The 12 Best Moments From The Manic Belgian Grand Prix

1. Penalties galore

Before the race even started, there were some hilariously heavy grid penalties for engine changes. Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso both picked up 60-place grid drops for the Belgian GP. Fortunately, they started 21st and 22nd, and not from the exit of Pouhon…

There was chaos at the start. Max Verstappen was slow away but tried to pass Kimi Raikkonen up the inside.

The Iceman ended up finding himself sandwiched between the Red Bull and his Ferrari team-mate. The inevitable contact bumped Raikkonen into Sebastian Vettel, who went for a spin. All three lost ground with damage but continued.

3. Close one!

With half a front wing, Verstappen couldn’t quite take the usual line through Eau Rouge and Raidillon… he came very close to hitting the wall!

The mayhem continued later in the first lap when Jenson Button was hit by Pascal Wehrlein, taking both drivers out of the race.

Just one lap later Carlos Sainz Jr. found himself spinning around at Les Combes after his tyre let go on the Kemmel Straight at 200mph. The damage caused him to retire.

6. Kimi’s on fire

There was a scary moment during Raikkonen’s early pitstop when the floor of his car caught fire. What was his reaction? Probably “bwoah”.

7. Hard hit

The race was red flagged after a massive crash for Kevin Magnussen at the top of Eau Rouge/Raidillon. He lost the rear, tried to correct it and smashed into the wall. Magnussen quickly clambered out of his car but was limping slightly.

He has apparently got a cut to his left ankle but is otherwise OK. You can see footage of the shunt right here.

8. Angry Kimi

Once the race resumed again, we saw some great, close racing. One driver pushing the limit a bit too much was Verstappen. Well, Raikkonen thought so anyway after a few more close encounters. He said over team radio:

“Do I have to let the Red Bull past? He’s only interested in pushing me completely off the track.”
“Hey come on, this is **ing ridiculous now, he’s moving when I’m at full speed on the right.”

We don’t often see drivers running side-by-side through the pitlane and that’s made even more tricky at Spa by the track’s tight hairpin at the exit.

But that didn’t stop Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso from trying. There was even slight contact but Hulkenberg muscled ahead.

10. Strategy, strategy, everywhere

One of the reasons why the racing was so frenetic was because drivers were all using different tyre compounds and strategies. It all helped mix up the order brilliantly.

11. Rosberg wins

Remember Nico Rosberg? Well, we barely saw him on the TV coverage. He took a controlled victory at Spa. Daniel Ricciardo was second after a great, trouble-free drive, with Hamilton recovering to a strong third place.

Ricciardo brought the “shoey” – the Aussie trend of people drinking alcohol out of their shoe in celebration of something – to the F1 podium in Germany.

It appeared again at Spa, but this time it was podium interviewer and former number two F1 driver Mark Webber drinking the bubbly out of the Red Bull driver’s sweaty race boot. Lovely!