Rate the race: 2014 Belgian Grand Prix

2014 Belgian Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Belgian Grand Prix.

F1 Fanatic holds polls on each race to find out which fans thought of every race during the season.

Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (10%)
  • 9 (21%)
  • 8 (34%)
  • 7 (22%)
  • 6 (7%)
  • 5 (1%)
  • 4 (2%)
  • 3 (0%)
  • 2 (1%)
  • 1 (2%)

Total Voters: 628

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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2014 Belgian Grand Prix

Browse all 2014 Belgian Grand Prix articles

Image © Red Bull/Getty

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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206 comments on “Rate the race: 2014 Belgian Grand Prix”

  1. 8/10 great fights

    1. Same here 8/10. Nice interesting race. Will the double points give Daniel Ric a WDC ?????

      The race was projected to be a boring Mercedes 1 2 with the Merc having a 2 sec advantage . But it turned out to a be a real good one.

    2. 8/10 as well – It was probably only a “6” until A) Rosberg put on new options at the end in an attempt to hunt down Ricciardo, and B) the titanic scrap between MAG, BUT, ALO, and VET in the closing stints. I was on my feet rooting at the top of my lungs for my guy, JB!!!

  2. 9 for me. Every time Danny RIC has won, the race has been an absolute cracker!

    1. Very good race. Too bad Nico ruined Lewis race. I rated it 9 too.

      1. @jcost Nico cost Lewis a win. Lewis cost Lewis points.

        1. Oh yeah, Lewis, what a whiner, my car is on fire, my brake exploded, my floor is missing, he should just get on with it shouldn’t he?

          1. If Lewis drove that lap back to the pits as a sensible driver in a car with reasonable chance for a championship in a close battle with his teammate then he would have SAVED the floor of his car. Lewis drove irrationally and in anger to get back to the pits and caused the (further) damage himself.

            Had he been sensible he could complain about Nico for hitting him. Now he can only realize he finished the job himself.

          2. @neiana David, what on EARTH are you talking about?

          3. @tino852, you forgot his most brilliant comment, back in Monaco: “I can’t see. I’ve got something on my left eye…” :):)

          4. He would have saved his floor, but been at least 20 seconds further behind. With no SC to help out, I’m pretty sure it would have been 0 points anyway, but sure there’s always a way to criticise Hamilton I guess.

          5. @tino852 @rjessalt @john-h If you read down through the rest of this page, you’ll see that David is one of those people who chooses to believe that when Lewis breathes, it’s because he wanted to steal oxygen from everyone else in the room.
            His comments start mild up here, but as you work down the page you can see he blames Lewis for everything from causing his own problems today to single handedly ruining F1 and starting strife in the middle east. It gets really old so it’s easier to just ignore him.

          6. @daved I bet @neiana thinks it was Lewis who inserted a nail in Rosberg’s front wing to destroy his own tyre…

          7. if nico was at the back of the grid in 2 races i dont think he would have made the top 8

        2. @neiana what are you talking about my friend? Your reasoning does not make any sense.

          The car was damaged and he thought he could not fight even if a SC was deployed and rightly advised the team to retire he car and save the engine because there are already marginal on that.

      2. nico is the worst wheel to wheel racer on the grid

  3. 8. Relly good race. The McLarens-Vet-Alo fight gave the race a good taste in the end. However it was a bit boring but tense at the middle. And again, too much DRSing.
    I’m also tired about all drama for Hamilton. It’s getting pathetic at this point.

  4. Rosberg is getting on my nerves..
    Hoping for 3 engine failures for Rosberg

    1. Agreed – I’m really hoping for a lot of bad luck for him in the second half of the season.

      1. How he didn’t get a penalty is a genuine disgrace. Boo’d on the podium much deserved!

      2. Why?

        Rosberg’s driving well & unlike Lewis he’s hasn’t thrown in the towel & just give up as Lewis has twice already (Silverstone & Today).

        I’ve heard radio stuff from Lewis 3-4 times over the years where he’s whining & asking to team to end his race just because he’s mid-pack after problems, Its pathetic!

        Thinking back to 2010 Vettel had a lap 1 puncture at Silverstone, He kept going & pushing scored a few points & that helped him win the championship.
        Racing drivers should never give up, They should never think about giving up & for Lewis to spend the whole race whining about wanting to give up just means in my view he doesn’t deserve to be champion.

        1. Hamilton has one fewer engines than Rosberg due to one blowing up last race – all he was doing was thinking ahead. The smart move would’ve been for Mercto retire him once it became clear he wasn’t going to score points.

          1. he have to think ahead a little bit early. If he let a little bit more of space to rosberg, he still have a car capable of passing Nico, then he wouldn’t end up pointless thinking of saving an engine. he was trying to repair the damage he inflicted himself, when he should be thinking of others way of winning races than just being quick: be a mature driver!

        2. Lewis was 60s behind the leaders after the puncture and 30s behind the next car ahead of him which at the time was 16th place. With a broken floor it was unlikely that he was ever going to catch them and get to 10th for a point, and given that Spa is very hard on engines, and the fact that Lewis already has one engine which went up in flames in Hungary, it would have been a wise decision to retire him. But retiring him with 4 laps left doesn’t make any sense from the Merc pit wall.

