Race - 2017 Belgian GP team quotes

Williams

— Felipe Massa finished 8th and Lance Stroll 11th in the Belgian Grand Prix
— Both drivers had a strong start to the race on the supersoft tyre with Lance maintaining position whilst Felipe made up two places to P14 from P16 on the grid
— Lance pitted for a set of soft tyres on lap nine and re-joined in P17
— Felipe pitted on lap 11 from P8 for a set of soft tyres
— Both drivers benefitted from a safety car on lap 29 and pitted for the ultrasoft tyres with Felipe coming back out in P8 and Lance in P14
— Felipe maintained position whilst Lance made good progress on the ultrasoft tyre to make up three places to P11
— Felipe is now 11th in the Drivers’ Championship, ahead of Lance in 13th. The team remains fifth in the Constructors’ Championship with 45 points

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer

Congratulations to Felipe for a great race and four points. After his difficulties through the last month with missing the race in Hungary, it is great that he could come back to such a challenging circuit and deliver a strong result for the team. I am sure no one is happier about that than he is. With Lance, one or two missed opportunities, so not a perfect race, but he brought the car home just outside the points, so it was a credit worthy result. It was a very difficult weekend up to today for the team and both drivers, so overall we were happy to put that right to some extent during the race today.

Felipe Massa

I’m very happy with the race today, it was like a victory. Great start, great overtakes, good pace for the car we struggled with yesterday, so I’m really happy and also to be able to keep the cars behind at the end. I think today was a very intense race, but I’m so happy. I know eighth place is not a nice position, looking at everything I have achieved in my career, but today the way I drove the car and the way I drove in this race, it was definitely like a victory and I’m so happy. For sure there’s a lot to understand and improve in the car, like what wasn’t working in the last two races, but I’m happy with the perfect race I had today.

Lance Stroll

Certainly this was better than yesterday, but we just missed out on the points, which was unfortunate. We got lucky with other cars dropping out, but today was definitely a lot better. It was unfortunate that I had damage at the end when overtaking Magnussen at the safety car restart. I broke a piece of the front wing and just had to survive until the end. Without this I could have been attacking Sainz for points, but it was a good race with plenty of stuff happening and I had fun. It was great to see the car was working better in the race than in qualifying.

Force India

Force India scored two points in today’s Belgian Grand Prix as Esteban Ocon finished in ninth place, while Sergio Perez missed out on points.

ESTEBAN OCON

“On lap one there was a very close moment with my teammate going into Eau Rouge. I can accept this because it was the start of the race and we were three wide, even though I got squeezed into the wall. The second contact with Sergio was too much. He squeezed me towards the wall again, made contact with my front wing, and risked both our races for no reason. It has cost the team points and it’s difficult for me to understand why he was so aggressive. I will take the time to speak to him alone and share my point of view. It’s a shame because we were in a strong position with a competitive car and we should have scored even more points from this race.”

SERGIO PEREZ

“I am very disappointed with how the race went, especially because this was a track on which we should have scored a lot of points. Two clashes with Esteban unfortunately took away our chances and ruined the race for the team. I apologise for the incident at the start, which was totally my fault. I didn’t select the start mode and I was down on power going down the hill. I was battling with Nico [Hulkenberg] and I thought I had a good margin on all the others. I moved to the right without checking my mirrors and didn’t see Esteban was there. In the second case, I think he was a bit too optimistic because there was just no room to make a move. I was covering my line and I expected him to attack after Eau Rouge – he had the whole straight to overtake me. I think we both misjudged the situation and we ruined the race for the team. After that, my car was too damaged to drive. It was a very particular situation and we have to review the incident. There’s very little to say, it was not my best race today. We need to talk about what happened and then move forward as a team to avoid losing more points.”

DR VIJAY MALLYA, TEAM PRINCIPAL AND MANAGING DIRECTOR

“I have been very happy with our overall performance during the 2017 season with both drivers scoring points for the team and racing freely. However, as much as I support competitive racing, the repeated incidents between both our cars are now becoming very concerning. Under these circumstances I have no choice but to implement a policy of team orders in the interest of safety and to protect the team’s position in the constructors’ championship.”

