Lewis Hamilton stormed to victory in 2015, from Nico Rosberg and Romain Grosjean. Here is the race weekend in images. All of the images featured in this piece are courtesy of Octane Photographic. See more of their work here.
Rosberg ended second practice fastest, even though he dramatically exited the session with 26 minutes remaining. He suffered a right-rear tyre failure on the run to Blanchimont and was lucky to not hit the wall.
Unsurprisingly, both McLaren drivers were eliminated from qualifying in the first segment. Felipe Nasr was 16th for Sauber, ahead of Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Roberto Merhi and Will Stevens.
Despite showing strong form in practice, Daniil Kvyat was one of five drivers to drop out of qualifying in the second session. He was 12th fastest, behind Nico Hulkenberg and ahead of Ericsson.
Kimi Raikkonen suffered a reliability issue in Q2 and failed to run. He was 14th, with Max Verstappen - who had a 10-place engine change penalty - not setting a time and rounding out the Q2 drop-zone.
Lotus put in a strong performance in Q3. Maldonado was eighth, while Romain Grosjean impressed and qualified in fourth. However, a gearbox change dropped him five places on the grid.
Hamilton secured his sixth consecutive pole position, from Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas. Behind Grosjean, Daniel Ricciardo was sixth, ahead of Felipe Massa, Maldonado, Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz Jr. Sunday
Hulkenberg and Sainz Jr hit trouble before the race had even started. The former caused an extra formation lap and failed to compete in the Belgian Grand Prix, while the later re-joined but later retired.
Hamilton held on to first into Turn 1, with Perez and Ricciardo storming up to second and third. Rosberg fell to fifth, but moved ahead of Bottas at the end of the opening lap.
Vettel found his way past Bottas at the start of the second lap. He eventually moved up to third but an attempt at a one-stop strategy failed. He picked up a puncture with one lap to go and fell to 12th.
Perez and Ricciardo battled closely early on, but both dropped behind Rosberg at the first round of pit stops. The two continued to fight before Ricciardo retired on lap 20.
Grosjean put in a great drive to move up the order and was promoted to third when Vettel suffered his puncture. It was the Frenchman's first podium since the 2013 US GP.
Hamilton took a controlled win in Belgium, his second at Spa and sixth of the season. Behind Grosjean, Kvyat and Perez completed the top five. Massa, Raikkonen, Verstappen, Bottas and Ericsson rounded out the points.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.