The Formula One season hosts its greatest irony every August; that its race in Belgium is famous and successful partly because it is built into the side of a hill. And while the supposed difficulty of naming 5 famous Belgians is a cliché, naming 5 famous corners at Spa is easy. Pouhon, Stavelot, Blanchimont, Bus Stop and La Source, for example. There's a lot of debate about that other corner's difficulty in 2014's F1 cars, but Eau Rouge is and always will be an inspiring sight.
The battle at the front is, as always likely to involve Mercedes cars. Lewis Hamilton has won the Belgian Grand Prix a number of times more than 0 and less than 3 in the past, but will surely hope to actually be in with a sniff of victory after Saturday's qualifying session. Rosberg's run of poles has been rather unchallenged more recently, but his last few opposed sessions have also resulted in starts from the front. He has an 11 point lead to defend, which makes this rather more fun than certain other teams dominating.
Who is most likely to challenge? Or, even more likely, finish third? Well, on a high-speed circuit such as this, Mercedes customers surely must stand a massive advantage, meaning Williams in particular look likely to take out that second row, unless more poor prime tyre work as they did in Hungary. It is traditionally Force India's best chance to take the good points at Spa and Monza too, so watch out for them.
Red Bull and Ferrari are, as usual, most likely to lead the charges for their respective engines. Ferrari seem to have decided to coincide their perennial bloodletting with their best result of the season, which is an odd choice, while Seb Vettel will be hoping to come good on the promise of the last two weeks and finally start to beat Ricciardo. It is a better circuit for the Bulls than Christian Horner would have you believe.
With the chance of rain never zero and a range of corners guaranteed to entertain, the Belgian Grand Prix is a perennial highlight, long may it reign, and lets hope 2014 will be as good as some of the great moments of Spas gone by.
The battle at the front is, as always likely to involve Mercedes cars. Lewis Hamilton has won the Belgian Grand Prix a number of times more than 0 and less than 3 in the past, but will surely hope to actually be in with a sniff of victory after Saturday's qualifying session. Rosberg's run of poles has been rather unchallenged more recently, but his last few opposed sessions have also resulted in starts from the front. He has an 11 point lead to defend, which makes this rather more fun than certain other teams dominating.
Who is most likely to challenge? Or, even more likely, finish third? Well, on a high-speed circuit such as this, Mercedes customers surely must stand a massive advantage, meaning Williams in particular look likely to take out that second row, unless more poor prime tyre work as they did in Hungary. It is traditionally Force India's best chance to take the good points at Spa and Monza too, so watch out for them.
Red Bull and Ferrari are, as usual, most likely to lead the charges for their respective engines. Ferrari seem to have decided to coincide their perennial bloodletting with their best result of the season, which is an odd choice, while Seb Vettel will be hoping to come good on the promise of the last two weeks and finally start to beat Ricciardo. It is a better circuit for the Bulls than Christian Horner would have you believe.
With the chance of rain never zero and a range of corners guaranteed to entertain, the Belgian Grand Prix is a perennial highlight, long may it reign, and lets hope 2014 will be as good as some of the great moments of Spas gone by.