OTMAR SZAFNAUER, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

“It wasn’t the result we wanted and we left behind a lot of points after a collision between our drivers. This is what you get when you have two very competitive drivers who are fairly equal in performance in a decent car. It has happened to others in the past and it is happening to us now. However, we cannot afford to see this in the future, so we will ensure the team controls what happens on the track. We gave our drivers the chance to sort it out by themselves, but if they cannot do it, we will have to put some more rules in place and take the situation in our control. It’s disappointing to lose so many points when we had the pace to finish well with both cars. Until the clash we had looked very competitive: the pace of the car is something we hold as a positive because we head to another speed track, Monza, next week.”

Haas F1

Haas F1 Team nabbed a strong, point-paying result Sunday at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps with driver Romain Grosjean finishing seventh in the Belgian Grand Prix. Teammate Kevin Magnussen was poised to join Grosjean in the top-10 until running wide at the chicane in the final corner on lap 33, dropping from ninth to 17th. Magnussen rallied in the waning laps to finish 15th.

The point-paying performance was crucial for the second-year Haas F1 Team, as the tight midfield became increasingly tighter after Belgium. Haas F1 Team remains seventh in the constructors standings, but gained on sixth-place Toro Rosso even while ceding ground to eighth-place Renault.

Nico Hulkenberg was able to keep his Renault one spot ahead of Grosjean to finish sixth. Haas F1 Team came into Belgium with a three-point margin over Renault, but the American squad leaves with only a one-point lead. Toro Rosso, however, was 10 points ahead of Haas F1 Team before the Belgium Grand Prix, but the six points earned by Grosjean slashed the deficit in half, for Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr. earned a single point by finishing 10th. Fifth-place Williams, meanwhile, saw its gap to Haas F1 Team cut from 16 points to just 10 as neither of its drivers finished in the points.

Haas F1 Team’s point tally currently stands at 35, easily surpassing the 29-point total earned in its inaugural season.

After the checkered flag dropped on the 50th Belgian Grand Prix to be held at Spa, Grosjean radioed to say, “I gave it all I had.” The four spots he gained after starting 11th were very well earned. Grosjean had to make his way past his equally strong teammate after Magnussen inched ahead of him going into turn one of the 7.004-kilometer (4.352-mile), 19-turn track. As Magnussen battled the Force India of Sergio Perez, Grosjean was wheel-to-wheel with Hulkenberg. After completing lap one, Magnussen was 10th and Grosjean was 12th.

Grosjean was able to get his spot back from Magnussen on lap four before cracking the top-10 two laps later with a powerful drive past the McLaren of Fernando Alonso on the long straight leading into turn five.

When Max Verstappen’s day ended on lap eight after his Red Bull came to a halt in turn four, Grosjean rose to ninth and Magnussen climbed to 11th.

Magnussen and Grosjean both started the race on the Pirelli P Zero Purple ultrasoft tire, and while running in 11th on lap nine, Magnussen keyed his radio, saying “We need to get off this tire. We can get both cars in the points if we get off this tire.”

Haas F1 Team heeded the input, bringing Magnussen to the pits on lap 10 for a set of new Yellow softs. Grosjean followed on lap 11, with his VF-17 donning new softs as well. This dropped Grosjean to 13th and Magnussen to 14th.

Thanks to savvy driving augmented by the varying pit strategies employed by other teams, Grosjean was back in the top-10 by lap 14.

When ninth-place Sainz pitted his Toro Rosso on lap 19, Grosjean picked up the spot and Magnussen, who had scratched his way into 11th before Sainz headed to the pit lane, inherited 10th.

Then on lap 25, Perez pitted and served a five-second time penalty for cutting the corner in turn six to get past Grosjean earlier in the race. This brought Grosjean to eighth and Magnussen to ninth.

Seventh-place Esteban Ocon pitted his Force India on lap 27, allowing Grosjean to pick up seventh. Magnussen remained ninth.

A full-course caution came out on lap 30 when the two Force India drivers bounced off one another while racing down into turn two at Eau Rouge. Perez’s right-rear tire shredded after contact with the left-front wing of Ocon. Debris littered the racing surface, necessitating the safety car to pace field while officials cleaned the track.

Haas F1 Team took advantage of the opportunity, pitting both its drivers and swapping their race-worn Yellow soft tires for a brand-new set of Red supersofts. The duo returned to the race with their track position intact and poised for their second double-points finish. But just as the race was returning to green on lap 33, Magnussen ran wide at the final chicane that leads to the frontstraight. “I just locked up both tires with cold brakes, cold tires, into the last corner at the safety car restart,” said Magnussen afterward.

