Seb Sublime in Spa

The luscious Ardennes Forest houses the historic Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. The track is the longest on the calendar and also one of the longest-standing tracks in the sport, running for 20 years straight (1950-1970) and then taking a break while Zolder and Nivelles-Baulers had a go. Zolder was deemed too unsafe, and Nivelles too boring, and in Spa was favoured once more, and since 1983 the race has been held there, apart from in 2003 when Tobacco laws were disputed, and 2006 when the final Bus Stop Chicane and pit buildings were modified.

The race last year was won by Jenson Button, and despite the improvements that McLaren will have undoubtedly been toiling away at this past month, the team look unlikely to be on the podium in this year's race. Button's excellent win last year was overshadowed by the colossal pile-up that Romain Grosjean caused at the start of the race. The Frenchman looks to be calmer this year, though, so hopefully we should see a less chaotic start.

NEWS
After four decades weeks, the Summer break is finally over! Formula One returns with a vengeance this weekend, as the European leg of the Season comes to an end, and the paddock move on to Asia and America. During the summer break the usual silly-season transfer talk began, or rather, continued. Red Bull have finally put to bed the completely stupid speculation that Raikkonen could be moving to their team next year. I told you so. Anyway, this makes Daniel Ricciardo's prospects look all the more promising. I'm not going to link you to that article again, but it's pertinent once again. Perhaps I should digress before my head grows any more...

Marussia will be switching to Ferrari for next year since Cosworth have decided to abandon their F1 plans. That leaves the F1 Engine situation as the following:

Red Bull - Renault
Ferrari - Ferrari (Obviously)
McLaren - Mercedes
Lotus - Renault
Mercedes - Mercedes (Durrr)
Sauber - Ferrari
Force India -Mercedes
Williams - Mercedes
Toro Rosso - Renault
Caterham - Renault
Marussia - Ferrari

And the Official 2014 engine customer League Table...
Renault - 4
Mercedes - 4
Ferrari - 3

Though the number of suppliers has reduced, it's worth remembering Honda will return in 2015 to power the McLaren MP4-30.

Aside from that engine news, not a lot has happened mid-season. Unless of course you count Fernando Alonso's ticking-off from Luca di Montezemolo (for being a bit rude about his Ferrari) as news.

Mention practice sessions

QUALIFYING REPORT
Q1 started with a shower. The rain drenched the track in most places, and intermediates were the way to go. However, the deluge paused momentarily, and dry tyres became viable. Both Williams and Toro Rosso got the timing wrong, though and switched to slicks too early. All four cars were eliminated along with Charles Pic and Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez.

Car eliminated after Q1
17) Maldonado
18) Vergne
19) Ricciardo
20) Bottas
21) Gutierrez
22) Pic

The second Session was pretty much dry - the fastest time in this session was some 12 seconds quicker than actual pole. Such a thing could only happen in Spa. The plight of the dark blue cars (Williams and Toro Rosso) in Q1 meant some of the backmarkers rubbed elbows with more conventional midfielders.

Cars eliminated after Q2
11) Hulkenberg
12) Sutil
13) Perez
14) van der Garde
15) Bianchi
16) Chilton

This was perhaps the most frenetic, awesome, nerve-racking and incredible qualifying session of the season, maybe the best I've ever seen. Everyone went out on slick tyres at the start, save for di Resta and Massa. The Ferrari pilot botched a great chance to re-live his Ferrari glory days, and ended up 10th. By the time the two were on their hot lap, everyone else had dived into the pits for more appropriate rubber - Intermediate tyres.

Paul di Resta set the benchmark of 2:02:332, and it looked like the Scot was going to snatch his first ever pole position. Commentators, friends, spectators and mysel endured a gruelling 4-minute wait on tenterhooks, This was shattered, though, in the last 30 seconds and after the chequered flag - Rosberg went fastest, then Webber bumped him down to 3rd, followed by Vettel taking Pole, who was swiftly dispatched by Hamilton. 

The Final Top Ten
1) Hamilton
2) Vettel
3) Webber
4) Rosberg
5) di Resta
6) Button
7) Grosjean
8) Raikkonen
9) Alonso
10) Massa
 
RACE DAY
All eyes turned to the skies on Sunday morning; the circuit's famous 'mini-climate' is all-too familiar to everyone, but radars indicated no rain until 4pm, well after the race finish.

As the five lights went out Hamilton and Vettel made decent starts and led the way, while behind Button and Alonso started brilliantly, getting up to 4th and 5th respectively. As the leaders climbed through Eau Rouge, Vettel picked up a tremendous slipstream on Hamilton, and duly passed him before the Les Combe chicane.

Leaders of the pack: Vettel jumps Hamilton on Lap 1.

Lap two saw Fernando Alonso hounding Jenson button at the same piece of track as the aforementioned manouvre. He couldn't get the jump on the McLaren straight away, but by lap 4, he had perfected the move, and shimmied past.


Lap eight saw Grosjean and Perez come to blows. The Mexican moved down the inside of the Frenchman, but moved right over on him, and Romain was forced off the track. That's just not allowed, and the McLaren driver was awarded a lovely Drive-through Penalty.

