He may have made it look easy but there is nothing “easy” about Spa Francorchamps. Sebastian Vettel wins the 2013 Belgian Grand Prix in fine style and took hold of the race at Kemmel Straight on the first lap.
The key for many was to see exactly where Mercedes were with their tires. The team won the hungarian Grand Prix but that circuit is more akin to Monaco. When the team put serious side-loads into the tire and generated a lot of heat was the one remaining question. To those ends, I think we got the answer…the team have made advances in their tire performance and Lewis Hamilton secured a terrific third place behind Fernando Alonso.
For Fernando, the Ferrari F138 seemed more competitive at Spa and he overcame a disastrous qualifying session from 9th on the grid to secure 2nd place on Sunday. Fernando leaps back into second place in the driver’s championship with his podium finish.
It was a bad day for Lotus F1’s Kimi Raikkonen who suffered from brake failure and ended his consecutive points-scoring performance at 27 races in a row.
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 44 | 1:23:42.196 | 2 | 25 |
| 2 | 3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 44 | +16.8 secs | 9 | 18 |
| 3 | 10 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 44 | +27.7 secs | 1 | 15 |
| 4 | 9 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 44 | +29.8 secs | 4 | 12 |
| 5 | 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 44 | +33.8 secs | 3 | 10 |
| 6 | 5 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 44 | +40.7 secs | 6 | 8 |
| 7 | 4 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 44 | +53.9 secs | 10 | 6 |
| 8 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 44 | +55.8 secs | 7 | 4 |
| 9 | 15 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 44 | +69.5 secs | 12 | 2 |
| 10 | 19 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 44 | +73.4 secs | 19 | 1 |
| 11 | 6 | Sergio Perez | McLaren-Mercedes | 44 | +81.9 secs | 13 | |
| 12 | 18 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 44 | +86.7 secs | 18 | |
| 13 | 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber-Ferrari | 44 | +88.2 secs | 11 | |
| 14 | 12 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 44 | +100.4 secs | 21 | |
| 15 | 17 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 44 | +107.4 secs | 20 | |
| 16 | 21 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham-Renault | 43 | +1 Lap | 14 | |
| 17 | 16 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 43 | +1 Lap | 17 | |
| 18 | 22 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Cosworth | 43 | +1 Lap | 15 | |
| 19 | 23 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Cosworth | 42 | +2 Laps | 16 | |
| Ret | 14 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 26 | Accident | 5 | |
| Ret | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 25 | Brakes | 8 | |
| Ret | 20 | Charles Pic | Caterham-Renault | 8 | Oil leak | 22 |
How did you see the race? Who were your driver’s of the race? What did you notice about the performance of Mercedes or even a resurgent McLaren?
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