This dropped Magnussen to 17th and with nothing to lose, the team brought him back into the pits on lap 34 and outfitted him with a new set of Purple ultrasofts, the grippiest tires in Pirelli’s lineup. It allowed Magnussen to attack in the last 10 laps, which he did, picking up two positions to finish 15th when the checkered flag waved.

Grosjean held steady in seventh from the restart through to the finish, keeping Felipe Massa’s Williams at bay and Hulkenberg in his sights.

Winning the Belgian Grand Prix from the pole was three-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes driver scored his 58th career Formula One victory, his fifth of the season and his third at Spa. Hamilton’s margin of victory was 2.358 seconds over Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. The victory significantly boosted Hamilton’s championship effort as he cut seven points off the lead held by Vettel, who currently has only a seven-point advantage over Hamilton.

Grosjean now has 24 points and Magnussen has 11 points, with the duo 12th and 14th, respectively, in the championship driver standings.

Eight races remain in the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship, with the next event coming Sept. 1-3 with the Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.

Romain Grosjean

“It was a hell of a race. I’m pretty tired right now. We knew we could be somewhere close to the top-10, but we didn’t think we could be in there. After a few laps the car felt OK. I didn’t have a great start, but I pushed really hard. We had good degradation on the ultrasoft. We had planned for one stop. I saw Force India going for a two stop and I thought if they don’t open up too much of a gap, it should be good. The safety car came out, and then I tried really hard to get the Renault ahead of me, but it was just a little bit too fast. I’m very happy with the team, very proud. After FP1 I thought it was going to be tough, but we recovered very well. We just need to be more consistent in that tire window, the setup, and being there from the beginning of a weekend.”

Kevin Magnussen

“I just locked up both tires with cold brakes, cold tires, into the last corner at the safety-car restart. It was my bad and I’m really sorry for the team. It could’ve been a double-points finish for us this weekend. I just have to push harder next week to make up for it. Obviously, I’m at least happy that we scored points with Romain, but it’s hard to swallow right now. We’ll be there again next week. I think I would’ve had a good fight with (Felipe) Massa, for sure. I was faster than him on the stint before the safety car. I think we would’ve been fighting with him, but it didn’t happen and I’m really frustrated with that. I think we could’ve had a pretty easy double-points finish with both cars. I’m really annoyed. The car’s been working reasonably well this weekend. It’s a high-speed track and the next one we visit is as well. Hopefully, we can be strong again. It’s always frustrating when you miss out, and I think we did today.”

Gunther Steiner

“I think we’re pretty happy leaving here with six points. It’s a shame for Kevin having locked up at the restart, destroying the tires. But again, six points for us – we keep on getting points. We opened the second half of the season with points, so we hope to continue to score them. Both cars were performing well. I think we can be very happy with what we did.”

Toro Rosso

Carlos Sainz

“A fun race full of great battles! I enjoyed it a lot out there today and it’s great to end up scoring a point that we were not expecting to get this weekend! On Friday we had really good pace, but after yesterday’s qualifying we were not so sure we could achieve this today. We went for an alternative strategy after a difficult start – I lost a couple of places due to a bit of traffic into Turn 1 – and from then onwards we managed to do a good recovery. There was a lot of action going on throughout the whole race and, as a team, we did the right things at the right time. Today’s point is a big reward – it tastes like glory! – and I leave Belgium satisfied with the result!”

Daniil Kvyat

“A good recovery today, taking into account that I started the race from the very back. It was a tough race, jumping into the car in race conditions without having done much running during the weekend… But I managed well and enjoyed some good battles. Every time I was in clean air I had great pace but then got stuck behind other cars in wrong moments, especially during the second half of the race, after the first pit-stop. All in all, it’s good to finish the race after the difficult weekend we’ve had. We will now start to prepare for Monza – we’re not expecting it to be our strongest track, but you never know what can happen and we will try our best to have a clean weekend and get a good result.”

