VETTEL WINNING AGAIN!
The Belgian Grand Prix is one of F1's traditional, classic races. It has also recently become known as the first race after the summer break. The weather at Spa Franchorchamps is always known as interesting and with McLaren having won the last two races, the hope was that the brakes had been put on Vettel's championship challenge. Driver wise Renault had decided to change things up, ditching Heidfeld and replacing him with Bruno Senna, last seen driving for Hispania in Abu Dhabai '10. In qualifying Vettel secured his second pole in a row. Then came Lewis with his third P2 of the season. The other Brots had a disasterous qualifying, Jenson in P13 and di Resta in P18.
In the race itself, well Lewis crashed out in the early stages after a tangling with Kobayashi. As far as his championship challenge is concerned, he needed that like he needed a hole in the head. Di Resta at least managed to finish the race but only in 11th despite running in the points for a fair chunk of it. Finally though Jenson finished 3rd, having a brilliant run through the field helped by an interesting tyre strategy but it wasn't really enough to allow him to challenge for the win. An OKish run from the British guys but coming off the back of two McLaren wins this was an obvious step down as the clock starts to tick on their title chances.
Red Bull was actually pretty nervous going into this race on the grounds of tyre blistering and Vettel having to pit early was obviously less than ideal for the championship leader. However a safety car for Lewis's accident helped and he took the lead not long after that. Yeah I know, just when it seemed that the guy who's dominated this season was about to be reined in, he eventually fights off Alonso to grab his seventh win of the season. Behind him, once Alonso's tyres fell apart, Webber slid into 2nd place to complete the 2nd Red Bull 1-2 of the season, again, not really being allowed to fight Vettel. All in all this was getting a bit annoying.
So, when the dust settled from that, the championship looked like this. Vettel still leading on 259 points. Webber 2nd on 167. Alonso up to 3rd on 157. Jenson up to 4th on 149. Further down, Lewis dropped to 5th on 146.
Then it was from one classic circuit to another. Monza, a place where a certain team in red call home. Yet British drivers have occasionally had ther uses there and yet again it was a circuit that the Red Bulls were nervous about. The big concern going into this race were tyres with Red Bull for some reason snarking about having to run blistereed tyres going into the previous race - not that it affected them too much! Other than that and the tifosi getting impatient for a Ferrari win this season the hope was again that Vettel would be slowed down. In qualifying, Vettel got his 3rd pole in a row, Lewis his 4th P2 in a row and Jenson slotted into P3 with di Resta in P11.
In the race itself, well Di Resta had a rather quiet race...and yet when the chequered flag fell he found himself in 8th, good to see him pick up a few more championship points. A relatively cautious Lewis had to deal with Schumacher getting up to no good and his uncharacteristic timidness cost him a spot on the podium, he settled for 4th. As for Jenson though, well he of all people showed Jenson how it should be done against Schumacher and then made his way through Alonso to grab himself 2nd. Overall, a great performance from the Brits with all three of them in the points on this occasion though still ultimately dissapointing that they couldn't stop you-know-who.
So what did become of Vettel? Well he was actually given a serious headache from the start of the race by Alonso and actually showed that he can sometimes do a bit more than cruise as he forced his way back past the Spaniard. After that though well, we've seen this before. Before the end of the race they were talking about when he'd claim the title. That was never going to be this time around but it could potentially be next timme. In the meantime he went on to claim his 2nd win in a row, three years after he claimed his first ever Grand Prix win on this circuit. Anything can happen in Formula 1 and it usually does but 2011 has been his year.
So after that, the championship looks like this: Vettel still leading on 284 points, Alonso up to 2nd on 172, Jenson up to 3rd on 167(including wins in Canada and Hungary). Lewis remains in 5th on 158.
Click here to return to sports homepage
Click here to return to Matt G's homepage