten to go.
In the big review, we include a quick summary of the on track action, rate the race and we also work out who the best and worst of the race was, so we can assign points to our overall 2020 Driver of the year.
2020 Belgian Grand Prix Result – THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top ten laps where stuff happened. Normally it is five, so you know it was a good race if there’s ten.
Lap 0 – McLaren’s Carlos Sainz doesn’t even get the chance to get taken out at the first corner, as his car is broken and unable to start the race. A shame, his 7th place on the grid meant he could push for a podium.
Lap 1 – Hamilton and Bottas fly off the line and lead, some decent racing between Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, Charles Leclerc gains four places halfway around the first lap (up to 9th), Kevin Magnussen gains five spots from the back of the grid. Sadly, no tangles at the first corner La Source.
ORDER – HAM, BOT, VER, RIC, OCO, ALB, STE, LEC, PER, GAS
Lap 2 – Super Move from Pierre Gasly on Sergio Perez at Eau Rouge. For 9th. Woof.
Lap 3 – Just to prove how bad Ferraris are, early mover Leclerc is blown away by the junior Red Bull team, not that the team and Gasly aren’t great. A lap later Leclerc has lost out to Perez too. By lap 8 he is 12th. It may be the soft tyres he started on causing most of the issues, but then again, despite his declining positions lap after lap he is still ahead of Vettel. Ferrari truly stink right now
Lap 7 – With Bottas slowing drifting away from Lewis Hamilton, and Verstappen and Ricciardo with increasing margin behind it looks like another Hamilton GP wrapped up already. Only a rare botched pit stop or even rarer retirement will stop Hamilton. Not that he doesn’t deserve it being the fastest driver in the best car, but….
Lap 11 – MASSIVE CRASH – Alfa Romeo’s Giovinazzi and William driver George Russell. Looks to be two thirds around the way of the circuit. Replays show Giovinazzi runs wide and bins it into the barrier on the right, then bits of his cars spew out onto the circuit like a 2am late night weekend special and sadly for George Williams (like many an innocent weekend bystander) was in the wrong place at the wrong time. A wheel from the Alfa smashes into the Williams’ right front wheel smashing it to pieces and sending him into the left barrier. The circuit is covered in its and pieces of F1 cars.
Meanwhile, pits stops are underway in ernest or bertness as the Safety Car is out.
Mercedes both pit, and Bottas just makes it out in front of Max, Ferrari of course stuff the pitstop for Leclrec. Albon jumps Ocon for Net 5th, Gasly and Perez don’t stop initially so take over a few places in the top six for a different strategy.
ORDER (After Pitstops) – HAM, BOT, VER, GAS, PER, RIC, ALB, OCO, STR, NOR
Lap 15 – Safety car buggers off. A tiny threat of racing breaks out but is subdued before the end of the first post SC tour.
Lap 17 – Ricciardo > Perez for 5th, Albon gets Perez too before the end of the lap. Bottas sets fastest lap to that point to pretend he is going to challenge.
Lap 19 – Ferraris squabbling over 12th place. One is secretly it ends in tears for pure entertainment, but not yet. Yet.
Lap 25 – The first sign that F1 commentators are getting bored of he race, with a token hint that there probably isn’t but there could be some rain on the way. Gasly is 6th and the only car towards the front not to pit.
ORDER – HAM, BOT, VER, RIC, ALB, GAS, OCO, STR, NOR, KVY
Lap 31 – 13 laps to go and the focus for excitement is on Gasly and Perez fighting through the field with new tyres and their long overdue pitstops. For 11th to 13th.
Lap 34 – Start to wonder if anyone is going to do a different pitstop strategy, just for interest. Perfect time for another beer for those in a sociable hour.
Lap 35 – Leclerc passes Magnussen for 15th. Yes, 15th. Vettel is only 6 seconds up the road in 13th.
Lap 40 – Still awake, unlike the equivalent stage of the Spanish GP, but with 4 laps to go, it doesn’t appear that much is going to happen up the front. Pierre Gasly overtakes Perez for 10th.
ORDER – HAM, BOT, VER, RIC, ALB, OCO, NOR, STR, GAS, PER
Lap 44 – Lewis Hamilton does what he does best. Wins easily in the best car. But he is also the best, most complete driver of all time and hard to argue against the fact that he has the best car. Bottas is second. Ocon sneaks by Albon for 5th. Ricciardo sets fastest lap for some joy for the Australian.
