Lewis took his 89th career victory today, his fourth at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and fifth of the 2020 season. Valtteri came home in P2, completing a 1-2 victory for the team, and claiming his best result at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Today's result marks the 50th 1-2 finish for the Mercedes works team in the modern era (since 2010).
Lewis (157 points) leads the Drivers' Championship by 47 points from Max Verstappen (110 points), with Valtteri in P3 (107 points). The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team (264 points) leads Red Bull (158 points) by 106 points in the Constructors' Championship.
Toto Wolff: That was a great race. We had not won in Spa since 2017, so to come back with such a strong performance and very good pace on a track that troubled us before makes me really happy. The race was relatively straight-forward after the start, but it ended up getting very tricky towards the end, because the tyres were almost at the end of their life. We could see the same on Verstappen's car and at that point it was really about bringing our cars home safely. So we told our drivers to stay off the kerbs and lose quite a bit of pace. It gave us a bit of a headache because the memory of the punctures in Silverstone was still fresh and that's obviously what we wanted to avoid at all cost. So for us, the race wasn't over until both cars had really crossed the line - but luckily they did and secured this great one-two. We're really looking forward to go to Monza next week and then to Mugello - the races keep coming thick and fast and it just doesn't stop.
Andrew Shovlin: Another great result for the team. The safety car was a bit earlier than we'd have wanted, which made it difficult to get the hard tyre through those last few laps. In the early part of the second stint we thought it was close between a one and a two-stop, but seeing the degradation on the hard, we realised that Verstappen on the two-stop would be a significant threat around lap 25 when he was close behind Valtteri. That caused us to get both drivers to drop the tyre management and put some quick laps in. They were both able to build gaps that meant we could cover if Red Bull did stop but the fast laps did take a bit out of the tyres and they were really dropping off in the last few laps. Overall though, it's been a good weekend for the team. The car hasn't had the same pace we've enjoyed at other tracks this year, particularly in qualifying, but the team has done a good job to get the most out of it and we've operated well throughout the weekend. We're looking forward to Monza, but we need to find a lower drag set-up as we're behind Red Bull on the straights already and the latest technical directive from the FIA on engine modes is going to cost us time in qualifying. But the team will be working hard in Brackley and Brixworth over the next few days to try and stay ahead.
Scuderia Ferrari came away from the 65th Belgian Grand Prix empty handed at the end of a disappointing race, which saw both cars finish outside the points. Sebastian Vettel was 13th and Charles Leclerc was 14th. Although in reverse order, the two SF1000s finished where they started, which confirms the difficulties that beset the Maranello cars all weekend long.
The only bright point of the weekend was Charles' start, which saw him move up three places and on the following lap take another when he got past Sergio Perez for eighth, no doubt helped by his Soft tyres. However, after that he began to struggle and had to give best to Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri,) Perez and Lando Norris (McLaren).
On lap 10, the Safety Car was required after Antonio Giovinazzi crashed in the Alfa Romeo, an incident which also involved George Russell (Williams.) At this point, Charles pitted for Hard tyres. Sebastian came in next time round to switch from the Mediums to the Hards. When the race resumed on lap 16, Vettel was 12th and Leclerc 14th, but their pace was lacking to the extent that Sebastian was passed by Kimi Raikkonen in the Alfa Romeo. Therefore, at this point the team decided to split the strategies, bringing Charles in again on lap 24 to fit Medium tyres.
At two thirds distance, Seb was 12th, five places ahead of Charles, who on his last set of tyres was again able to pick up the pace and began to make up ground. He passed Nicholas Latifi in the Williams and Kevin Magnussen in the Haas, climbing up to 15th spot, while Vettel was beginning to have tyre wear problems and had to give best to Gasly. Then, on the final lap, Charles was able to pass Romain Grosjean in the other Haas to finish 14th behind his team-mate.
The 2020 Championship now moves on to the second race of this third triple-header, with the action resuming next week at Monza for the usual Italian Grand Prix. After that, it's on to Mugello which hosts a round of the world championship for the very first time, the Toscana Ferrari 1000 Grand Prix.
