The 2016 Belgian Grand Prix thread

[Londoner]

They're not even bothering to investigate Verstappen's blocking. The bias is unbelievable.

[Aguaman]

Brundle irks. Bring back Di Resta with the soothing tones that Barry White gave to him.

[lance_rambert]

I thought David "PUT IT OUT" Hoots and his gaggle of idiots at NASCAR were the poster children of inconsistent stewarding. Well, the stewards here just usurped that title today.

[Samster]

Arrgh they can do tire changes, so Hulkenburgs advantage is gone and we end up with a HAMILTONWINSLOL probably.

Surely Red Flag tire rules has to get ROTR this time. Thank god it looks like this is finally being changed for next season. Unbelievable.

[Samster]

They're not even bothering to investigate Verstappen's blocking. The bias is unbelievable.

Do Lewis and Max ever get penalised for anything?

[Aguaman]

They're not even bothering to investigate Verstappen's blocking. The bias is unbelievable.

Do Lewis and Max ever get penalised for anything?

Well....on Lewis.

Max, I dunno. My theory is that Brundle is controlling everything. It's not Bernie. It's Brundle. DUN DUN DUN

[AndreaModa]

Ha! So much rage on here. Calm down people. Good race, loved seeing all the drivers out of the cars during the red flag. Shook things up nicely. Fantastic result for Force India, up to 4th in the Constructors'. Good drives from Hamilton and Alonso too. Nice to see Occon finish ahead of Nasr as well.

EDIT: And I have to add, massive crowds at Spa for the first time in ages. Can't remember the last time I saw that many people there. Brilliant.

[tommykl]

Credit to Hamilton, he did well to finish third starting from fifth position.

[Fetzie]

Credit to Hamilton, he did well to finish third starting from fifth position.

Although he did well to keep out of the melée.

[tommykl]

Credit to Hamilton, he did well to finish third starting from fifth position.

Although he did well to keep out of the melée.

So did Ocon, Alonso, Gutiérrez, Palmer, Kvyat...

He only passed five cars on track to gain 18 places. I'm not saying he drove badly, but it wasn't that hard a job.

[mario]

They're not even bothering to investigate Verstappen's blocking. The bias is unbelievable.

Do Lewis and Max ever get penalised for anything?

If you are looking for a penalty imposed on track, then for Hamilton it would be the Hungarian GP last year when he hit Ricciardo - as for Verstappen, he was penalised in Abu Dhabi last year for ignoring blue flags.

I do have to agree that Verstappen did behave badly in this race - the swerving around and wheel banging was reckless, and increasingly he is driving in a way where it feels more like a question of when, rather than if, he is going to cause a major accident. Yes, he has prodigious talent and there have been races where he has been forceful but, at the same time, clean - sadly, this was not one of those races.

Meanwhile, on another note there are reports that Magnussen has been sent to a local hospital for precautionary checks after sustaining a small cut on his left ankle (which was why he was limping slightly after his crash). http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2016/08/28/m ... cut-crash/

[Paul Hayes]

Oh well, I was wrong about Verstappen - after his dodgy start it all got steadily worse!

Good race that, although it petered out towards the end. Glad to see everyone was generally okay despite all the drama - hope Magnussen's ankle isn't too bad.

Poor old Button, though - he could have had a mega result today.

[IceG]

Brundle spotted that Verstappen waits until the overtaking driver moves and then reacts, blocking him as he did on Kimi.

Later in the race, one of the Ferrari's (Vettel?) just drove up behind him and waited so Verstappen finally had to move to defend the line, the Ferarri was ready and went straight past.

If a driver has a good move, he needs to save it until it really matters, not show it off early in his career; any astute driver will now have the measure of that trick.

Verstappen has exactly the edge that makes world champions, just like Senna, Schumacher and, to a certain extent, Vettel; they are all totally selfish and ruthless and have only one goal - any team who wants to win wants a driver like that. It is not cricket but then neither is cricket any more.

[Dj_bereta]

And now Williams is in 5th. 2017 looking a return to 2011/2013 form day-by-day.

[IceG]

Saw an interview with Hulkenberg in which he was asked about the pit-lane incident with Alonso.

He had "no problem" with what Alonso did and said "it's racing, it's what people want to see".

Makes a nice change from certain diva's whinging about every little incident.

[lance_rambert]

Um. Hamilton was voted DOTD.

I guess Alonso holding off a Ferrari and the two Williams in that trash heap McHonda isn't as impressive as a Mercedes bulldozing past five cars? Okay, Alonso also got lucky with the red flag, but he should've dropped back like a rock after the restart.

Verstappen is also continuing to be a complete dipstick. Max should really chill the f*ck out here. Plus, I don't think he really has much of a case here after pretty much admitting he purposely screwed around with Kimi, short of just flat-out spinning/wrecking him, as a result of the T1 incident.

He pulled this same garbage in Monaco last year, too, didn't he?

[mario]

Brundle spotted that Verstappen waits until the overtaking driver moves and then reacts, blocking him as he did on Kimi.

Later in the race, one of the Ferrari's (Vettel?) just drove up behind him and waited so Verstappen finally had to move to defend the line, the Ferarri was ready and went straight past.

If a driver has a good move, he needs to save it until it really matters, not show it off early in his career; any astute driver will now have the measure of that trick.

Verstappen has exactly the edge that makes world champions, just like Senna, Schumacher and, to a certain extent, Vettel; they are all totally selfish and ruthless and have only one goal - any team who wants to win wants a driver like that. It is not cricket but then neither is cricket any more.

