Seb's Spa Treatment

Seb's Spa Treatment

A wet weekend at Spa is nothing unusual and the rain certainly made for an interesting set of practice and qualifying sessions. Raceday however was dry and something of a trip into the unknown for a lot of the field with so few laps having been run in the dry over the weekend.

The race started as it meant to go on – action-packed from the off. Rosberg sprung the real surprise. His car was smoking like a rocket shortly before take off – and it certainly moved like one when the lights went out. He was in second place by the exit of the first corner and then sat on Vettel's tail through the awesome Eau Rouge before taking the lead before reaching Les Combes. Further back, Senna, having qualified in seventh in his first grand prix for a year, demonstrated a little rustiness and crashed into Alguersuari and nearly took out Alonso at the first corner. Vettel re-took the lead from Rosberg a couple of laps later but pitted for new tyres almost immediately, having blistered his in qualifying. The race began to look like a pit stop display event with most of the field pitting within the first ten laps – the Pirelli tyres seemingly causing more than a little concern amongst the teams.

In the early stages of the race, the Ferraris looked to be the most competitive showing immense pace on the option tyres and seemingly able to pass at will. Massa and Alonso had a great battle with Rosberg – for a couple of laps they were in extremely close company almost running each other clean off the road a couple of times. Add to that a certain Mr Hamilton and it already had the makings of a great afternoon's racing.

Lap 13 provided an extra sprinkling of drama. Hamilton was climbing back through the field after his pit stop and passed Kobayashi on the way into Eau Rouge – Kobayashi decided he'd like that place back and came back at the Englishman, positioning himself alongside him on the run to Les Combes. Hamilton didn't realise how close Kobayashi was to him and moved a little left and made contact, pitching his car head on into the barrier causing a safety car and yet more pit stops.

Alonso found himself at the front of the queue behind the safety car, closely followed by Webber and Vettel, with Massa and Rosberg following them. When the race restarted – Vettel made quick work of passing his team mate and homed in on the back of Alonso, passing him with relative ease. Further back, Button found himself in the midst of a great little battle and managed to squeeze passed Petrov and Perez in one corner. Throughout all this, Michael Schumacher was having an impressive race. Having started last due to only having three wheels attached at the start of qualifying, he was in seventh place by lap 18 with Button in very close company behind him. Button squeezed passed at the end of lap 22 and quickly closed on Sutil in front of him, passing him at the top of the hill into Les Combes on the next lap. Button was now up to sixth. Next on the list was Felipe Massa. Button breezed passed Massa under braking for the bus stop chicane – a mere lap and a half after passing Sutil. He then set after Rosberg.

At the front, Vettel was now four seconds ahead but he was in trouble with his tyres yet again and Alonso wasn't looking a lot better judging by the onboard footage – large black streaks appearing on the inner edge of the front tyres on both cars.

Rosberg succumbed to Button's advances at the end of the long straight at Les Combes on lap 26. Button was giving one of his most aggressive performances and looked like a real podium contender, especially seeing as he'd got the slower tyres out of the way during his first stint unlike the leader.

Around lap 28 we had an opportunity to breathe again – the race lulled into a period of relative calm with the field a little more spread out than it had been all race. Alonso pitted on lap thirty for the harder tyres, quickly followed by Vettel. This put Webber into the lead, with Button now up to second place from thirteenth having been nineteenth at one point. Button actually took the lead when Webber pitted only to have it snatched away from him again when Vettel passed him on his fresher tyres. He pitted on lap 33 for soft tyres and rejoined in fourth place. The order now was Vettel, leading from Alonso and Webber. Webber was the man on the move at this point, hunting Alonso down like a man possessed, eventually passing on lap 36 and setting off after his team mate. The two Mercedes were running line astern in fifth and sixth – Schumacher was looking very competitive here and dragging himself from last to sixth in a car that was not the class of the field was an impressive performance.

Meanwhile, Button had closed the gap on Alonso down to less than a second. It was looking inevitable that he'd finish on the podium at this point and his move came on lap 42 passing at his favourite spot into Les Combes. Directly behind that battle, Schumacher passed Rosberg for fifth place at the same point on the the circuit.

So it was another win for Vettel ahead of Webber with Button a great third – a fast-paced, action-packed grand prix and a good start to the title run-in. It was, however, another victory for Vettel, which is exactly what his rivals were dreading – he is going to take some stopping.

Stuart McCann is from IntentsGP.com:  For Silverstone or Spa, make your F1 Weekend Hassle Free - Camp with intentsGP!

Recent comments on this article:

#1 MartyP | 1 Sep 2011, 13:31 Reply »

It's looking very good for Vettel now isn't it. It might have been a lot closer without the Safety Car (and without Lewis retiring) but Seb was still the best man on the day.

Hopefully the long straights of Monza throw up more of a surprise.

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• It's looking very good for Vettel now isn't it. It might have been a lot closer without the Safety Car (and without Lewis retiring) but Seb was still...
  by MartyP
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