(Florent Gooden DPPI for Renault Sport F1)
Infiniti Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo took a surprise victory in today's Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa Francorchamps circuit following a dramatic race. The race started under a cloud for the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton as the pair collided which resulted in a puncture for Hamilton that would later lead to the 2008 world champion having to retire from race denting his championship hopes. Speaking after the race Ricciardo stated:
'You know everyone was saying we didn’t really have a chance around here, but I think we had some really good pace today and surprised ourselves. It feels a bit surreal, but another win is very cool, very cool. It was difficult staying out at the end of the race. When you’re the leader as well you always feel like you’re the most vulnerable when it comes to a pit stop or not, but Simon my engineer came on the radio and said I think it’s 11 laps left, can these tyres get to the end?
And I said I think I can keep more or less this pace, and we were able to, and then on the last lap I found a couple more tenths, so I was having a bit of fun then! There’s been a lot of good things about the win today, obviously the last two came from a more aggressive style of race, but today was more calculated and it was nice to win under different circumstances.'
After starting the race from pole position Nico Rosberg went on to finish the race in 2nd place finishing the race just ahead of the Williams Martini Racing's Valtteri Bottas who drove a spectacular race to finish on the podium for the team having started the race from 6th place on the grid. The Finn has now secured four podium finishes this season as the Williams revival continues.
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen had his strongest race of the season following a difficult start to 2014. The Finn who has won the Belgian GP four times. The Finn ended the race in fourth place. The Iceman finished the race just ahead of reigning world champion Infiniti Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel. The reigning world champion commented:
'Towards the end of the race was good, I was in a rush to get through because the laps were going down and obviously Alonso and Magnussen didn’t have fresh tyres, so Jenson and me caught them fairly quickly. In the end it was good not to lose a position compared to when we decided to pit, which was probably a little bit late, but in the end we maintained the position.
The battle was fairly interesting, it was a bit all over the place with people pushing each other off on the track, but we race hard, although sometimes maybe a bit too hard! The team did a great job in the pit stops, three perfect stops, they felt really quick.'
Infiniti Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner commented:
'A phenomenal performance today to get our 50th win. Of all the tracks to win at, Spa was one of the ones that we didn’t expect to! Daniel drove an incredible race and had good pace throughout; it got very close at the end there with Nico, but he just managed to hold on and have enough in hand to get to the chequered flag first. Sebastian, after a great start, was racing with Bottas, we didn’t want to get undercut so we pitted quite aggressively with him to make sure we stayed ahead of him but thereafter we seemed to struggle with pace, so whether there’s some damage with the car or not we really need to look into, but it wasn’t Sebastian’s fault today.'
McLaren's Kevin Magnussen had a great race for McLaren finishing the race in 6th place just ahead of team mate Jenson Button to give the Woking based team a good haul of point's which now puts the team back ahead the Sahara Force India team into fifth place in the Constructors championship.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was handed a five second penalty prior to the start of the race as the team were working on his car on the grid when they shouldn't have been. The Spaniard finished the race in 8th place just ahead ahead of Sahara Force India F1 Team's Sergio Perez. Speaking following the race Sergio Perez who moves up to 8th place after Kevin Magnussen was penalized for an incident with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso commented:
'Somehow I avoided all the crazy battles that took place today because my race was quite straightforward. I went flat out and I think we achieved the most that was possible from the race. I lost a bit of time in the second stint, having to pass the two McLarens and I took a bit too much out of the tyres, which cost me some time later in the stint. In the final ten laps I was under a lot of pressure from Kvyat: he was catching me quickly, but I managed to hold him off. In the end, we got some points out of this weekend and that's the important thing.'
Daniil Kvyat did a fantastic job for the Toro Rosso team as he rounded out the top ten. Nico Hulkenberg drove a brilliant race to recover from a disappointing qualifying yesterday where he started the race from 18th place and finished the race in eleventh place just missing out on a collecting a world championship point. The German moves up to 10th place to pick up a point and stated after the race saying:
'It’s a shame to miss out on points today but I guess I paid the price for the mistakes yesterday [in qualifying] which gave us so much ground to recover in the race. My start was not great, but I was able to gain a few positions on the first lap. After that I had good pace, but it was hard to show it because I was stuck in heavy traffic. There was a train of cars in the midfield with everybody using DRS and making it very difficult to overtake. I think that’s where we lost the most time today and it stopped me from scoring points. I was closing quickly on Kvyat at the end and I was very close, but I probably needed an extra lap to be able to get ahead.'
