Vettel's Game Winning Move?

Welcome back to Formula 1 racing and wasn’t Sunday’s race a belter? All the expectation leading to Belgium was of a Red Bull team on the back foot and Mclaren and Ferrari in the ascendancy. Well Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull certainly proved the lie to that.

There was so much action and passing going on it was almost too hard to keep track, but it was a great race with a number of great drives, but I’ve picked out three which deserve to be praised and there’s no better place to start than at the top.

Sebastian Vettel – Pole to Win

Sebastian Vettel was just imperious, no one was going to get the better of him. There were problems over the Belgium weekend, not least that Red Bull had some serious issues with tyre blisters, something caused by their set up of the car and which badly affected the tyres they qualified on and would have to start the race with. Technical director Adrian Newey felt they should be allowed to change tyres for safety reasons, the other teams quite rightly told them you should have changed your set up.

So Vettel started this race knowing he was going to have to come into the pits early. In the end Red Bull called the strategy perfectly, utilising a safety car period to bring Vettel in for a free pit stop. After leading by seven seconds, pitting under the safety car left him third. He was soon past Mark Webber at the restart on lap 17 and flying after Fernando Alonso.

Up Eau Rouge down the straight Vettel was on the outside, DRS was disabled at this point, and it was like a drag race down to Les Combes, the Ferrari and Red Bull side by side. He edged in front, braking around the outside, he was through and he raced serenely on, never to be really troubled again.

This is what I enjoyed about Vettel’s weekend, he was brilliant in the wet dry conditions of qualifying to take pole position, remained unflustered by the blistered tyres which he managed well, didn’t over react when in traffic and made some good moves. There was a lot of pressure on him this weekend, many thought the likes of Hamilton and Alonso were coming for him, they don’t think that anymore as he took his 7^th win of the year and another step towards his second title.

Jenson Button – 13^th to 3^rd

I’ve a hunch that can never be proved, but I believe if Jenson Button’s front wing hadn’t been broken he may well have won this race. He had massive pace, it was only the debris from the clashes at the start that hurt him (including a near miss when a piece of body work took off his wing mirror), otherwise after having changed his nose on lap 5 which actually dropped him behind fellow out of position starter Michael Schumacher, he was the fastest man out there.

He started from 13^th after a mix up in qualifying when his team hadn’t told him the correct information regarding how many laps he could do. He was on the harder compound tyre and once he’d changed them he was on the softer compound for the rest of the day and able to charge.

He made some truly courageous moves. A double pass on Vitaly Petrov and Sergio Perez at turn 1, some great passes into the Bus Stop chicane, especially the one on Felipe Massa, where he charged down the outside to make sure he had the inside line for the next corner and obviously there were some easier ones with the aid of DRS down the Kemmel Straight.

It was an inspiring drive, but one which just left you wondering what might have been, because I truly believe Jenson Button had the car and skills to win today, but unfortunately it seems mistakes have cost McLaren again this year which a team with their experience should really be avoiding by now.

Michael Schumacher – 24^th to 5^th

Michael Schumacher had a special golden crash helmet made to celebrate his 20^th anniversary in Formula. Spa-Francorchamp has been a special place to him over the years but it wasn’t going to plan after qualifying when a wheel fell off causing him to crash within the first few minutes of the session leaving him last on the grid.

The advantage this left him with was three fresh sets of soft tyres for the race but it was still going to have to be a tough fight back to score some decent points, and could he avoid hitting anyone? On Sunday he was sublime, he was calm and collected, didn’t rush into any moves, it was like watching a seven time world champion again.

The TV cameras didn’t really pick it up, but the lap before Button pulled off the move on Petrov and Perez, Schumacher had done exactly the same thing into turn 1, as they battled, he moved to the inside and was through, but what was surely the most exciting thing was when he caught his team mate Nico Rosberg.

They were on different compounds, Schumacher on the softer tyre, but to beat your team mate when you started last was a pretty decent result. After a few laps following, he attacked Rosberg coming off the top of Eau Rouge and was soon passed him on the straight. It was good to finally see a trouble free race where he could use his good race pace, next it would be nice to see a trouble free weekend, but whatever, it was a fantastic charging drive.

The Lewis Hamilton incident

I thought Lewis Hamilton was going to be the bench mark at this race, unfortunately he went back to having unnecessary clashes. The incident with Pastor Maldonado during qualifying looked like the Venezuelan's fault but you can see Lewis move his car too. The incident with Kamui Kobayashi was just completely pointless and easily avoidable and it caused the safety car which probably helped championship leader Vettel.

Hamilton had passed the Sauber driver on the approach to Eau Rouge, but Kobayashi was able to tuck into the slip stream and began to pull alongside the McLaren when Lewis just kept coming over just before the right hander at Les Combes, the resulting clash sent Hamilton careering to the barriers and out of the race.

Lewis knew Kobayashi was there, he’d moved to the middle of the track to cover the inside. If he’d just maintained that line he’d probably have had at least a podium. However, he just seemed to forget the Japanese driver was there. On Kamui’s part, I think he turned in too early and probably should have tucked in behind Hamilton as he wasn’t going to get by there.

Despite originally saying it wasn’t his fault, Hamilton has now via Twitter, apologised for the incident, accepting the blame and apologising to Kobayashi. Hamilton’s title chances are pretty much gone and for a driver who is so good, these incidents should just not be happening.

Ferrari

Ferrari had a nice scrap between their drivers and were both running in the top six for most of the race. Fernando Alonso in particular was running strongly, leading for a time, but as soon as he put on the harder compound he just faded.

Perhaps it was back to the problem of not being able to get heat in to the harder tyres, but it’s something they need to deal with quickly, because from what was second position he could offer no defence to the charges of Mark Webber and Button and ended up fourth.

Felipe Massa had a puncture leaving him a disappointed eighth. What was a promising start turned into a disappointing end for Ferrari, they’ll be hoping for better times in Italy, their home race, and possibly their last chance to launch a realistic title charge.

Rest of the top 10

Mark Webber had a poor start dropping him to ninth, but he managed to come back strongly to finish second. It included a great pass on Alonso coming to Eau Rouge just after the Ferrari exited the pits. It was a hold your breath moment, but a very brave move from Webber around the outside.

Nico Rosberg had a fine start moving from fifth to second, and then taking the lead from Vettel on the first lap. He had a strong first part to the race but faded a bit thereafter, being the cork rather than the champagne. Although he defended well he ended up in sixth place.





Adrian Sutil drove a strong race from 15^th on the grid to finish up seventh, while Petrov just survived to take ninth. Pastor Maldonado scored his first point in tenth for Williams. After the incident with Lewis had given him a grid penalty he did well from 21^st at the start.

Other notables

I feel sorry for Toro Rosso and Jaime Alguersuari in particular who had scored his best grid result with sixth place. Through no fault of his own he was taken out at the start, a shame as it would have been interesting to see what Toro Rosso could do from a decent grid slot. Sebastian Buemi was also hit from behind after a good start causing his rear wing to collapse, a case of missed opportunities.

Algersuari’s fate was sown by Bruno Senna making his Renault debut in place of Nick Heidfeld. He’d been great in qualifying in 7^th, but his first start for over nine months caught him out when he left his braking just a bit too late to hit the Toro Rosso which actually then clipped Alonso. Senna’s front wing disintegrated sending debris flying and causing some mild chaos further down the order. Senna continued but after a penalty for causing an avoidable collision, he finished down in 13^th.

So now we’re off to Monza in Italy, the fastest circuit on the calendar and another track which is not meant to be Red Bull friendly. Another win for Vettel there and it’s surely game over.

All photos taken from autosport.com