At the moment, there seems to be something of a fine line between selfishness and recklessness with Max - the fact that he let his temper run away with him and began making moves that were inspired more by spite than anything else is something that I wouldn't expect figures like Schumacher to allow themselves to do. Yes, some of the more modern champions have shown a streak of ruthlessness about the way they compete - but generally it was more of a controlled aggression that they demonstrated.

Max is in a situation where, to a certain extent, it doesn't matter if his behaviour does end in a crash every now and then - he isn't fighting for a title, the press are still supporting his aggressive style on track and he still has the support of Marko to push ahead with that sort of behaviour. However, if the regulation change in 2017 does bring Red Bull into contention for the WDC, driver discipline could become more critical - in that situation, some of Verstappen's rasher moments could cost him more dearly.

[AndreaModa]

The kid's 18 years old. His behaviour is exactly what I'd expect from someone that age. Why is it that insurance premiums for men in that age bracket are so high? Max is just fortunate that what he's doing isn't while he's behind the wheel of a slammed 2002 Honda Civic with a loud pipe on the A27!

[Nessafox]

Personally i think the bad influence on Max is really his father... Don't forget that guy is psychologically messed up quite a bit as well... (ask the Kumpen family about it....) And considering Max' age, he's defenitely vulnerable to people influencing him. An environment like Red Bull makes it only worse.
Well on the positive side, it only makes Ricciardo more popular.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

EDIT: And I have to add, massive crowds at Spa for the first time in ages. Can't remember the last time I saw that many people there. Brilliant.

You're welcome

Yes, for those of you wondering where I've been for the past few days, I was attending this race in person with a general admission ticket and it was quite an experience. I can also reveal that Max Verstappen seems to be the reason for such a huge turnout - nearly every car I saw on the way to the race carried a Dutch registration, and Dutch was easily the most widely spoken language among the spectators, not to mention the many fans wearing t-shirts with his name emblazoned on them, Red Bull shirts with the same and there were a great number of Dutch flags flying at most points on the circuit.

I also brought my camera, a couple of hundred photos were taken, some good, some bad, details and a selection of the best images to be posted in the long overdue photography thread that AndreaModa kindly started a little while ago.

I don't know if was on the tele at all, I spent a significant portion of the race at Blanchimont, also venturing towards Paul Frère Curve - where some of the best photographs were taken - and then on towards the bus stop in the closing stages for the opportunity to partake in the post-race track invasion, where I got plenty of shots of the podium ceremony, and of the very easily picked out Hamilton fans who booed Rosberg (you'll see what I mean when I have the photos up).

As for the various dramas that occurred during the race, I know the gist of what happened from seeing what cars were missing each time the entourage came around (and from what appeared to be sparks coming from the back of Kimi's car) and from which cars seemed out of position (I was most disappointed to see the Ferraris so far back on lap one), but I don't know the specifics of say... well, whatever seems to have happened at La Source after the start! However, the trackside commentary was helpful in filling in some of the gaps, which reminds me:

No one, and I mean no one is in any position to criticize the sound of these V6 power units until they've heard them trackside. I've experienced the V8s at Monaco in 2012, and I've obviously now heard the V6s this weekend at Spa, and the latter win easily for me. At Monaco earplugs were an absolute necessity lest one want to suffer permanent damage to their hearing. On the one hand, the scream of those V8s really gave the F1 cars a presence and I'm glad to have had that experience, but it rendered the trackside commentary utterly useless and, as I was sitting at the main straight with no real view of the action, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. You don't need earplugs at all for the V6s, they're still very loud, but not painful unless you have ultrasensitive hearing. The GP2 cars (which I also watched on Saturday) are about the same decibel level and, obviously, are also quite easy on the ears. I also noticed just how distinctive these engines sound, particularly the Ferraris, with their low growl, truly befitting of such a proud name in motorsport.

All in all it was a wonderful experience. Say what you want about Max Verstappen, but from what I saw this weekend, he's definitely doing good for the sport in the position he's in.

[AndreaModa]

No one, and I mean no one is in any position to criticize the sound of these V6 power units until they've heard them trackside. I've experienced the V8s at Monaco in 2012, and I've obviously now heard the V6s this weekend at Spa, and the latter win easily for me. At Monaco earplugs were an absolute necessity lest one want to suffer permanent damage to their hearing. On the one hand, the scream of those V8s really gave the F1 cars a presence and I'm glad to have had that experience, but it rendered the trackside commentary utterly useless and, as I was sitting at the main straight with no real view of the action, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. You don't need earplugs at all for the V6s, they're still very loud, but not painful unless you have ultrasensitive hearing. The GP2 cars (which I also watched on Saturday) are about the same decibel level and, obviously, are also quite easy on the ears. I also noticed just how distinctive these engines sound, particularly the Ferraris, with their low growl, truly befitting of such a proud name in motorsport.

Good to hear you had a nice time. Spa is definitely on my to-do list at some point in future. I paid a visit to the track over the Easter weekend in 2015 and it's a beautiful part of the world. Hard to imagine what it must be like during a GP!

As for the sound, I said the exact same thing when I first heard the new engines at Silverstone in 2014. Well said.

[FullMetalJack]

Verstappen believes that he was the victim, the delusion is strong.

[Rob Dylan]

Shades of Hamilton 2011. Sure, some of the incidents that are occurring aren't Max's fault, but one cannot argue that he is constantly involved in incidents. The incidents are always involving him.

[CoopsII]

I nommed Maxy for ROTR because he himself bathplug up the chance of a decent result, maybe even the win, and my comment regarding his bad-boy status was mostly aimed at those quarters attempting to spin him into such.

He'll be fine. I'm reasonably sure he won't end up killing anyone.