Sahara Force India's deputy team principal Robert Fernley commented:
'Considering the issues we had in qualifying yesterday, it’s good to see the team recover some ground today and score points. The two-stop races for Sergio and Nico went to plan, without any significant issues, but starting outside the top ten meant we were always going to face an uphill struggle this afternoon. Both drivers were caught in the midfield train of traffic and that made it difficult to demonstrate our true race pace, especially early on. Sergio drove a very mature race and picked up a couple of points, while Nico came close to claiming the final point. We remain in a strong position in the championship and hopefully Monza will give us a better opportunity to show our potential and get both cars in the points.'
Jean Eric Vergne finished the race in 11th place just ahead of the Williams Martini Racing car of Felipe Massa who was left disappointed after finishing the race in 13th place when his team mate Valtteri Bottas finished on the podium.
The Sauber F1 Team leave the Belgian Grand Prix in search of their first point of the season as Adrian Sutil finished the race in 14th place with his team mate Esteban Gutierrez finishing the race in 15th place. Speaking after the race Sutil said:
'It was an exciting race, but 14th was the maximum today.Unfortunately, I got stuck behind Felipe (Massa). As I came in for the pit stop, he also went in at the same time. In some sectors on track Iwas faster than him, but on the straights he was just too fast. Felipe’s engine was simply too strong and I could not overtake him. We then decided to race with a three-stop-strategy, which in the end was the right choice. I felt more comfortable with the soft compound in comparison to the medium tyres. I am satisfied with the procedures over the weekend. The team did a good job without making any mistakes.”
Esteban Gutierrez in the second Sauber commented by saying:
'It was a tough race. The race strategy was to attack straight from the beginning on. Unfortunately, it did not work out as expected, but at least I was able to gain some positions during the first laps. Throughout the race I struggled a lot with the medium tyres. This aspect made things complicated and put us in a difficult position. Our pace was too slow to finish the race in the points. We need to keep working to be in the top ten as soon as possible.'
Sauber team principal Monisha Keltenborn commented:
'The whole crew delivered a race without any mistakes. However, it is disappointing to see that on a track where power and top speed are crucial, we were simply not fast enough. For the upcoming events it will be important for us to build on the improvements that we were able to make recently on the chassis side during the last few races.'
The Swiss team's head of track Engineering Giampoalo Dall'Ara concluded by saying:
'This was a disappointing result after a reasonable race. We expected that we would struggle in dry conditions, and we finally achieved more or less what we could expect. We tried something with Adrian‘s strategy, starting on the medium tyre, which was clearly slower than the soft. This was working until he got stuck behind Felipe Massa. We then decided to switch to a three stop strategy, which didn’t work out because Adrian got stuck behind slower cars. In the end, our drivers finished behind each other.'
Max Chilton finished the race in 16th place just ahead of the Caterham of Marcus Ericsson. It was a disappointing race for Jules Bianchi who started the race from 16th place as he was forced to retire from race. Andre Lotterer was left disappointed as he retired from the race in the early stages of the event.
It was also a disappointing race for the Lotus F1 Team as both Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado were forced to retire from the race.
Drivers Championship Standings
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes AMG F1 Team 220 Points
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG F1 Team 191
3 Daniel Ricciardo Infiniti Red Bull Racing 151
4 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 119
5 Valtteri Bottas Williams Martini Racing Team 110
6 Sebastian Vettel Infiniti Red Bull Racing 98
7 Nico Hulkenberg Sahara Force India Formula One Team 70
8 Jenson Button McLaren Mercedes 68
9 Felipe Massa Williams Martini Racing Team 40
10 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 39
11 Kevin Magnussen McLaren Mercedes 37
12 Sergio Perez Sahara Force India Formula One Team 31
13 Jean Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 11
14 Romain Grosjean Lotus F1 Team 8
15 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 7
16 Jules Bianchi Marussia F1 Team 2
Constructors Championship Standings
1 Mercedes AMG F1 Team 411 Points
2 Infiniti Red Bull Racing 254
3 Ferrari 160
4 Williams Martini Racing Team 150
5 McLaren Mercedes 105
6 Sahara Force India Formula One Team 103
7 Scuderia Toro Rosso 18
8 Lotus F1 Team 8
9 Marussia F1 Team 2
© Ben Johnston 2014
