Grand Prix 2019 Belgian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

If you say the word Spa to most women, the vast majority would probably think of a luxury place where they can get a massage, facial, manicure and pedicure or any number of other beauty treatments. Not me though, for me if you say the word Spa my eyes light up and I think of probably the best race track on the current F1 calendar. This is a track where over the years we've had a lot of exciting races full of thrills a spills. A track which if you ask the drivers to name their favourite circuits, it will most likely be in the top three they come up with. A drivers track, a track with history and a classic that seems to mean more when you finish first. Congratulations you’ve just won Spa!!

Spa has always been a challenge but even in the years I’ve been watching F1 it’s been sanitised to some degree. The Bus Stop when you almost used to stop and indicate to turn off onto a small side road before rejoining the track was always something I enjoyed, that is long since gone. Thankfully Eau Rogue is still something of a challenge but even that is not what it used to be. Most drivers will tell you that it’s still a hell of a corner but often these days they take it flat. Yet think back a few years and most people would look at you like you needed your head testing is you even suggested such a thing.

In 1998 Jacques Villeneuve tried taking Eau Rouge flat and crashed his Williams Mecachrome spectacularly, nothing that remarkable there, a lot of people have done so over the years. It was a pretty heavy crash but he was quickly out of the car and back to the pits again. Did he learn from it though? Did he hell?

Fast forward to 1999 and Jacques is with BAR, his team mate is a young Ricardo Zonta and the two drivers got talking. Apparently they came up with a bet or dare, call it what you will and the fans who watched qualifying that year were in for a sight they wouldn’t forget, I was one of them. As a Jacques Villneueve fan I was on the edge of my seat as he set off, I recalled all too clearly what had happened the year before.

Apparently Villeneuve dared Zonta to take Eau Rouge flat. As I say, these days it seems unremarkable, back then it almost seemed like a death wish. Villeneuve went out first and attempted to take the corner flat, just as he’d said. Much as in 1998 he tried and failed. His crash was worse than 1998, he was heard to comment afterwards ‘at least I rolled it’. His younger and much less experienced team mate then went out. Even after seeing what had happened to Villeneuve, Zonta stuck to his word and he too attempted to take the corner flat, his crash was even worse than Villeneuve’s. I do recall the look of total disbelief on Craig Pollock’s face at what his two drivers had done to his teams' cars. Both drivers thankfully walked away from their wrecked cars and a lesson was learnt, no, you couldn’t take Eau Rouge flat at that time, but it hadn’t stop them trying. You have to wonder why they tried it in the first place, bravado? Stupidity? That need to be on 'the edge' as Jacques himself used to say? The thrill of pushing man and car to the limit? It could be any or a combination of all of these things, I just remember it was both exciting and yet horrifying to watch them try it at the time.

Spa is also subject to the weather effect, catch your pitstop just right as it begins to rain and you’re a hero, miss that pit entry just as the heavens open and the likelihood is your race is ruined, mostly just due to the length of the track as it's the longest on the current calendar. By the time you've tiptoed all that way back around to the pits again, it's probably too late to save your race. That is part of the joy and agony of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit and what makes it still one of the races in the season that I, and most likely a lot of you, most look forward to, probably a lot of the drivers do too. It always offers up the chance of a brilliant race and thankfully it still sometimes produces one too.

Last year your pole sitter was Hamilton and the podium was as follows. 1st Vettel, 2nd Hamilton, 3rd Verstappen.
Who will be there this year? Would anyone bet against a Mercedes winning the race? Earlier in the season I'd have said no, but with Max Verstappen driving his socks off in a resurgent Red Bull, plus hopefully a threat from either of the Ferrari drivers, it's far from a foregone conclusion. That is just how we like it

Edited to add the banner, we used to have a banner at gp.com for each race, I thought I'd add one of them to this thread and then I forgot to do it, until now ;)

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crofty has made me feel old
Zip it, boy! You're about the youngest poster on here i think.

Yeah it looks like Albon is on it from what I saw, he was within 0.07 of Max when I last saw the timings. That is very impressive for his first time out in that car I'd say.
As good a start as he could hope for and, Gasly more than 0.3 behind Kvyat...

edit - i was a little slow there Angel clearly!
 
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Second practice doesn't look any better for Gasly does it? He's still behind Kvyat, though to be fair to him he's in a new car to him I suppose.

How will Ferrari prevent their drivers from winning here? On recent form they're bound to mess something up and do it one way or another.
 
As much as I'm looking forward to the race, albeit unable to watch as I'm on holiday (aww poor me), I have almost zero interest in Fridays anymore. I feel compelled to find out what';s happened in P1 and P2, but it's almost always the same meaningless list of result. Oooh Ferrari look good. Ooh Mercedes look dominant / challenged / whatever. Oooh look at the midfield – they're still the midfield. Oooh.

Pah rubbish - change it up, make Friday more interesting or do away with it altogether and save some cash. Quali would still be quality without P1 and P2.
 
Was practice ever interesting? On occasion, perhaps. In years when the teams are close and performance ebbs and flows from track to track i guess it can be...
 
Friday's have always been shit. That's why they were never on TV. It's practice. You don't get live TV coverage of Usain Bolt's training sessions or warm up so not sure why practice is shown anyways.
 
i got to say on holiday it did make qualifying more exciting. having seen nothing before hand

but it does give them time to discuss F1 matters in more detail. which came in handy discussing all events of the last 2 weeks. is great to listen too if not riveting on track
 
Hamilton in the wall, had a wheel on kerb & lost the car. couldn't get it back on under control. I wouldn't say that this will have championship implications because he is 62 pts clear in the championship & he has got the trophy at home already engraved as a 6 time world champion but its potentially set back for qualifying & so the race. huge boost for ferrari

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verstappen got that lap in the nick of time. 20 secs later he was starting 18th. & ive seen more engine failures this weekend than ive seen all season
 
I’m confused. I thought someone on here said that Kimi wasn’t racing this weekend. But here he is in quali 3
 
I’m confused. I thought someone on here said that Kimi wasn’t racing this weekend. But here he is in quali 3

he was a doubt as he pulled a muscle. obviously alfa were worried enough to bring Ericsson across the Atlantic who should've been in indycar
 
that was absolutely sublime from Leclerc 12 months i was probally his biggest cheerleader for move to ferrari. he even surprises me how good he could be. pole & outqualifying his 4x world champ teammate by 3/4 sec is just incredible. you have to go back to 2018 Australian qualifying for last time a driver took pole by that margin

bar singapore, i cant remember the last time i saw mercedes that far off pole in hybrid era
 
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