Franz Tost (Team Principal)

“Spa was a difficult weekend for us. We expected it not to be easy and, unfortunately, that was the case, especially in Qualifying. We were only able to start from the mid-field with Carlos. Daniil, already from FP1, faced problems which we could not fix, so in the end we had to change the complete PU, which resulted in a grid position penalty. After the start, both cars were in traffic going into the first corner and they lost some positions. Nevertheless, Carlos could catch-up and finish the race in tenth position, scoring a point. I think this was the maximum he could extract from the car for today. He did a very strong first stint, where he managed the ultrasoft tyres quite in a special way, which helped him to extend the stint. Regarding Daniil, he was able to gain some positions during the race and he finished twelfth. I think the Safety Car didn’t help us strategy wise, because of our tyre choice – without it, we could’ve had a bigger advantage at the end of the race. We now hope that we can score more points in Monza next week in order to protect our position in the Constructors’ Championship.”

Sauber

The Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps has come to end with Marcus Ericsson finishing in P16. Pascal Wehrlein had to retire from the race on his third lap, after having issues with the suspension on his car. The team is now heading to Monza to set up for the Italian Grand Prix which takes place next weekend.

Marcus Ericsson

“Going into this race we knew that we would not be very competitive. There were some good parts for us, especially in the middle sector. However, the lack of straight-line speed in the first and last sectors made it a difficult race overall for us. Although the track in Monza will be similarly challenging in terms of the power unit demands we are going to do our best there to fight for the best possible result.”

Pascal Wehrlein

“This weekend was a difficult one for me. We had an issue with the suspension on my car so, unfortunately, I had to retire from the race. I am now focusing on the next race and looking forward to having a new opportunity for a better result at Monza.”

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal

“Unfortunately, the race was a short one for Pascal today. He had to retire on his third lap after having an issue with the suspension on his car. Marcus’ first stints were going ok, he was fighting his direct competition – however, the last stint was disappointing. We saw that there was some damage to the car. We are now working on improving our performance for the next races.”

McLaren

A frustrating day for McLaren Honda at the Belgian Grand Prix. Both drivers made excellent starts – Stoffel moving from P20 to P17 and Fernando from P10 to P7 on lap one. However, despite initial optimism, the pecking order was quickly established, and neither were able to capitalise on their early promise.

The notorious power-hungry nature of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit took its toll, and meant Fernando and Stoffel were left vulnerable to attack on the straights. To compound the issue, Stoffel lost time during his two pit stops due to a sticky front left tyre. On lap 26, Fernando reported a problem with the engine, and the team opted to retire his car as a precaution.

A Safety Car in the latter stages of the race didn’t provide any respite for Stoffel’s race, and although he was gaining in the closing stages, he was unable to catch the tight pack in front. He still managed to put in a solid performance under the circumstances – starting from 20th and last position on the grid – and finished the race in 14th place.

FERNANDO ALONSO

“In general, it’s been a good weekend. We played a good team game in qualifying, we had a great start – taking the outside lane was the right decision – and we were seventh after the first lap. It was fun for the first three or four laps! Then we tried to defend our position, but in the middle of the straights some cars passed us without even activating the DRS.

“For sure, is not easy to race like this, as you cannot have any good wheel-to-wheel battles. It was a difficult afternoon and we were not competitive in race trim. The car was too slow on the straights and it was impossible to have any battles out there, so points were also impossible today.

“Eventually, we had to stop due to an engine issue.

“The situation is what it is and we need to improve it as soon as we can. I know the team is working day and night improving the car, and we hope we can see the results soon.”

STOFFEL VANDOORNE

“It was a difficult race for us today.

“We had a good start, but from there on it was a pretty frustrating race. From the position we were starting in too, it was always going to be tricky, especially as I felt that our car was reasonably good and the pace was there to progress, but we were just a sitting duck on the straights. It meant we had no chance to overtake anyone, and no chance to defend from the other guys behind us. It was more or less the maximum we could do today. We got to the flag and that’s probably the only positive.

“We always knew it was going to be tough, and today showed that.”

ERIC BOULLIER

“Today was a very disappointing day for McLaren Honda, despite the best efforts of our drivers. Both Fernando and Stoffel made excellent starts, and for a few laps we dared to dream of progress, but unfortunately it was short-lived.