        3. Trenthamfolk (@)
          24th August 2014, 16:28

          Rosberg’s driving well???? He had a bad start then crashed his team mate out…. what on earth are you on about???

    2. Why? You know what’s on my nerves? Someone who destroyed his own car on the way back to the pits. If Hamilton had some sense of brains for that lap his car would have been nearly fine to take back some points, at least.

      Then I wouldn’t have had to listen to him cry like a baby all race.

      1. He would have damaged his car anyway, so far from the pits he was at the time he got the puncture. It was either further damaging the car or fall behind the lead lap for him.

        1. If you drive slow enough the tyre won’t delaminate (The tread will simply detach from the sidewall & fall off) & thats whats damages the car.

          1. And you have some inside info on how bad the tire was after the puncture. Some of you are plain irrational!

          2. The tire basically gets sliced open with the wing, since the tyre is rotating, thats why it shreds apart and once that happens which it did almost immediately your car is dragging on the road so its better to keep some speed to minimize the damage to the floor. But on a 7km track thats highly unlikely.

        2. Yes he would have damaged the car somewhat but not nearly to the extent that he did. Were you not seeing the debris covering the track? That was all Hamilton and Mercedes is still a fast enough car to finish with 1 or 2 or 3 points as Hamilton himself has shown previously.

      2. He only pushed around the back straight. I wonder if he waged on a safety car with that move, that’s what I would have done, anyway. I’m really surprised they didn’t deploy it.

        1. A little NASCAR, eh? Need a caution drop some debris out of your car… haha

          1. If you think about it, the stewards should have deployed the SC. Rosberg getting a shred of the tyre around the front of his car, Massa reported some kevlar making his car slower. Lewis was unlucky with the SC. Again. (Germany, the Sutil situation.)

          2. @gicu Yeah I was surprised it didn’t happen, as well. I have the smallest feeling the decision was based on the show and the show wouldn’t have been as exciting if Hamilton could just drive past everyone in 3 laps after a restart.

            ^ not my thoughts but the thoughts of a race director, perhaps.

      3. If Hamilton drove so slowly to the pits he still would have damaged the floor and he would be even further down the field!!!

        1. no, as the tyres would not have delaminated all the way off the rim. we have seen this before in f1, nurse it back slowly and the car survives, go too fast and you end up dragging the car on the road as the tyre falls off the wheel.

          1. I’m pretty sure Hamilton did a fastest lap on the first full lap with the mediums.

          2. Hamilton was too far back. Driving slower to the pits would not have made any difference!

      4. Totally agree, David.

      5. Sure, lose another 2 or 3 minutes getting back to the pits, then it would be his fault for driving to fast trying to catch up when his PU or brakes overheated and put him out of the race, that’s if you are a ROS fan.

    3. Yeah, it’s hard to tell whether there was a bit of malice by Rosberg, he never really had a chance, and the normal thing Rosberg would have done is to wait for the next lap, and prepare a bit better for then. Also, it’s really annoying that the team forced hammy out so long, it was evident from lap 16 that he wasn’t going to go anywhere with the damage and the time loss, that engine now has a lot of useless miles on it. I wonder how Mercedes are going to punish Rosberg, he didn’t even achieve the win in the end that would have made up for the mistake.

    4. The sad part is that the small error came from Rosberg and it is Hamilton who had to pay for it.
      Small racing incident, but big consequences.

      1. quote of the day

    5. NR is arrogant and thinks that the Mercedes team owes him the WC because he has been leading all year, his arrogance is always hidden when it comes to these incidents with LH and he always says that he has to see the footage. At the last GP he was so futile, annoyed and really didn’t want to even be interviewed about how upset he was that LH got a podium and he didn’t. F1 does not need a nobody like NR who is only in the position that he is because the Petro Merc’s have so much advantage and gives him this lead over the rest of the F1 teams.

      1. so, in your view, Hamilton is no where near to by the same arrogant asshol* that nico is? come on man, be fair! both of them behave like a couple oif little spoiled brats!

      2. I read your remarks several times and it seems that you have the driver’s initials confused. Where you have NR should be LH and versa vice…. This racing incident is very simple. LHamilton said he gave NicoR room to pass. IF this were true, then NicoR would of not run into LHamilton. The distance between crashing into each other or being a near miss was probably a couple of inches / 5 mm. Very close when racing any car on any track. Thanks, RnR

        1. well as we saw on lap 1 vettel tried overtaking hamilton the same place nico tried but because seb has a brain he backed out of it nico clearly dosnt know how go wheel to wheel racing

    6. What I’ve read: “MOOOM.. he took my toy away! He’s so annoying! I want you to punish him!”

    7. Why?? Because he’s not letting Hamilton beat him?? All Hamilton fans have this dillusional idea that Hamilton is the best god damn racer ever and he should crush every opponent but all his teammates apart from Kovalainen have shown Lewis to be just a normal racing driver.

      Personally I think this was a racing incident but if this incident was an attempt by Rosberg to draw a line in the sand and show Hamilton he won’t be jumping out of the way wheel to wheel then good on Rosberg. hamilton always been very aggressive and if this makes him think twice about making an aggressive move in Rosberg then fine. Both drivers could’ve made themselves avoid the contact so it is a racing incident.

