29/08/2021
NEWS STORY
The Belgian Grand Prix was run over just three laps due to bad weather - making it the shortest race in Formula 1 history - with half-points awarded. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was declared the winner, ahead of Williams driver George Russell and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.
The race was delayed for more than three hours following the initial start procedure, with all the drivers on the Cinturato Blue wet tyre for the re-start from the pitlane. After the cars followed the safety car for a three laps, in heavy rain with ambient temperatures of 14 degrees and track temperatures of 15 degrees, the red flag was shown, with the race subsequently ended.
The wet weather tyres were used for the bulk of the weekend, with the free practice and qualifying sessions also wet. Throughout Friday and Saturday, the Cinturato Green intermediate showed strong performance with solid resistance to aquaplaning.
Mario Isola: "With the rain not improving, it unfortunately wasn't possible to have a green flag race. The main problem was the lack of visibility. With the full wet tyres evacuating around 85 litres of water per second at 300kph, all that water has to go somewhere. The result is the spray that everyone watching could see behind the safety car, making it impossible for the drivers to see - which is obviously a dangerous situation. On a track with plenty of elevation like this one, there is also a risk of pools of water forming in certain places, which adds to the risk of aquaplaning. We'll be back racing in less than a week's time at the Dutch Grand Prix, hopefully with better weather."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Spa, here.