Sebastian Vettel wins the Belgian Grand Prix

2013 Belgian Grand Prix summary

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Sebastian Vettel romped to his fifth grand prix win of the season in the Belgian Grand Prix.

Vettel took the lead from Lewis Hamilton at the start and was never headed during the rest of the race.

Hamilton lost another place before the end of the race, to Fernando Alonso, who made a strong start to hold fifth place at the beginning of lap two. He easily passed Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg using DRS in the opening laps, and after the first pit stop scrambled by Hamilton at La Source.

Button briefly ran third while McLaren weighed up whether to try to make a one-stop strategy work. The elected not to, bringing him in for a late second stop which elevated Rosberg and Mark Webber to fourth and fifth.

Romain Grosjean did make a single stop and finished eighth behind Felipe Massa. The Ferrari driver got ahead of him when Grosjean was forced off the track by Sergio Perez at Les Combes, for which the McLaren driver was handed a drive-through penalty.

Ninth place went to Adrian Sutil after he survived contact with Pastor Maldonado at the chicane. The Williams driver then skidded into the other Force India of Paul di Resta, taking him out of the race and earning Maldonado a stop-go penalty.

The final point was taken by Daniel Ricciardo, who climbed nine places to finish tenth.

2013 Belgian Grand Prix

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Image © Red Bull/Getty

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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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48 comments on “Sebastian Vettel wins the Belgian Grand Prix”

  1. That has to be it now. No chance of anyone catching Vettel in the championship. Game over.

    1. I’m sorry but I have to agree.

    2. There are 8 races left, so don’t write it off just yet.

    3. Never say never. Ferrari looked strong today. RBR are also known to have reliability issues. I don’t think this is over yet.

      1. Don’t worry, if there is a mechanical problem, it will be on the #2 car.

        1. Can you remind me which Red Bull driver had a DNF so far because of a mechanical problem?! Why can’t you guys stop this nonsense conspiracy theories?

        2. @jarnooo conveniently ignoring Silverstone (or indeed this season and every other season before that). Is it bliss?

      2. @roberto I’d like to be like you but Ferrari is not faster than Red Bull right now which should have been if they want to win.

        1. Ferrari was very fast today. If they just managed to cut out their mistakes (Alo in qualifying yesterday), we would see much more of a fight I reckon. Can’t really blame RBR for their superiority when their rivals are sleeping in certain moments. I do feel that Mercedes are hard done by with the tires though.

      3. It is imperative for Alonso to win Monza and cut into Seb’s lead if they want to have a fighting chance.

    4. Yawn. Boring Vettel win, no hope now 1/10 race.

    5. I am not going for that quite yet @magnificent-geoffrey – Mercedes still showed they were close enough on pace to push, and if Alonso can make that Ferrari work for him again in the next couple of races there is still hope of a tight fight.

  2. Seb’s pass was a thing of beauty. Go RBR!

    1. JP (@jonathanproc)
      25th August 2013, 17:02

      @rcorporon Really? A simple overtake on a straight was “a thing of beauty”? I guess some people are easily impressed.

      1. @jonathanproc the calculatedness and immediatness was beautiful, but the move itself was no classic I’ll give you that ;)

        1. JP (@jonathanproc)
          25th August 2013, 18:15

          @vettel1 I disagree. It was a simple slipstream overtake by a car that had far better acceleration.

          The immediateness of the overtake adds nothing to it. Is it not fairly obvious that an the overtake would occur when the cars are closest at the start? It wasn’t anymore calculated than many of the overtakes we saw later in the race, so I see no reason to single out this overtake as something special.

          1. @jonathanproc I don’t really besides the fact it was done without the aid of DRS.

            The beauty of it was in the same sense that I respect Alonso immensely for – getting the job done the instant the opportunity arises. He had extreme confidence his car would stick at the speed he was going through Eau Rouge and the rest was a simple slipstream absolutely. I liked it in the same way I liked Alonso’s pass in Spain, or Vettel’s again in Bahrain.

        2. JP (@jonathanproc)
          25th August 2013, 19:36

          @vettel1 It’s not as if he had to make a risky move to get it done as soon as the opportunity arose though. He lifted through eau rouge, as the case usually is at the start, so I really don’t think he demonstrated extreme confidence any more than the next driver. I don’t see the beauty in a faster car in a straight line overtaking a slower one, that’s just an inevitability.

          1. @jonathanproc yes but judging from the set-ups he had less downforce. So the fact he was still much quicker through Eau Rouge (which was where the move was half done) indictes to me he had much more confidence than Hamilton.

          2. JP (@jonathanproc)
            25th August 2013, 19:50

            @vettel1 It had nothing to do with downforce. It was all about gear-ratios. Vettel was geared up for acceleration, Hamilton for top speed. Hamilton would have been on the throttle as much as Vettel was, but Vettel was still faster due to his gear-ratios. The move wasn’t half done through eau rouge, it was not until way after raidillon that he made his move.