      1. Well put Luke :)

  5. 9 of 10. Very exciting race with lots of action throughout. Not the result I would have preferred, but still very enjoyable – second half of the season looks to be a good one!

  6. Good race.

    However lost alot of respect for HAM today, and a bit for MAG…

    1. Magnussen deserved a penalty and a harsh one at that.

      1. He even pushed his team mate wide and Vettel got all of them much easier.

      2. Michael Brown (@)
        24th August 2014, 15:02

        You’re allowed to squeeze another driver off if you have the racing line, but that doesn’t mean I like it.

      3. No he does not. If his Racing today deserved a hard penalty then F1 will just be all about penalty and legal procedures. If K Mag should have a tough penalty then Vettel and Alonso, whom are both fantastic drivers, should have had more penalties in The recent races due to pushing The limits in position battles.

        1. Mag squeezed Alonso onto the grass at the fastest part of the track. Not only highly unsafe as ALO could have lost control of his car, but you’re supposed to leave a car-width with a car inside you. Penalty deserved for that.

          1. I agree but nobody seemed to agree when I wanted a penalty in Bahrain for Hamilton for doing the same thing.

    2. For me I lost all respect for MAG, he ruined a good race for Alonso and to his TEAMMATE.

      1. So holding up Alonso and Button is unacceptable, unless your are Button or Alonso? Kevin showed he has what i takes, best drive since Australia.

      2. @cocaine-mackeine, you lost the respect? Did you ever had respect for MAG? He drove very well. In fact, he, as Button, where under big pressure from their team in Spa. Results were essential. He did what he had to do. Why the fuzz?

        1. @yes-master I don’t remember any other race were Magnussen has drove well (apart from Australia) He drove ‘bad’ here because he forced his teammate and Alonso off the track, apart nearly slamming him earlier at the same corner. He got the penalty, and it could be more severe if he hadn’t completed those moves. Also when he was in a 4-wide into Les Combes he was fighting with Button and Alonso, and he nearly put Alonso into a spin at 300 km/h. That was MAG’s race.

    3. Why have you lost respect for Hamilton, is it because he wanted to retire and save the engine?

      1. I’ve heard radio stuff from Lewis 3-4 times over the years where he’s whining & asking to team to end his race just because he’s mid-pack after problems, Its pathetic!

        Racing drivers should never give up, They should never think about giving up & for Lewis to spend the whole race whining about wanting to give up just means in my view he doesn’t deserve to be champion.

        1. 16th and not gaining isn’t mid-pack.

        2. I think this kind of comment is rather mis-guided and also ignores all the evidence to the contrary.

          Hamilton is certainly not a racer who gives up. He actually seems to be one of the better drivers at compartmentalising a disappointment or mistake and moving on from it. We’ve also seen a lot of very gutsy drives from him when put in very difficult situations.

          The other point here is that whilst other drivers may get credit for their racing intelligence (Alonso, Button, Rosberg etc), Hamilton is pretty good in this regard as well and has certainly improved that aspect over the years.

          After sustaining fairly serious damage you can tell from his radio messages that he was attempting to assess whether it was worth carrying on, given he had already used up more engine components than his main competitor. Anyone who tries to make out that it’s as simple as “never give up” is only thinking about the here and now, whereas the smart driver thinks about the year as a whole.

          The only argument for staying out was the possibility of a safety car, but even if that had occurred it would not have made any difference, given the degredation in performance over time. As the driver, perhaps Hamilton was best placed to see that would happen, based on the feel of the car after the incident?

      2. The engine was his excuse to quit his job for the day. He mentally gave up after lap 2 when he destroyed his own car getting back to the pits. A cooler head would’ve saved the car that lap and probably with the Mercedes gained some points, still.

        1. When all the engine penalties start to kick in reasonable people will be saying how good Lewis’ forward thinking was, others will just look for another excuse to blame him for loseing the WDC.

        2. Given Hamilton’s track record in recovery drives, if he was unable to make anything happen from that situation, I doubt too many others would have been able to either.

          It’s all very well saying he mentally gave up immediately and went too fast going back to the pits, but that is purely speculation on your part. Having seen a number of your comments on the subject recently, your objectivetly is questionable.

    4. Absolute nonsense re: Magnussen. He was defending well and within the rules – it doesn’t matter who was trying to get past.

      1. He was defending well and within the rules

        No, Magnussen messed up terribly. Actually, on the Kemmel straight he pushed Alonso on the grass. And then, on the 2nd sector he pushed Alonso totally off the track, when it wasn’t needed. Kevin had enough place to turn, instead he forces a driver to go off the track. So no, it was not a good defending.

        1. definite penalty for the squeeze onto the grass– very unsafe. He cannot defend like that, there is a specific rule on it. Other instances are judgment calls as he had the racing line.

    5. Why? Is that a typo? Hamilton did nothingn wrong, he took his racing line and Rosberg needlessly collided. Magnussen drove a very good race, being aggressive but not too much, Alonso was too hasty in my opinion, that Ferrari is a snail on the straight and he should have tried round the outside a few corners later.

    6. Lost respect for Lewis? Would you mind elaborating sir?

      1. @jcost If you spend an entire race thinking about ways to convince your boss to let you quit, that’s not a respectable position. I have tried to say this before and been attacked by Hamfans of some sort… Hamilton doesn’t deal with emotions very well at all. This was proof positive ! Drive slower to get back to the pits, save his car, don’t destroy it and with a Mercedes there’s still some points that are probable.