FINAL ORDER – HAM, BOT, VER, RIC, OCO, ALB, NOR, GAS, STR, PER
2020 Belgian Grand Prix – RACE RATING
We rate the 2020 Belgian F1 Grand Prix so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 6/10
No more or less important that races before it, and we predict the races to come.
Key themes throughout the seasons so far are repeated – Mercedes great, Hamilton > Bottas, Verstappen > Bottas, Ferrari crap. Decent battle for third best team looms between Renault, Racing Point, McLaren and Ferrari. If they’re lucky.
ON TRACK ACTION – 7/10
Decent first lap at the front, and a few good ones further back for a few more laps. The big crash brings out the Safety Car, which bunched the field for a little and gave slight relief from the Mercedes demo run. More midfield action followed as Ricciardo and Albon made progress. Kimi Raikkonen overtook his old Ferrari teammate Vettel for 1tth at some stage. With Gasly and Perez not pitting under the Safety Car, and doing so much later, it led to some good later race action.
ENDING 4 / 10
A few midfield battles keep the interest up more than last week, but nothing too significant.
OVERALL RATING 17 / 30
Great track, decent race, still Mercedes up front and midfield trying to entertain.
RACE RATINGS SO FAR
Austrian Grand Prix – 28/30
Styrian Grand Prix – 23/30
Hungarian Grand Prix – 15/30
70th Anniversary Grand Prix – 15/30
Spanish Grand Prix – 12/30
2020 Belgian Grand Prix Result – Great & Grape
Here we go through the field and highlight the three drivers we think deserve a little extra love, and one driver whose had the grapest weekend of all.
These points get added to our Driver of the Season. 3-2-1 for the Great and minus one point for the Grapest races.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT – 1. LEWIS HAMILTON
It almost gets boring listing the achievements from Hamilton every weekend. But who can argue with a lap record qualifying lap, follwoed by spending most of Sunday exactly where he likes it, at the front with no worries.
THE GREAT – 2. DANIEL RICCIARDO
Provided much entertainment throughout the race. Starting to show some real signs of the greatness that saw him promoted to Red Bull in 2019. Was second in one of the practicse sessions, proving race pace was complete over the whole weekend.
THE GREAT – 3. PIERRE GASLY
Provided much entertainment throughout the race. Starting to show some real signs of the greatness that saw him promoted to Red Bull in 2019.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS –
Max Verstappen – did his usual – all of he could. And thrashed his team mate again. –
THE GRAPE – 1. FERRARI
One wonders how bad things may get, but they were so bad this weekend, that many were tipping them to be eliminated in Q1. As it stood they made it into Q2, but were too slow to go any further.
Circulating towards the end in 13th and 15th in the race, at least Leclerc looked racey for a while.
All that was missing from their terrible weekend was an intra-team crash.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Valtteri Bottas – Second again, but barely made a fight of it. Sure his team mate is one of the best, but the neutral F1 fan is looking for something from Bottas to make the title challenge interesting.
Antonio Giovinazzi – It’s all good to occasionally bin it during a race, but to take out another driver stinks. Not that he meant to take out another car.
2020 Belgian Grand Prix Result – 2020 Driver of the Year – The Martini Trophy
A feature on this website is determining the driver of the year.
This recognises not just the driver with the most amount of points at the end of the year, but factoring performance against their team mate, possibly outperforming the car, and a nod to our Great and Grape above. A full explanation is below the results.
The Martini Trophy is named after one of our favourite F1 drivers of all time, the underrated Pierluigi Martini.
2020 Belgian Grand Prix Results – Martini Trophy
Top qualifiers are awarded 3-2-1
Top finishes are awarded 5-4-3-2-1
Out-Race team mate only applies if they both cars finish or unless the other driver was a complete dick.
Best of Rest is the top driver not from Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari in race and qualifying
FirstLap is 0.2 / -0.2 for every position gained / lost on the first lap.
Good and Grape points are award 3-2-1 and -1 for drivers.
2020 Driver of the Year Points so far
Up to Spanish GP, will be updated soon for Belgian GP.
2020 Belgian Grand Prix Result – Stats and Stuff
Here is our selection of our favourite stats from the season so far.
