2017 Formula 1 Pirelli Belgian Grand PrixFormula 1

[Jimlaad43]

The now traditional and agonising F1 summer break approaches its end, and we return again to Spa-Francorchamps, which is holding its 50th Formula 1 World Championship event. Ferrari and Mercedes are very close to each other, as they have been all season, and it's anyone's guess who will win here. It's a traditionally strong track for Kimi Raikkonen, will he finally score a win for the Scuderia again? Will Max Verstappen perform well infront of the strong Dutch crowd that will travel down? Will Honda's engines survive the length of the race? We'll find out at the BELGIAN GRAND PRIX

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

First Race
1950

Laps
44

Circuit Length
7.004km (4.352mi)

Race Length
308.176 km (191.492 mi)

Lap Record
1:47.263, Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull - Renault) 2009

2016 Results
1: Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
2: Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull - Tag Heuer)
3: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)​

 

[Liquid]

Verstappen out at La Source.

 

[Pezzarinho17]

Becoming tradition for McLaren at Belgium it seems. Vandoorne has a 35 place grid penalty before any of the parts even have a chance to fail...

 

[BrainsBush]

I scared the hell out of me. Installed F1 2017 and at the main screen on my PS4 a message suddenly pops up: Max Verstappen broke his nose. WHAT??? Aaaah it is a challenge to replace Max virtually. phew what a relieve.

This weekend Spa turns fully orange for Dutch Max and McLaren Stoffel. This is going to be another great and fun GP weekend!

 

[DesertPenguin09]

I can't believe it's been a whole year since the last one and I remember the T1 Kimi/Vettel incident like it was last week!

 

[Jakedog23]

I can't believe it's been a whole year since the last one and I remember the T1 Kimi/Vettel incident like it was last week!

That was Max's fault

 

[DesertPenguin09]

Nope lol

 

[Bram Turismo]

Hoping for a Ferrari win, Max on the podium, and Stoffel taking a point or two.

 

[watertank]

That was Max's fault

Vet just chopped his teammate off. Ves was out of track by that point and divebombing Rai, but the contact wasn't his fault

 

[baldgye]

I'm really hoping we get warm conditions for Quali, really excited to see what these 2017 monsters can do in the best conditions possible on Ulta's... I'm hoping we get to see Pouhon flat

 

[Kurei]

Why orange?, is it a Belgian thing?

I keep thinking KTM became a sponsor or something.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Why orange?, is it a Belgian thing?

I keep thinking KTM became a sponsor or something.

Dutch national colour

 

[Eva]

Dutch national colour

House of Orange if I'm correct is where that comes from?

 

[Dennisch]

65 place grid penalty for Stoffel.

 

[Eva]

65 place grid penalty for Stoffel.

He'll be starting the race from Silverstone now.

 

[BrainsBush]

These two pros are competing others and each other but they are also good buddies. They're having a lot of fun together. Good example!!
And this is not only in front of the camera. BTW Dutch legalized plant?

http://www.redbullracing.com/video/view-top

 

[TenEightyOne]

Mark Webber meets Lincolnshire's most celebrated autist, the one-and-definitely-only Guy Martin. That made for uncomfortable viewing

 

[SuperDiscoDaz]

He'll be starting the race from Silverstone now.

Some one did a rough estimate of where he'd actually be starting if they had grid places on the track and it's near the rumble strips on the exit of blanchimont.

 

[superwally]

Sitting here with the F1 app and watching the broadcast of qualifying, I realized that racing coverage has more to gain over traditional stick-and ball sports with modern media. When you watch most sports, you see the team or players you want regularly during the broadcast, and the stats they accumulate are displayed on screen at somewhat regular intervals.

With racing, you could watch an entire broadcast and never hear or see a thing about the team or drivers you might be interested in, unless they run at the front, or something negative happens. Now, I can see every sector, lap, tire, etc. for whatever team and drivers I want. All I need is access to driver in-car feeds for viewing, and I'd never miss a race. I think that's the next level-if you want to show the casual viewer why racing is great sport, show them what the drivers are doing. It's art out there, people need to see it.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Stonking laps from Hamilton and Vettel - going to be an interesting first lap if nothing else.

 

[DesertPenguin09]

Has anyone seen the new documentary about Williams F1? It's more about Frank Williams himself and then his accident but it's great to see the passion from his point of view. I totally look at him in a different way now.

 

[TheElbows]

I was thinking about this when they mentioned the 65 place penalty for Stoffel. It would make sense to me that a car removed from the back of the grid should start from the pit lane, with an X-second penalty for each additional space. Perhaps one second, even less. Meaning if you're 65 spots back you'd start from pitlane some 35-40 seconds after the field. It's the only way I can think to give the penalties teeth (short of carrying them over to another race).

 

[DesertPenguin09]

Or just get rid of the penalties and change the rules that were set up in a different era to prevent high costs. Now instead of having a spare car ready to go they have to build and replace every part of the existing car. Tell me how that's more cost effective.

 

[TheElbows]

Oh, I agree. I understand the limits placed on engine components (no one wants to see the costs return from having 120% max'ed out qualifying engines which blow up after 3 laps). The spare car makes no sense to me - as they have a "spare car" already, but they have to waste 12-16 hours building it. I feel they should simply apply a penalty for using it, or keep them from abusing the presence of a spare car. There's no money saved with that decision.

 

[GTPNewsWire]

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

2017 Formula One Pirelli Belgian Grand Prix — Qualifying Results

This article was published by Michael Leary (@Terronium-12) on August 26th, 2017 in the Formula One category.

 

[GroupB]

Seb's time is a bit misleading, as he got a huge pull from Kimi, who had already bailed and had nothing to lose by helping out.

 

[DesertPenguin09]

Alonso's car was confused by him going flat out through Pouhon so it didn't give him the power he needed for the next few turns and he had to abort the lap because he was off pace. He says without these problems they can be P1 and P2 easily. I hope he's more than just trying to boost confidence in the team.

They seem to --when consistently not blowing up-- to get into Q2 comfortably and on many occasions pushing at the door of Q1 or even at the back of the party there. Hell, even with the problems Alonso qualified P11 and he gets to start on new tires which is a bonus. And we know how good he is at overtaking on the first lap...

 

[sems4arsenal]

Seb's time is a bit misleading, as he got a huge pull from Kimi, who had already bailed and had nothing to lose by helping out.

Was hardly a huge pull.

 

[GroupB]

Was hardly a huge pull.

Vettel estimated it was good for two tenths, which would have given him pole had Hamilton not improved, and may have made the difference in getting ahead of Bottas for second.

 

[NotThePrez]

Apparently Alonso is so awesome that his McLaren couldn't handle it.

The TL;DR is that up until qualifying, Alonso would lift when going through Pouhon, and the car would respond by deploying it's energy system. During Q2 he took it flat out and the car didn't delpoy the energy system. Had he lifted, he might've gotten into Q3.