        Hamilton is not that kind of driver. When he’s on, he’s on but if there’s something to be disappointed about he gets crushed under the weight of his own thoughts. It happens. As a sportsman, he can only get better if he matures in that area of his life. I felt it was about to happen a couple months ago but I was mistaken.

        1. @neiana If Hamilton drove slow to the pits he would have damaged his floor anyway considering he got the puncture so early in the lap and also he would have been further down the field if he was slow. I would have retired from the race too if I was in that position.

          1. @ultimateeuzair hey let’s check Bianchi’s transcripts to see if his car was damaged since his tire was flat far earlier in the lap than Hamilton’s, shall we?

          2. if Ham had driven any slower he would have been lapped by the time he came back out from the pits.

      2. I lost respect for Lewis because as soon as things didn’t go his own way (even if it wasn’t his fault) he switched off straight away and wanted to go home. Imo A real racer wouldn’t do that, can you imagine Schumacher or Alonso doing the same?

        1. your funny, the last couple of races he either started from the back of the field or from in the pits yet still ended on the podium,
          now because of being over half the race behind “60sec” when returning to the race your condemning him for wanting to retire.

  7. 9. Quite Exciting race. Ferrari will really have an abysmal weekend in Monza. Good race by Kimi. And Magnussen = Perez 2.0?

  8. Dumb
    Racing
    Solution
    Ruined this race :(
    I just find nothing interesting, exciting or even remotely enjoyable about any DRS pass, Especially when it makes things stupidly & boringly easy.

    1. Didn’t watch the last 4 laps, eh?

      1. Sure we did but. Watching all the great racing without DRS just made Rosberg’s and Bottas’ passes on Raikkonen and company more painful.

        1. Remember Bottas didn’t manage to pass Vettel with DRS on the Kemmel straight. I don’t think DRS was too strong, it’s just either the bad Ferrari engine or a setup with more downforce for them.

  9. Just fantastic, flat out racing then. No interruptions, no messing about, they just got on with it.

    But the BBC commentary team are absolutely awful. It was so obvious that Alonso had hit a car at La Source, and he had visible damage to his front wing, and all they were talking about was ‘turn 8’, when it was only 2 laps prior that Magnussen had pushed Alonso off at turn 5, yet they didn’t even remember.

    1. As for the crash at the start, well, it was inevitable, and I could tell that was about to happen. It was Rosberg’s fault undoubtedly, but it was obviously a genuine accident and not caused by stupidity.

      For me personally, I felt Magnussen had crossed the limit with how aggressively he defended. He pushed too many cars blatantly off, even if it was considered legal it was too extreme.

      1. @strontium Hamilton did the same thing at Bahrain to Rosberg as Magnussen did. Did he not?

        1. it’s a case of convenient memories here… good racing at the last behind the leaders, but the BBC are so pro Hamilton you wonder if they notice there are others in the race!

        2. @neiana
          David, you clearly don’t like HAM, which is your prerogative, but it’s getting tiring to hear you beat on him about EVERYTHING you can think of, real or imagined. Please give it a rest.

        3. Dave @strontium Hamilton did indeed force Nico off in Bahrain but nobody called for Hammys head

      2. @strontium when I was in driving school, my instructor was used to say “there’s not such thing as inevitable accident” I think it was stretching but I don’t think it was way out off the mark.

        IMHO, Nico Rosbeg coulf have anticipated at some point that making it work around the outside was impossible and he should back off (1) to protect his own front wing (2) to avoid a collision on lap #2!

      3. @strontium, actually I think it was a bit stupid, ROS was lucky it worked out for him (as it always seems to) it could have been a disaster for both of them, with 95% of the race to go he could waited for a better opportunity without effecting his eventual position and points even if a better opportunity never arose.

  10. 9/10. Brilliant race, full of action all over the grid. Another popular win for Ricciardo, another popular Mercedes failure – it becomes a recipe for an interesting race. Pity for Raikkonen, who was really strong this time out and seems to have sorted out his problems, but glad for another Bottas’ podium.

  11. 1 – Ruined by Rosberg being a [insert expletive here]

    Robbed of a race long battle.

    1. I liked the race despite supporting Lewis. Nico really destroyed his main rival race and got away with that.

      Lauda didn’t like it and fans at Spa were not shy about showing their disapproval. It was an awful day for Lewis’ championship fight but it was also a bad day for Nico’s reputation.

      1. Trenthamfolk (@)
        24th August 2014, 16:35

        without the fans there is no sport… our opinion counts… and we should not be afraid to show it. Nico doesn’t care because he is rich, but his sponsors will if he continues getting boo’d, rightly or wrongly! It’s Nico’s call…

    2. I hate how fans harsh Rosberg in that way. Grow Up! I think this a tense moment for the championship, but I never wish bad to Rosberg or Hamilton. It was just an INCIDENT! Get over it, please. Thanks 👍

      1. I think the sport looses a bit if fans are not allowed to show their opinion. Fans are not suppose to be cheer leaders. They think Rosberg was wrong and the only way to show that is booing, making a drama out of it makes it look like something out of this world and it clearly ins’t.