Mattia Binotto Team Principal: "On a track that requires aerodynamic efficiency and power, we were severely lacking in both. Charles and Sebastian did their very best, both yesterday in qualifying and today in the race, but we couldn't even get into the points.
"We are disappointed and angry, as indeed are our fans and with good reason. It's a difficult moment in a season that we knew from the start would be a tough one, but it's at times like this that we need to stand firm and look ahead in order to get over this difficult period. It's the only way we will get out of this situation.
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "It was a tricky race today with tyre management but we managed to get solid points on the board with both cars. Max didn't quite have the pace to fight the Mercedes with tyre degradation in the second half of the race proving to be significant, so we were weighing up whether to one or two stop. Daniel's straightline speed was obviously very strong so we opted to stick with a one stop and Max managed to bring the car home for his sixth podium in a row. Meanwhile, Alex lost a place at the start to Ocon but managed to get it back through his pit stop when we elected to put him on the medium tyre which we thought was the best compound to attack the Renaults. He did a good job today defending hard throughout the Grand Prix but unfortunately the Renaults were just too fast on the straights with their lower downforce configuration and he lost P5 on the final lap. Alex is now up to fourth in the Drivers' Championship and he's had a very solid weekend so now we'll continue to work hard as a Team before we arrive in Monza next week."
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: "It was damage-limitation today. Despite having a good race car here, we could only score six points. Carlos' race was over before it began with a PU failure on his reconnaissance laps-to-grid, which forced us to retire the car before the start. Lando unfortunately lost two positions during the first lap, which compromised his race.
"On a positive note, Lando drove a great race to fight his way back up to P7, and that result lifts us back up to P3 in the Constructors' Championship, taking points away from both Racing Point and Ferrari. The team in the garage and back at the MTC did an excellent job to stay focussed after the big disappointment with Carlos and executed Lando's race perfectly, including a very good pit-stop.
"Tomorrow we reset and prepare for the Italian Grand Prix. We've seen here that we can compete on the low-downforce tracks, which should put us in a good position for a fight with our closest rivals at Monza."
Renault DP World F1 Team claimed a superb result from today's Belgian Grand Prix, picking up 23 points courtesy of Daniel Ricciardo's fourth place - and bonus point for Fastest Lap - and Esteban Ocon's fifth place finish at Spa-Francorchamps.
On a thrilling final lap, Daniel eased home in fourth position and claimed one extra point for the Fastest Lap of the race with Esteban pulling off a fine overtake on Alex Albon at Les Combes to match his best result in Formula 1 in fifth.
On the one-year anniversary since Anthoine Hubert's tragic accident at this circuit, today's result certainly is a fitting tribute to the late Frenchman.
Both drivers made solid starts with Esteban passing Albon on the run out of La Source while Daniel put pressure on Max Verstappen into Turn 5.
As the race settled both drivers occupied fourth and fifth. A safety car on lap 10 meant both cars double stacked for Hard tyres with Esteban dropping a place to Albon in the pits.
Daniel began progressing his way back up to fourth with Esteban locked in a tight battle for fifth, which he was able to snatch on the final lap of the race.
Today's result is the team's highest points haul from a Grand Prix weekend since returning to the sport in 2016.
Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal: "Today's result is dedicated to Anthoine Hubert who we think of on this particular weekend. We knew Spa would suit our package and there were big points at stake. We executed our plan all the way through the weekend. While we're satisfied with today, we have to stay focused. It's the same car that failed to be in the top ten in Barcelona and that shows a lack of consistency for competitiveness and improving this will have to be our priority. In addition to the strong finishing positions that brings us closer to the teams ahead in the championship, the fastest lap today by Daniel rounds off in style the result and I see that as a reward to everyone in Viry who has been working so hard for several years to get on top of the complexity of the power unit. We'll celebrate a little bit to give us the energy to attack what's coming next, but our focus is already on Monza and the milestone of the change to the qualifying mode that we must prepare with the highest possible care."
