Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Sunday Round Up

Sunday Starting Grid- 

1-LEC
              2-PER
3-HAM
              4-SAI
5-PIA
              6-VER
7-NOR
              8-RUS
9-ALO
              10- STR
11-TSU
              12-GAS
13-BOT
               14- OCO
15-ALB
                16-MAG
17-ZHO
                18-SAR
19-RIC
PITLANE- HULKENBURG

Sunday Feature Race-

Today's race was the first session of the weekend that started dry and on dry tyres. Most of the grid including pole sitter Charles Leclerc chose to start on the Soft tyres while only 7 chose to start on the medium.
As the lights went out Perez was immediately moving aggressively across to try and block Leclerc but into the first corner had to settle for 2nd while a fast approaching Sainz out braked himself into turn 1 and squeezed an innocent Oscar Piastri into the wall on the hair pin damaging both sides of his front suspension causing him to retire  and Sainz had a very large hole in his side pod reducing the aerodynamic balance of his car by 5%. By the end of the 1st lap Verstappen was up to 4th with Gasly also getting a great start from 12th.

By lap 3 Norris was suffering with a high downforce set up the favored colder, wetter conditions, he lost places to Albon, Tsunoda, Stroll and Russel in just 2 laps causing him to be the first to pit on lap 6, on the same lap Max Verstappen made over taking Hamilton look easy and continued on his way to catch and pass Leclerc which he did on lap 9. At the same time Sainz continued to struggle and kept tumbling down the order even being over taken by Sargeant for 10th on lap 8.
Lap 12 only the top 7 hadn't pit for fresh rubber, hoping for a safety car or a change in the weather and they got their wish, lap 15 they got the call to say ran was on the way. But before the rain started to fall Max was on the back of Perez for the lead and made the move on lap 17 through Radillion.
 18 laps in and the Ferrari radio said 4 minutes to rain and only 3 drivers had managed to keep their tyres going, RUS, GAS & STR when the rain came early. Stroll struggled and started to fall down the order and even Verstappen had a scary moment on a wet Eau Rouge on lap 22 & Sainz retires his car on lap 24 But finally the weather and the track conditions were coming to Lando Norris and he was on the move on his soft tyres but the rain had stopped.

While the track started to dry and Hamilton had overtaken Alonso for 4th, Lando was up to 7th, Tsunoda up to 9th & Ocon 10th with team mate Gasly on a one stop strategy coming forward behind him with a great move on Albon for 11th. 
With 10 to go Lewis was struggling to catch Leclerc in the closing stages of the race, but there was plenty of racing down the field with Ricciardo chasing Hulkenberg, Zhou chasing down Ricciardo, Ocons briliant move on Tsunoda around the outside for 9th place and Lando Norris was holding onto 7th with Soft tyres he put on, on lap 18. 
Lap 42 Ocon got Stroll and was only 2.8 behind Norris on very old tyres. Ocon did his very best to hunt down Norris but  the Mclaren man held on and scored a respectable 7th place when earlier a points finish seemed out of reach today. 
Max won the day, with team mate Perez coming in 2nd and LeClerc in 3rd.
Hamilton got fastest lap after pitting for fresh medium tyres while Magnussen lost 3 positions on the last lap and Gasly finished a tough one stop race that almost saw him score in both races but Apline scoring in both the sprint with Gasly then the Feature race with Ocon will surely have them leaving with smiles on their faces.
A great Spa race weekend, the best in  few years but the whole weekend show cased why we love this track so much and why this beautiful old lady of F1 should be on the calendar for many years to come.

Feature Race Result=

1-VER
               2-PER
3-LEC    
               4-HAM
5-ALO
               6-RUS
7-NOR
               8-OCO
9-STR
               10-TSU
11-GAS
                12-BOT
13-ZHO
                 14-ALB
15-MAG
                 16-RIC
17-SAR
                  18-HUL
19- SAI DNF
                    20-PIA DNF

Joanna Blackmore
​Writer @ F1 Journal