“We knew this track would be difficult for us, but after a positive start to the weekend, we were surely hoping for a better on-track performance come race day. Sadly, our package was not up to the job and, as we feared, we were unable to keep up with our nearest competitors when under pressure on the long, arduous and infamous Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

“Fernando gave everything all weekend, and showed his inimitable talent and prowess at the start, rapidly gaining places, which he was ultimately rendered powerless to defend. Stoffel too, started strongly, but was unable to show off his knowledge of his home circuit – and favourite track – and finished the race in 14th, points too far out of reach. Nevertheless, he drove a measured, solid race and did all he could to finish in 14th despite starting from the back, a couple of tricky pit-stops and a car that was unable to provide the performance required to reward the thousands of fans who turned up to show him support at his first home grand prix.”

YUSUKE HASEGAWA

“We thought we had the possibility of scoring some points here in Belgium today, so it was disappointing that we finished the race outside of the top ten.

“After starting brilliantly, Fernando then had a tough race overall. He radioed in with what he thought was a problem with the car, and although there was nothing showing in the data, we decided to stop the car as a precaution.

“Despite starting from the back of the grid, Stoffel had good pace throughout his home race, and drove well with some great overtaking manoeuvres.

“This weekend was definitely a bag of mixed fortunes. We were able to show some decent pace in qualifying, but we still have work to do with our race pace, and we will continue to accelerate our development in order to improve our PU further.”

Renault F1

Renault Sport Formula One Team equalled its best result for the third time this season as Nico Hülkenberg finished in sixth position at the Pirelli Belgian Grand Prix. Both drivers gained positions in the race. Nico started from seventh and executed a strong race to gain one position and claim eight points. The team is now one point shy of seventh in the Constructors’ Championship. After a promising start to the weekend, Jolyon Palmer had a gearbox issue in qualifying which forced a gearbox change and resulted in a five-place grid penalty for the Brit. He started the race from P14 - due to a competitor also having a grid penalty - and gained one position to finish P13.

— Nico started the race from P7 on his Ultrasoft (purple) Pirelli tyres, changing to a new set of new Soft (yellow) tyres on lap 11 and a set of Ultrasofts on lap 29.
— Jolyon started the race from P14 on his Ultrasoft tyres, changing to a new set of Soft tyres on lap 8 and a new set of Ultrasofts on lap 30.

Nico Hülkenberg

“It was a solid day; I’m happy and pleasantly surprised. I had a poor start but was able to rectify it at the first corner with a move down the inside to have a great run on Checo through Eau Rouge. The car felt better than yesterday and we were the fourth quickest team out there again which allowed us to finish in the top six. I had some great fighting with Fernando. It was pretty hairy getting three abreast with him and Esteban. Fernando was making a move with DRS and a big tow, then Esteban had a massive overshoot so for a moment I thought ‘oh gosh, it’s not going to end well,’ but fortunately it was great racing and I’m sure great to watch from the outside. I’ve definitely got good confidence heading to Monza.”

Jolyon Palmer

“I think the race could have gone better; we knew that taking a penalty would mean starting on used tyres with everyone around me on fresh sets and that was always going to put us on the back-foot. Despite that, I had a decent start and the car was much better once we changed tyres. It was just a case of being stuck in traffic for much of the race. I had some good fights though, they were fun, but it’s a shame not to have anything to show for it. Had we started seventh, points would have definitely been achievable today.”

Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director

"Overall the team had a good race, making a return to the points, where it belongs, as fourth strongest in both qualifying and on race day. Nico equalled his season-best with sixth and despite a difficult first lap, he was able to come back strong with a very solid race strategy that was perfectly executed. Jolyon’s results were disappointing for him and for the team. The five-place grid penalty and the results today do not reflect his strong start to the weekend. We will investigate further to see what happened with the difference in pace from Saturday to Sunday.
I want to mention Red Bull Racing. Their race was one of contrasts, on one side Daniel Ricciardo showed solid pace for another podium but on the other side Max Verstappen was forced to retire. An electronic systems issue seems to be at the heart of this problem. I personally apologise to Red Bull Racing and more specifically to Max and his many fans who are as disappointed as we are. We will work closely with RBR to define a course of action and a roadmap to eradicate issues such as this one which meant they couldn’t harness their package’s potential today."

Red Bull

DANIEL RICCIARDO

“It’s always nice to get a podium for sure. Especially after yesterday when you’re on the tail-end of that Top 6, then all you think of is moving forward, so I honestly believed we could be better than sixth today. Max had a problem and then Kimi made his mistake with the yellow flag so we gained a few positions but I think after the first stint our pace improved a lot. We showed a more respectable pace today and then we had an opportunity under the safety car with the re-start and took the most of that, so I’m really happy with the result. I definitely feel for Max. He’s had a pretty up and down season and most of the time it was out of his control so of course that’s frustrating especially for this to happen at his home race.”