Claudio Balestri (Chief Engineer - Vehicle Performance): "We had a good race today. We optimized our low downforce package during the weekend and it paid off. Our competitive top speed in the race permitted us to overtake many cars. The pit wall did a solid job in terms of strategy because we tried to maximize the advantage of free tyre choice. In the end, Pierre put in a fantastic drive, overtaking many cars which is very satisfying. Daniil was on different strategy, he pitted under safety car which was deployed for the crash between Russell and Giovinazzi, and similarly to most of the drivers we tried to go to the end with him on the base tyre. At the end of the race, Pierre finished P8 and Daniil finished just out of the points in P11. We now head to Monza with a bit of momentum to continue the fight for points."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "After Qualifying, Daniil and Pierre finished in P11 and P12 - which is quite a good position because you can decide which tyres to begin the race - so we opted to split the strategy. Daniil started on the Prime, while Pierre stared on the Base. Both had a really good start; Pierre immediately started to overtake the cars in front, moving up to P8. Daniil was two places behind when a safety car came as a result of Giovinazzi's crash, so we decided to pit Daniil and leave Pierre out on the Base tyre, as for our strategy it was too early to pit him. Pierre did a very good job defending his position until, later on, other drivers managed to overtake him on fresher tyres, so we pitted him for Prime on lap 26. He then started a competitive comeback to close the gap and was able to overtake the Haas, Ferrari and the Racing Points to finish in eighth position. It was a fantastic drive from Pierre and without the safety car, our strategy to start on the Base would have paid off even more as I think Pierre could have finished higher up the order. Like many other drivers, Daniil suffered with the tyres at the end of the race, therefore he wasn't able to score points and finished in P11. Now we are looking forward to going to our "first home race" out of three in Italy, it's always nice to be back in Monza, where we have very good memories."
Otmar Szafnauer, CEO & Team Principal: "Getting two cars home inside the points was the goal today, but we had hoped to be higher up the order at the end. We need to understand why we were not as strong in the final stages of the race where we lost some positions in the final few laps. I think strategically the safety car presented some difficult decisions for everybody. At the time it was questionable whether a one-stop race was possible at that point. That was why we kept Sergio out under the safety car in the hope that he would have a tyre advantage at the end compared to our competition. We will take away the lessons learned this afternoon to come back stronger in Italy next week. In terms of the standings, we're now fourth but we're only a couple of points off third, so we will work hard to reclaim that position in the coming races."
Progress, of sorts, isn't always immediately visible. Sometimes it can be a sneaky kind of progression, under the radar. It often doesn't deliver immediate results, but it's there. Today felt a bit like that. P12 doesn't bring any reward, no points to add to the tally, but the way in which it was obtained is a little bit of a positive.
There was pace in the cars, both Kimi and Antonio fighting with the Ferraris in the opening stages before an incident for the Italian brought out the Safety Car. There was plenty of fighting spirit in display, as Kimi passed Vettel after the restart and made it, on merit, into the top ten. There wasn't a lot of luck, unfortunately, as the Finn seemed to be quicker than Kvyat in the wrong parts of the track, where making further progress wasn't possible. Stuck behind the Russian, he was at the mercy of Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly who, on fresher tyres, edged him into P12. We finished the race as the highest-ranked Ferrari-powered car, two places away from that all-important P10.
There are no points on offer for 12th, but we're making progress. Progress isn't always immediately visible, but that doesn't mean it's not happening. The important is to keep working at it.
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: "It was a race of two halves, unfortunately, but we showed some more competitiveness compared to previous rounds. Kimi lost some ground at the start but was able to make it back into 15th within a few laps, whereas Antonio had a really good launch and was putting pressure on Vettel's Ferrari. His race ended at lap nine, but both drivers were able to keep their rivals honest with some decent pace. Kimi had a strong race and ran in the points after the pit stops: unfortunately, we seemed to be quicker on the twisty part of the track, where overtaking is not that easy, and he couldn't make his way past Kvyat. In the end, P12 is the most we could have done today and, while points remain elusive, we can take a bit of encouragement from our performance."
Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen classified 15th and 17th respectively at the Belgian Grand Prix, held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Sunday.
Grosjean started the race, which took place in cool and largely cloudy conditions, 17th on the grid, using Pirelli's P Zero Yellow medium tires. When the Safety Car was called due to a large accident involving Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi and Williams' George Russell 10 laps into the 44-lap race Grosjean boxed for the White hard tires. Grosjean kept that set of tires through to the checkered flag and battled Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, falling narrowly short of beating last year's race winner. Grosjean classified 15th.
Magnussen also used the Yellow medium tires for the start and rocketed up the order on the opening lap, surging from 20th to 15th, making more gains than any other driver. Magnussen also boxed for hard tires when the Safety Car was deployed, and he came in again on lap 36 for a switch onto the Red soft rubber. He reached the finish line 17th.
Haas F1 Team maintains ninth in the Constructors' Championship with one point. Haas F1 Team will be back in action for the Italian Grand Prix, to be held at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, from September 4 to 6.
Guenther Steiner: "I don't have a lot to say today. It was obviously a disappointing result but not unexpected. This is where we are right now. The only way forward is to get better."
Nicholas Latifi finished 16th in today's Belgian Grand Prix. George Russell's race unfortunately ended in the barrier after being unable to avoid a lose wheel coming across the track from Giovinazzi's car which crashed just ahead.
George started the race 15th on the medium Pirelli tyre, with Nicholas lining up 19th on the same compound. Nicholas pitted twice, stopping on laps 11 and 30, firstly taking on new a set of the hard tyre and then switching back to the medium compound.
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: We felt that we had made some progress with our race pace this weekend, but we didn't really get a chance to show it today. Both drivers started well and made places initially but were unable to hang on to them for the first lap. This put both out of position and ultimately meant that George was behind Giovinazzi when he crashed. George was forced to take evasive action but couldn't avoid the debris and ultimately the wall. Although very frustrating, we are relived that nobody was hurt in what could've been a nasty incident.
Following the safety car, we opted to switch Nicholas to a two-stop race and in the final stint he showed good pace despite not being fully happy with the behaviour of his car and was quickly able to catch the cars ahead. When Magnussen pitted, we were able to keep him behind and continue to close on Grosjean and Leclerc. Frustratingly, we caught them on the final lap but didn't get an opportunity to pass.
We learned a lot this weekend that will help us next week in Monza and we are keen to get the cars back on the track and continue to push the cars around us.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won the Belgian Grand Prix from pole, stopping just once to switch from Yellow medium to White hard tyres on lap 11 under a lengthy safety car period. All three podium finishers used an identical strategy.
The safety car heavily influenced the strategy, with all the drivers apart from two stopping to change tyres. Of the drivers who stopped, only Red Bull's Alex Albon didn't switch to hard for the second stint (instead choosing medium).
The drivers who didn't stop were AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly and Racing Point's Sergio Perez. Gasly was the only driver to start the race on the hard tyre, and he swapped to the medium on lap 26, eventually finishing eighth from 12th on the grid. Perez switched from Red soft to hard after 18 laps, also finishing in the points.
The top four in the race all finished in grid order, with the top nine all having stopped just once under the safety car. Only three drivers stopped twice: Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, Williams driver Nicholas Latifi, and Haas driver Kevin Magnussen.
Despite earlier predictions of rain, the race remained dry from start to finish.
Mario Isola: "The safety car dictated the strategy for most drivers today, pushing them towards a longer final stint than was expected on the hard tyre. This meant that they had to manage the compound carefully towards the end of the race in particular, on a notoriously demanding track. However, they all accomplished this perfectly and some drivers also chose a different strategic approach. Pierre Gasly showed plenty of pace with his unique hard-medium strategy and we also saw Sergio Perez choose not to stop under the safety car and try something different. All three nominated compounds played an important role today, and were well suited to the conditions here at Spa - one of the biggest tests for tyres of the year."