        It was a racing incident that cost a lot to another driver who happens to have lots of fans. Somehow, both Lauda and Wolff were very angry too but fans don’t have the opportunity to express themselves via interviews to BBC or Sky so they have to boo when the mic is passed to the whole of them. Period.

        1. @jcost I agree that in motorsports are fans that are one sided and can celebrate or hate someone at a different situation. It’s normal. However what happened to Rosberg wasn’t worth a booing. Yes, it affected Hamilton in the championship, but you don’t if he made a mistake. If it was intentionally then I shut up, and accept the booing.

          @strontium It’s just common sense. And yes, it was Rosberg’s fault because me made a slight mistake. A Hamilton fan would have said that he crashed intentionally into Hamilton.

          1. @cocaine-mackeine I completely agree.

          2. @cocaine-mackeine it doesn’t matter the sport, in a stadium fans have two ways to express there feelings: they applaud when they like it and they boo when they dislike it. It was hard to justify people booing Seb last yer, but today?

          3. @jcost I can justify why Vettel was booed: Because of the team orders in Malaysia 2013. Since then the booing started along the season. The real reason is: For 4 years, Vettel made Webber feel like a loser, even when Webber was told to let Vettel go on for his championships (Silverstone 2011, Brazil 2012) Apart from the collision they had in 2010, which hurt massively their relationship. And, in Malaysia ’13 when the situation was the opposite Vettel ignored the orders and got away with it.
            Now to the present, does Rosberg deserves the booing? Think on both situations, look which one has more sense than the other.

      2. @cocaine-mackeine Thank you! Somebody else who has some sense to appreciate that one-off accidents do happen! Even if Rosberg is at fault it is ultimately just one of those things.

      3. Maarten van Berge Henegouwen (@)
        24th August 2014, 18:46

        +1

    3. @djdaveyp87

      I think you’re overreacting slightly with a 1.

      1 would be if all the drivers start and finish in the same position, no battling whatsoever.

      Or were you too bitter at Hamilton’s accident to appreciate the other battles going on?

      1. I’m not, I’m judging the race on what it could have been. A potentially huge race long battle between 2 team mates in an awesome car was lost because he had to try and make it happen on lap 2. Yes there was a lot of action in the race, but there could have been a battle every lap without that pointless contact.

        10% of the action of what there could have been = 1/10

        1. By your logic you should rate it at least a 3 or a 4 because there was a lot of action covering at least 30% of the laps. Just the first 3 and last 3 alone bring it to 10% (give or take) and there was certainly action to be seen between the first and last 3 laps.

          1. apparently Hamilton is 90% of whatever race there’s if he’s not there, then it’s a 1…

    4. @djdaveyp87 There were plenty other battles during the race. It definitely wasn’t a 1. Rate the race as a whole, not just on one incident. As a Team Enstone fan, if I applied your logic, I’d have to give it a 0.

      That race was a good 7/10.

  12. 6 until the last 10 laps, +2 for the MAG/VET/BUT/ALO battle fantastic tussle. ROS needs to watch and learn about clean racing.

    Great job by RIC totally bossing a 4 time WDC.

    1. @ju88sy

      ROS needs to watch and learn about clean racing

      You kidding? He made one mistake. Yes, a costly one, but it was an accident.

      1. I agree. Months of spirited dueling and this is the sole collision. It’s really shows both drivers’ talent and respect for each other.

        1. Also Magnussen wasn’t really racing that clean. He did well, though, for a rookie amidst 7 collective world championships.

          1. @eriko, a bit of pressure from the the top seems to have that effect on McLarens junior drivers.

  13. Hamilton will leave Mercedes at the end of 2015. You didn’t hear it here first!

    1. @mashiat where did I hear it, then? I’d like to source properly when commenting on the 2016 driver lineup.

  14. 7/10. Great race that could have been horribly boring without the ROS/HAM contact at the beginning.

    8.5/10 based on the result.

  15. Well done Danny, very enjoyable race, 10/10

  16. Hmm, gotta admit that Ricciardo guy’s got something. I think he’s the coolest customer behind the wheel.

    1. The new Alonso ?

  17. TV director was poor today. We missed some live overtakes such as Ricciardo on Vettel at the beginning of the race and Lotterer & Maldonado retirements. We don’t need to see 5 replays of the start when the race is at its peak – just after the start.
    Average racing. 6.

    1. Agreed I think the race direction has been poor on many occasions this season. There is time when the initial laps have settled down to replay the start.

    2. Agreed broadcast was poor just arent used to that many overtakes

    3. I agree as well, One HD was bad missing Rics overtake while we watched James Cameron-like edits of the start, not helped by the constant Hamilton obsessed feed, I understand he’s popular but boy it just overshadows what should be a balanced telecast.

      1. Everyone has the same thing on at the same time, only different channels and languages brother.

    4. I thought the broadcast was fine.

      Lots of the overtaking was shown, Lots of the good racing was shown & nothing was missed.

      Lotterer pulled over & stopped in the pit entry & Maldonado pulled off also, Nothing really worth showing given how there were no spins or accidents.

    5. Agreed, credit to director for cutting straight back to the racing after RIC crossed finish, boo for such things as watching Lotterer walk down pit lane while so much racing was taking place on track, like RIC passing VET.