MAX VERSTAPPEN

“I am extremely disappointed not just because of my retirement but for the fans also. They pay a lot of money to come and watch the race, I then retire after only eight laps so it must be frustrating for them. We have had a good weekend up until today, we have worked really hard and qualifying went very well so I was optimistic for the race. Out of the last corner I shifted from third to fourth and straight away lost power, it went into some sort of safe mode. It has been a very tough year so far and we need to get on top of these problems which we will discuss as a team again. Obviously I am not a happy person so I’m looking forward to getting home. I will go away and regroup and come back with a positive attitude next week.”

CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal

“A fantastic piece of opportunistic driving by Daniel secured a great podium for the team today with third place. We felt we ran the correct strategy going into the race, as soon as it went to the safety car and it all bunched up we knew Daniel would get one shot at the restart against Bottas and he made it work. He then fended off Kimi to the end securing P3; fully deserved after he drove a phenomenal race today. Unfortunately it has been an enormously frustrating day for Max. Once again he was in a great position and through no fault of his own he has suffered another engine failure. Our engine partners have apologized and are quite aware that their reliability and product isn’t where it should be, while Alain Prost has personally apologized to Max. With that we as a team offer our apology to the mass of Dutch fans who came out to support Max at his home race.

Max is a fantastic talent, driving at a phenomenally high level at present, and he’s got great drive and determination and he’ll come through this period and this season a stronger driver. I’ve no doubt he’ll be determined to deliver his best again in Monza, despite the engine penalties we will take there, and the disappointment he feels right now, and that’s the measure of the man he is.”

Mercedes

Lewis wins the 200th race of his career

— Lewis took his 58th career victory today – his third at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and fifth of the 2017 season
— Valtteri finished today’s Belgian Grand Prix in P5
— Today’s result marks the 71st victory for the Mercedes-AMG Silver Arrows in Formula One
— Lewis (213 points) closes the gap on Sebastian Vettel (220 points) to seven points in the Drivers’ Championship, with Valtteri (179 points) in P3
— Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (392 points) lead Ferrari (348 points) by 44 points in the Constructors’ Championship
— Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director, today accepted the Constructors’ trophy

Lewis Hamilton

It’s amazing to come back into the season and start on the right foot. The Ferrari was very strong today and they put on a fantastic fight. We were both pushing every single lap and there was no room for error or mistake. The Safety Car was driving so slow that keeping tyre temperature was very difficult. On the restart, Sebastian got a good tow, it was very close. It is fun to be racing against another team and Sebastian at his best and the car at its best – that’s what racing is all about. I want to thank the team, I would not have been able to win today without them.

Valtteri Bottas

Today’s race and result were a big disappointment. It’s been an all-around difficult weekend for me. It would have been nice to at least be on the podium and score good points for us as a team. After the Safety Car restart I was on the Soft tyres, but the guys who overtook me were on the UltraSofts. I was on the back foot, struggled with grip and could not fight them. In the race the Softs are working well for us, but during a Safety Car restart there’s always a risk that other guys might have softer compounds. In a normal race we would have had an optimal tyre strategy. This has been the most difficult weekend for me, so I need to learn a lot from it because I wasn’t quick enough. I need to analyse my mistakes quickly, and then hopefully come back stronger next week in Monza.

Toto Wolff

That was a fantastic drive from Lewis to finish off a perfect weekend from him. It was a great result for the championship and a faultless performance. He defended well on the opening lap then it was a battle lap by lap to stretch out the gap to Sebastian. After the pit stop, we saw a small blister on one of his rear tyres and we had some question marks about whether they would last to the finish. Then the Safety Car came out and made the decision easier for us. We had a discussion about which tyres to fit – we didn’t have a new set of UltraSoft remaining, and the team on the pit wall knew that the Soft would be the better tyre over the stint – if we could defend in those first laps after the restart. As Lewis showed, it was the right decision, and he delivered a great win. From Valtteri’s side, we struggled with his car this weekend, and especially in traction as you could see on the TV pictures at the restart. We need to find out what happened there – and likewise, he will be the first to be self-critical about losing the positions after the restart. Now we move on to Monza. Ferrari were very strong here and we can expect exactly the same at their home race. Our job is to keep pushing, keep bringing performance to the car and to make sure we deliver all of our potential at every race from here to the end of the season.

