F1 Paddock Notebook – Belgian GP Sunday

With a round-up from Spa following Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, F1 Digital Editor Luke Smith brings you his final paddock notebook of the weekend.

– Sebastian Vettel swept to his fifth victory of the 2018 Formula 1 season on Sunday at Spa, moving to within 17 points of drivers’ championship leader Lewis Hamilton. It marked his first win since the British Grand Prix seven weeks ago, with Hamilton taking victory in both Germany and Hungary.

– Vettel’s victory marked Ferrari’s first at Spa since 2009, when Kimi Raikkonen took his most recent win for the team. It was also the first non-Mercedes win since 2014.

– Vettel also moved clear of Alain Prost into third place in the all-time F1 win list with his 52nd victory, the pair having previously been tied on 51 wins.

– Raikkonen’s hopes of a fifth win at Spa were dashed on the opening lap when he was caught up in the remnants of the dramatic involving Fernando Alonso, Charles Leclerc and Nico Hulkenberg. Alonso’s flying car hit Daniel Ricciardo, who in turn hit Raikkonen, leaving the Finn with damage that ultimately forced him to retire. It ended a streak of five straight podium finishes, as well as denying him the chance to score his 100th podium finish in F1 on Sunday.

– Raikkonen’s retirement meant Ferrari lost five points on Mercedes in the constructors’ championship despite Vettel’s victory. Lewis Hamilton took second for Mercedes, with teammate Valtteri Bottas recovering from Lap 1 damage and a grid penalty to finish fourth.

– Bottas was hit with a five-second time penalty after the race for running into the back of Sergey Sirotkin on the opening lap, but it did not change his final result, having finished seven seconds clear of Sergio Perez in P5.

– Nico Hulkenberg received a 10-place grid penalty for Monza after causing the collision with Alonso, whose car was thrown into the air and struck both Ricciardo and Charles Leclerc’s cars. The bulk of the impact came with Leclerc, with tyre marks being left on the Monegasque driver’s Halo.

– Leclerc said he felt “lucky” after the , but FIA race director Charlie Whiting felt it was too early to say just how much of a role the Halo had played in protecting Leclerc. The FIA is set to launch an investigation into the incident.

– Racing Point Force India technically recorded the best result for a new F1 team since Brawn GP’s debut in 2009 as Perez finished fifth ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon. The pair had locked out the second row of the grid on Sunday, just 48 hours after the team had been granted permission to re-enter the championship as a new entry following its sale.

– Having lost all its points as a result of the re-entry, Perez and Ocon’s combined haul of 18 points lifted Force India to ninth in the constructors’ championship. It has more than quadruple the points of Williams, and is just one point behind Sauber with eight races to go.

– Haas managed to dodge the start-line drama to finish seventh and eighth with Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen. Magnussen made a flying start from ninth on the grid to jump both Red Bulls before dropping behind Verstappen.

– Pierre Gasly scored back-to-back points for the first time in his F1 career with a P9 finish for Toro Rosso, coming as something on a surprise on a weekend the team expected to struggle due to its power disadvantage. Gasly stressed that Monza would be “a different story”, though, expecting very little from the weekend.

– Marcus Ericsson hit the points for Sauber for the third time in five races with a rise to P10, aided by the race of attrition. Ericsson enjoyed a good battle with Brendon Hartley through the race, the Toro Rosso driver being told to slow his rival down in order to ease the pressure on Gasly in the race for ninth. Hartley’s race was undone at the first corner as he got stuck behind the Ricciardo/Raikkonen incident, meaning he finished one lap down in 14th.

– Williams’ run without points continued as Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll finished 12th and 13th respectively. Both drivers ran inside the top 10 early on after the start line drama before dropping back.

– Stoffel Vandoorne’s home race weekend ended on a sour note as he finished one lap down in P15 as the last classified finisher, having never run any higher than P13 in the race. Vandoorne has not scored any points in the last 10 races, a streak only beaten by the point-less Sirotkin in 2018.

– Speculation about driver moves ahead of the next race at Monza continues to circulate, with Vandoorne being linked to Sauber in place of Marcus Ericsson. This would free up a seat for Esteban Ocon at McLaren, with Lance Stroll moving to Force India in turn. Robert Kubica would then step up at Williams, returning to F1 almost eight years after his last appearance. The entry list for Monza will be issued on Thursday afternoon.

– Spa recorded a weekend attendance of 250,000 for the Belgian Grand Prix, down 15,000 (or 5.6 percent) on last year.