  18. Hamilton is pathetic.
    Yes, it was not his fault, it was a racing incident, but his head is failing him again. It’s same as with Maldonado in 2012 Valencia. He forces a rival into an awkward position and then, instead of thinking about the race, he is just focused on cutting them off and it always ends in tears. He should have given more room to Nico, once he already allowed him to come that close to him. He didn’t have to leave him more room, but he should have thought about finishing race, instead of winning it on the second lap.

    And then comes to moping, the sulking, the absolute disgrace. He gave up right there on that 2nd lap. So much for being hungry. It’s easy to keep harping on about being hungry, but all I see is that he’s hungry for eating his own words, over and over again.

    I went into this season pretty much indifferent of who will win it between those two, but with every race, I just keep cheering more and more for Nico.

    Lewis should take a look at how Alonso keeps fighting for every inch, even with this one more season of disappointment. He keeps fighting for every place, be it 1st or 5th. And Lewis can’t even muster enough motivation to keep going as soon as something doesn’t go his way. He just keeps perpetuating the image of a spoiled brat who can’t appreciate the situation he is in, with such a car and a chance to fight for the title again.

    1. It was a racing incident, but it was more Nico’s fault than Lewis because Nico was behind so Lewis was entitled to defend the position, and then Nico touched Lewis’s tyre and then gave him a puncture. It is always the job of the driver behind to avoid contact. Both Nico and Mercedes’s strategists threw away a 1-2 today.

      1. @ultimateuzair
        Thank you for stating the obvious, yet I thought we are here to discuss why it was such a unique situation and why you have to look beyond what basic rules say.

    2. Dumbest thing i’ve ever read.

    3. If you were watching in 09 Lawrence you were probably one of those calling Button pathetic because he let so many drivers past .

    4. Actually, Lewis was using his supposed lack of intelligence to preserve the engine thinking of the long game.

      No doubt had his engine failed pushing for nothing with a damaged floor you would probably blast him too.

  19. I would give a 10, but when Hamilton was out, the race was over for me

    1. What will you do when Hamilton stops driving one day? Stop following the sport?

      1. Commit suicide obviously.

        1. is just a irony, i’m happy with the race result…

  20. 8/10 Pretty great race. Some fantastic battles and overtakes, especially the final bit with ALO/VET/MAG/BUT. Great stuff! Shame about the Merc contact in some way, would have been interesting to have had an actual battle rather than one that was ruined by a too opportunistic move. Racing incident, but leaned more towards ROS.

    Either way, fun race, enjoyed it!

  21. Great race ! Daniel Ricciardo win again, and nice for Rosberg get more points ahead !
    Also nice to see Alonso being pass , after all great to see Hamilton out ! Ha ! Ha !

  22. Quite a race. 7/10

  23. I’ll say this about the Hamilton/Rosberg contact.

    In the GP2/GP3 races this weekend drivers have done exactly the same thing as Rosberg did by trying round the outside, However the car on the inside in every case left enough room for there not to be any contact.

    Yeah Lewis was infront but he wasn’t actually on the racing line, He intentionally let the car drift half a car width wider than normal & thats where the contact occurred.

    There’s been plenty of overtaking round the outside of les combes this weekend.

    1. ROS was not on the outside when the contact was made, he failed to pass on the outside of the righthander but continued to stick his nose into the inside of the lelfthander.

  24. I liked it, but wasn´t overly excited (except for the 4-wide moment at Kemmel). So a 7/10.

  25. I think I’m probably getting used to ricciardo wins now but still I rate it a solid 8/10

  26. 9/10. It’s not 10 because of the terrible luck that Vettel and Hamilton and Alonso had today.

    1. Gideon Hadi (@)
      24th August 2014, 15:28

      Vettel start ahead of Ricciardo and he did not have a car problem

      1. unlucky to have RIC as a teammate ?

  27. Bob (@bobthevulcan)
    24th August 2014, 14:50

    Slow-burn tension and brief lull periods punctuated by sustained bursts of high energy, especially in those amazing closing laps. 8/10.

  28. I gave it an 8. There’s something that bothers me, people will vote 1 or 2 just because their favorite driver drew the short straw.

    By the way, Mercedes (and Rosberg) snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Seriously, they were over 2s faster than everyone in the wet.

    1. And that is why Nikki and Toto are angry.

  29. great race. so far i’ve noticed a few comments explaining how they thought the race was bad because of the rosberg-hamilton incident. to everyone saying this: it’s obvious you’re a hamilton fan, but it’s not justified to rate the race low because of an incident like this. even if it wasn’t a racing incident (which it was in my opinion) you shouldn’t gve it a low rating because this was a fantastic race and the only reason you could say it wasn’t is if you’re a biased hamilton or massa fan.

    gave it a 9/10, great performances throughout the top ten. i was very impressed with magnussens defensive skills, hard but fair. i said i’ll give my driver of the weekend vote to bottas, but magnussen got me thinking. i’ll sleep over it and decide tomorrow.

  30. 8/9. Good battles, but sadly not from the front because Daniel was just on a league of his own.
    I don’t think Rosberg should have been boo’d. He still drove a hard race and racing through the field doing some good overtakes, and most importantly he did not give up like Lewis did. It seems like today Lewis completely lost confidence. His performance was not nearly as well as Hungary and Germany where he was easily able to fight from the back. Stop complaining and make the best of the situation. To be champion, you CANNOT give up.
    Great race from Kimi and Bottas as well.