Pushy Perez: Romain had to take avoiding action from the stubborn Mexican

.

Hamilton diced with two former Renault team-mates Grosjean and Alonso. Firstly he had a nip-and-tuck challenge with the Frenchman after he pitted on Lap 13. He re-joined just behind the Lotus, then passed him at Les Combe, before losing the place again. The Brit got past him the next lap round, but by that time, he had lost ground on the leaders and crucially, when Alonso emerged from the pits, he was right behind Lewis.

This led to sparring between the McLaren class of 2007. Hamilton began Lap 15 ahead of Alonso, but moved over at the La Source hairpin with the intention of getting DRS by being behind at the detection point. He chased the Spaniard along the Kemmel straight, but was surprisingly unable to pass; the Ferrari's gearing was superior and got the better of the Mercedes. From that point on, Alonso remained ahead.

On a personal note, my heart broke on Lap 25 when Kimi Raikkonen succumbed to brake fade/failure. He was chasing his former team mate Felipe Massa for several laps. He saved all his KERS energy for the run out of Stavelot towards the Bus Stop chicane, but when it came to braking, his car would not oblige, and he was forced to go wide in order to slow down. 

Kimi's illuminated discs were prevalent from an early stage.

On the grounds of safety, the Finn opted to retire his car, bringing an end to his incredible string of 38 finishes since Germany 2009. He was just three races shy of Nick Heidfeld's 41-race finishing record, although Kimi's stint actually contained wins (3) while 'Quick Nick's' did not.

Raikkonen's title chances take a hit.

The biggest and no doubt most expensive accident occured on lap 29 when Pastor Maldonado annihilated Paul di Resta's VJM06. The whole incident started at Stavelot, when Pastor got an enormous sideways slide on. He drifted through the corner (you had to look quite close on TV to notice) and this allowed Esteban Gutierrez in the Sauber behind to get alongside him. They went through Blanchimont and into the Bus Stop chicane side-by-side, and the Mexican got past. This left Maldonado out of place, and as he tried to recover, he skimmed Adrian Sutil's front wing, and then slammed into the rear-left tyre of di Resta's car, sending it through the rear suspsension and rear wing. It was a great shame considering Paul's excellent qualifying, but the Stewards decided no penalty was necessary, deeming it a racing incident.

di Rest-In-Pieces: Paul's Force India is obliterated.

For the remainder of the race, the top ten shuffled around. Jenson Button looked on course for an excellent 3rd place finish. Sat behind Alonso in second, his 1 stop strategy looked set to pay of handsomely, but strangely - despite setting competitive lap times on his Hard Tyres - he opted to pit on Lap 35, just 9 laps from the close. This dropped him down to 7th. His new tyres were able to give him an edge though, and he powered past Grosjean too. Romain's downfall did not end there - he was surpassed by Massa with 5 laps to go as well, relegating the Frenchman to 8th.


Maldonado was given a 10-place Stop & Go penalty in the last few laps for his collision with the Force Indias. It did little to the standings though, as he was already in 16th. The only other action in the closing part of the race was Daniel Ricciardo. The now-confirmed Red Bull driver put aside a dreadful qualifying session (where he placed 19th) and managed to overtake Sergio Perez for 10th place and a single (but very valuable) point. Daniel's soon-to-be team mate rounded the final few laps and subsequently set the fastest time of the race; his lead over second-placed driver Alonso was 17 seconds.
 

How the 1% live... Hamilton and Vettel spray Champers on David Coulthard.

Lap Leaders
S Vettel 1-44

Finishing Positions
1. S Vettel, Red Bull Racing
2. F Alonso, Ferrari
3. L Hamilton, Mercedes AMG
4. N Rosberg, Mercedes AMG
5. M Webber, Red Bull Racing
6. J Button, McLaren
7. F Massa, Ferrari
8. R Grosjean, Lotus
9. A Sutil, Force India
10. D Ricciardo, Toro Rosso
11. S Perez, McLaren
12. JE Vergne, Toro Rosso
13. N Hulkenberg, Sauber
14. E Gutierrez, Sauber
15. V Bottas, Williams
16. G van der Garde, Williams
17. P Maldonado, Williams
18. J Bianchi, Marussia
19. M Chilton, Marussia

Out/Unclassified
P di Resta, Force India (Collision)
K Raikkonen, Lotus (Brakes)
C Pic, Caterham (Hydraulics)

PENULTIMATE PONDERING
I made the mistake of saying to a friend before this race:
 
"I don't care what happens, because it's Spa, and something interesting always happens."

Well, it didn't. It was a pretty boring race for myself to be honest with you. It might have been the fact that I was at work when it was on, and I was recording it on my DVR to watch later, then a colleague blurted out the result. Maybe it was that, but basically, there wasn't enough excitement - once Vettel got past Hamilton it was game over, as he'd already got outside of the DRS zone by lap 3.
 
PLEASE check out my Lap Guide Video. It's a dream of mine to be a journalist in the realm of F1, and I created a sort of commentary/lap guide video over the top of Hamilton's pole.
 
Driver of the day:
Sebastian Vettel. Quite simply unbeatable.

THANKS
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