Ferrari

Scuderia Ferrari finished second and fourth in a Belgian GP that was closely contested right down to the wire. Seb Vettel was runner-up, with Kimi Raikkonen fighting back after a penalty to take fourth. Sebastian still leads the Drivers’ classification with a 7 point advantage over Lewis Hamilton.

At the start, Seb was tucked in behind Hamilton and poked his nose alongside at Les Combes, while Kimi was tailing Valtteri Bottas. “We can go with him,” said Vettel over the radio, confident in his pace. At this point, the top five were all within five seconds of one another. The tyres were showing no signs of blistering on the SF70Hs and on lap 10, Sebastian was quickest, while further back, the pit stops got underway. Hamilton pitted at the end of lap 12 to switch from Ultrasoft to Soft, with Bottas coming in on lap 13, also going for the harder tyre.

Ferrari covered its rival’s strategy, calling Seb in next time round. He too opted for the Softs and came out behind Kimi, who was fighting with Hamilton before also pitting. But there was some bad news for the Finn in the shape of a 10 second stop-and-go penalty for not having slowed down under waved yellow flags. “A shame as the car was going really well…” Meanwhile, Seb reduced the gap to the leader to around a second. Raikkonen began moving up the order, passing Ocon to go sixth. With 20 laps to go, he slipped by Hulkenberg on the Kemmel climb and he was fifth.

Then came drama on lap 30: Perez lost his right rear wheel after a collision and struggled to stay on track and the Safety Car was called out. Ferrari immediately called in both its drivers to fit the softest tyres. The rivals reacted, but they went for the Softs and at the restart, the gaps were of course much smaller and the race was on with different compounds.

The Safety Car came in at the end of lap 33. Seb kept the pressure on Lewis, but was unable to get past, although Kimi fared better, as he and Ricciardo jumped Bottas who had run wide. On lap 36, the DRS could be used again but the gap was over the requisite one second. On lap 40, Vettel set the fastest race lap, which wasn’t enough to win, but going into Monza it’s a result that exceeds expectations.

Maurizio Arrivabene

“Going into this race, on paper at least, it didn’t seem like one that would suit us particularly well. Despite that, we proved able to fight for the win right down to the final lap. Seb drove a great race and at the restart after the Safety Car, it really came very close. It’s a shame Kimi had to take a penalty, which cost him almost half a minute, but he managed to recover with a nice passing move at the restart. The SF70H proved to be very competitive and the team, both at the track and in Maranello, worked with concentration and determination. However, we still need to improve. The next GP will be in Monza where we will be meeting up with all our fans.”

Sebastian Vettel

“If we had ended up ahead in qualifying, then we would have had a good pace to stay in front today! I was surprised how close I could follow through the whole race. So I am a bit angry at myself, because, when the race restarted after the safety car, I was probably too close to Lewis out of Turn 1. I tried to open the gap down Eau Rouge but it’s a difficult compromise. You see the cars coming behind and you know that you need to defend, instead of focusing on attacking. At the same time I know that down the straights we are not as quick as Mercedes. So, I am not entirely happy, but after all it’s been a great weekend for the team. We don’t need to be afraid of any circuit, I believe we have the best car in terms of package. There’s still something missing but the guys in Maranello are very motivated. I think we have done the biggest improvement and a big step forward. Now we turn the page on and move on to Monza: let’s see what happens there.”

Kimi Raikkonen

“Overall, we have been quite competitive this weekend. In the race the car was good on the Soft compound, while with the Ultrasofts,after some laps,I was struggling with the rear; the first laps were ok but then I was sliding around. When I saw the yellow flags I was on the straight, on the right side and I’m sure I did not go any faster than on any other lap. The penalty was not ideal, but luckily there was a Safety Car and we could recover something. I overtook Bottas and then I tried to get close to Ricciardo, but we did not have enough speed to overtake him as he was surprisingly good in race conditions, with good speed in the right places. I guess the result of today could have been worse, but for sure I was looking for more. We have to take the good things, we learned from this race and we’ll try to do better next weekend.”