  31. Amazing race, action packed, intrigue.. Nearly voted a 7 because of the abysmal FOM footage. Narly voted an 8 because my favorite drivers didn’t do too well. Nearly voted a 9 because I felt that was it. Went with a 10 just because I’m madly in love with F1 (on track) this season.

  32. 10/10 for me.

    Ric wins
    Vet does well
    Kimi does great
    Ham whines like a baby and destroys his car in a fit of rage
    Bott gets another podium

    What more could we ask for?

    1. Trenthamfolk (@)
      24th August 2014, 16:41

      A can of Monster…

  33. It had everything whether you like the outcome or don’t it has to be either a 9 or a 10.

  34. Iceman is Back!! :) truly king of spa is appropriate name for him..hope there’s more to come from the iceman..wud have loved hearing the noise of fans when he got the trophy..great race by ricciardo

  35. Matt (@hamiltonfan1705)
    24th August 2014, 15:14

    Good race action wise, bad race results wise. Rosberg takes out Hamilton and the gap is up to 29 points bcos of it, Force India have a bad race due to what they had in qually yesterday. Annoyed

  36. What if we all stopped complaining about the fact 1 driver hit another driver? Race reviews shouldn’t be overshadowed by 1 small piece of contact. How much slack did Alonso get when he hit Vettel at La Source, or even when Rosberg had a Gearbox failure at Silverstone which dramatically affected people’s scores?
    There are 22 drivers and car on track guys, not 2.

    1. Teamates collide in a tight battle for the championship… I’m guessing that’s probably more of a talking point at the moment.

  37. Great battle for 6 place and The reason to love F1. Great defensive driving by K Magnussen and just within The rules – if this kind of driving is penalised it will become boring to watch F1 and become a bureaucratic battle instead.

  38. Full of great hustles throughout the race, great drives from Kimi and Dan and Bottas, pleased to Bottas on the podium again

  39. 9/10. Still would’ve LLIIKKEEDDDDD to see vettel win, though.

  40. I would like to point out there is no way you can say ‘Nico cost Lewis a win’. All you can is is he lost a certain 18 points. Whether due to Nico or not is not my point.

  41. 8/10
    Not the greatest race ever, but a lot of things happened, some of them really important.
    Loved the battle for fifth place at the end and the first few laps were quite exciting.

  42. 8/10
    Pros:
    Exciting battles throughout and a mixture of strategies certainly made it interesting
    Kimi back on form was great to see
    Mclaren, Alonso and Vettel battle really spiced up things at the end
    No ridiculous “Bernie says” advertisements across the track

    Cons:
    DRS was a little too overpowered today
    Hamilton puncture ruined what could have been a very intense battle between him and Rosberg
    Butthurt fans booing Nico on the podium

  43. 6/10. Entertaining for the most part but not memorable.

  44. Great race, again. Spa is amzaing.
    Down side is Rosberg getting away with his mistakes again. Seeing the onboard footage it was a ridiculous mistake, and he should have been punished (i’m sure Lewis would have).
    8/10

  45. 7/10

    Good race, but I felt really disappointed, because I believe we could have had a titanic battel between Lewis and Nico for 44 laps. But unfortunately, this battle didn’t last very long. In the end, we just had a normal good race : good battles, on the track and with the pitstops. But, as soon as Nico had to pit to change his wing, for me it was clear Ricciardo would win it…

  46. Great race. Lots of drama, great drive by Daniel Ricciardo, and lots of good fights throughout the track. The best part was that DRS passes were not the major source of passes; at least that’s what I saw on TV. 8/10.

  47. Good battles
    RIC wins
    VET does well
    RAI is back
    9/10
    just hoped HULK would get some good points

    BTW, I think BOTTAS will be massive at Monza

    1. @brianfrank302
      hulk ended up scoring, yay!!!!

  48. I only have two questions:
    1. Nico been racing for so many seasons, how is it he doesn’t know that he would break his front wing by turning in on the car in front?

    2. Why didn’t Nico just go to the run off area in the chicane? He went to the run off when challenging Vettel in the final chicane

    1. Trenthamfolk (@)
      24th August 2014, 16:45

      Because he had to crash Lewis out after making a crap start…

      1. I don’t think Rosberg meant to damage Lewis’s car, but he also didn’t care if he did.

    2. Racing drivers can’t see the front wing of their car. Alonso, the seemingly most complete driver on the grid, damaged three front wings in the last two seasons. Would you say he did it on purpose?

      1. @xenomorph91

        good point, I’m guessing Rosberger just tried tucking back in, he did yield i think but just got it wrong and touched,

  49. I see that there are more comments being made about Rosberg and Hamilton then the real driver of this GP which is Daniel Ricciardo who was superb and absolutely took this race by the scruff of its neck and never let it go. He drove a magnificent tactical race to outdo the Petro AMG Mercs the Williams and the Ferraris and won this race. Daniel Ricciardo is the future of F1 and all this talk and innuendoes back and forth about Lewis and Nico are doing nothing for F1 except detracting the positives that the new drivers are doing for F1 headed by Daniel Ricciardo.

    1. They’re not detracting from the positives at all, if anything its enhancing Ricciardo’s reputation that he just gets on with it.

      There are so many comments about the mercs because the formula one world championship is clearly more important than individual races, even when it’s at Spa.

      Everyone has been wax lyrical about Riccardo, so I wouldn’t worry about him not getting enough credit this season.

  50. I couldn’t pick between 7 and 8. 8 in the end. Was disappointed to see the Mercs not battle it out for more than a lap and a corner but we had an excellent race nonetheless, and a rookie holding off seven world championships. Excellent!

  51. Lots of drama on a proper track and another opportunity seized by Ricciardo, but not completely satisfying. Too many passes were set up by DRS or timing of stops or showbiz tyres, James Hunt’s comments about TV directors still apply, and it was at the mercy of the race engineers whether we got to see a race or not. At the end with Rosberg, we didn’t. 7

  52. We’ve really been spoilt this year, haven’t we? Yet another great race, and the sort of championship rivalry that comes along once in a generation. Whatever side you come down in the Nico/Lewis drama, this is undeniably a classic season.

  53. Great race, except for the Ferrari mechanics acting like pylons at the beginning of the race. How many ways could one of them have been hurt, or caused an avoidable crash. This is more of a story than the marshals on the track in Germany this year. This was way more dangerous, as cars were obviously accelerating on track . Whiting should have aborted the warmup lap and made Alonso start from the pit lane, in my opinion.

  54. Great race. RIC with great driving and speed. Rosberg made one costly mistake, but it was an racing incident. We all have seen Hamilton also done this. Bottas quick and safe as always. Kimi is back!?. Magnussen push Alonso to hard, but Alonso did not have the speed to pas him. Hamilton, maybe one of the fastest driver ever had a bad day on job. He must learn to be a team player, and take the excuses and complaining inside the team. He have always ending up in a dispute with his team and teammates.

    Rate 8/10.

  55. I rate 10/9. But I saw more exciting race on this track before.

  56. 2/10. Boring other than the scrap for 5th or whatever it was at the end. Denied a real race by Rosberg’s idiocy. Waste of time watching it.

    1. @f1bobby What a life you must have, only looking at the winners!

      1. Not sure what the link between quality of life and rating a race is but you’re the expert.

        I’d probably give it a 6 on reflection. It wasn’t the epic that some people have built it up to be.

        ROS taking out HAM was an anti-climax rather than adding anything to the race and between Rosberg having some debris flapping about in his face and that scrap at the end there wasn’t much to salivate over.

    2. Boring? There was some fantastic racing, even for the lead. Best bit was watching Alonso control his light steering through Radillion – awesome stuff.

  57. If Magnussen or next year Verstappen had done what Rosberg did, then we’d blast them damn rookies for a very clumsy incident, ruining some elses race and asking for points on their license or a penalty dor next race….

    Aside from that, the rest of the race was great and to me especially Bottas did well. Also hooray for Raikkonen! He needed this.

  58. I gave it a 4/10.

    While the racing itself was quite good, the whole Lewis/Nico thing left a bad taste in my mouth (I’m not a fan of either) and left me feeling disappointed that none of the coverage seemed to be more bothered about the contact between them two, then the race. I didn’t find that entertaining and it just left me more annoyed then entertained. Maybe that was more the fault of the BBC coverage then the racing itself, and I’m being harsh with the rating? I don’t know, just how I felt.

  59. Alonso was mind blowing today, i could have watched him through turn 5 onwards all day long.

    1. @dansus

      Rivage ?

      Absolute Monster through there, :) , he kept getting the door shut right in his face with his around the outside attempts, , he did supreme through there,
      Kimi did supreme as well getting it all together and finishing ahead of Fred
      I really hope the Kimster has a good run from here on,

  60. I was at the track, and witnessed the incident. Having seen (like all F1Fanatics I’m sure) the incident in question replayed countless times in slo mo in my opinion Rosberg blundering around off the racing line and taking a double-swipe at the back of Hamilton’s car was reckless at best.

    Surely if it wasn’t a teammate-hitting-teammate issue the stewards would have come down heavily on this?

    Very disappointing for me as a rece go-er and while I wasn’t one of them, I totally understand those who boo’d Rosberg on the podium. His actions robbed us of the chance to witness the great fight we had anticipated for the past several months and paid through the nose to see!

  61. 9/10, I couldn’t find anything negative with this race! We even had backmarkers fighting while four front-runners were battlign just in front of them, and the variety of strategies made many overtakes possible.

  62. 6 for me, mainly because i was hoping for a direct fight between the merc guys. I admit my vote is somewhat biased because there was a lot of good racing going on (in the end of the race), but the hit in the beginning and the relatively boring middle section left me disappointed.

  63. Looks like a 7.72 joining the German and the British GPs in the ‘best of the rest’ pack behind the three highlights of this season (Bahrain, Canada, Hungary).

  64. 8/10. Very interesting race. Would have loved a battle between HAM and ROS, but RIC did very well.

  65. I thought the race was a 7.5-8 a good race with a far bit of action through the field.

  66. 9/10 Ricciardo did everything he needed to when being hunted down by Rosberg he calmly rolled out the fastest lap of the race on the last lap. His driving has been brilliant all year clearly driving better than Vettel!

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