          3. @jonathanproc I apologise for my mis-use of corner names – by “Eau Rouge” I was encapsulating Radillion also.

            If that is taken into account my comment makes complete sense and shows it wasn’t the acceleration that helped – you aren’t accelerating through Radillion, yet that is where he made the big gains on Hamilton. The gap was fairly extensive out of La Source and just before Eau Rouge but he had a great run through the whole corner complex which allowed him to be very close to Hamilton entering the Kemmel straight, where it became an easy slipstream pass.

          4. JP (@jonathanproc)
            25th August 2013, 20:13

            @vettel1 He didn’t start the move until during the straight, after the corner.

            You are misunderstanding my point about gear ratios. The fact that you aren’t accelerating through radallion makes no difference. Obviously Vettel makes big gains at the point because he had already reached a higher speed than Hamilton. It’s just common sense that if one car is going faster than another the gap will close. The gap was hardly “fairly extensive”, the race had only just started! It had nothing to do with Vettel being more confident, it was to do with the setup.

          5. @jonathanproc fairly extensive for an immediate passing move halfway down the straight indeed it was ;)

            I don’t think you’re quite grasping my point – he wasn’t right on Hamilton’s gearbox going into Eau Rouge but was at the top of Radillion – the only way the gap could’ve decreased? Either Hamilton was slow through the complex or Vettel was more committed through it.

          6. JP (@jonathanproc)
            25th August 2013, 20:32

            @vettel1 It wasn’t extensive at all though. I am grasping your point – I just disagree with it. I think you need to re-watch the pass. At the apex of la source Vettel’s front right was very close to Hamilton’s rear left. They both accelerate out of that corner and then Vettel starts to gain on Hamilton before eau rouge. He is already traveling at a greater speed before they even enter the complex. Mercedes had poor gearing and that’s why Hamilton lost time through the complex. Nothing to do with Vettel being confident! So to conclude, it was a simple overtake, nothing special.

          7. @jonathanproc I think it’s the opposite – watch this (sorry for the poor quality but it does the job): as you can see, there is a clear two car lengths between them going into Eau Rouge – in fact, third is closer to second than second is to first.

          8. @jonathanproc Hamilton had a far better exit out of La Source. Actually, when I’m rewatching now the main reason for Hamilton losing time seems to be his lines through Eau Roughe/Raidillon. He misses the apex of the right-hander while Vettel is absolutely spot on through the entire combination.

            Rewatch it at youtube, search for “F1 Belgium (Spa) 2013 – Sebastian Vettel Onboard Start”

          9. If you red the Grand Prix review on this site “Vettel takes control at the start” you’ll see that this is not just a simple pass. There is a plan to it which requires good execution. Although it looked like a simple pass.

          10. JP (@jonathanproc)
            26th August 2013, 16:23

            @vettel1 @debeluhi The angle is not very good in that video at all. This video gives a far better idea of what happened.

            Obviously Hamilton had a better exit as he had the optimum line. As they continue to accelerate you will notice that the gap doesn’t actually increase, it appears to stay the same, then slightly decrease. This shows that Vettel was travelling at the same speed despite being further behind on the straight – He closed in on Hamilton. The distance to the guy in front is not directly comparable to the time to the guy in front. He missed the apex as the car understeers on him, while Vettel was able to make use of the extra downforce he had. This coupled with help from better gear ratios meant he could carry more speed up the hill.

    2. +1
      Even Lewis was go smacked by it as he reacted while talking to Seb after the race!

      1. I meant gobsmacked

    3. That was probably the dullest pass of the entire race. Whats so great about one car just having better straight line speed?

      1. Nothing special about better straight-line speed.

        But when one driver absolutely nails the lines through eau-rouge to carry more speed into the following straight and set up a crucial pass – fantastic racing!

    4. Just really nice to see a non-DRS pass TBH.

    5. +1. Even though Hamilton messed up Red water the pass was great.

  3. It is over

    1. So you won’t be watching the remaining 8 races then?

  4. Good race by Vettel….that RBR had much more to offer than what it showed today. Lill surprised though why Mark Webber could not make most out of it. He was not at his best today.

    Good start, race and comeback by Alonso. I Thought st the start that Lewis could at least hold on to his second spot.

  5. Judging by last season where Mclaren carried over their performance from Spa to Monza and 2011 where RBR did the same, I think Seb has a good chance to win at Monza

  6. Yes Yes Yes and Yes!!! It Own it. And to the booing fans he should have say hello with the middle finger. And *** very much.

    1. The booing were directed at the green peace demonstrator hanging from a rope. Not all nations are so classless and uncourteous to boo a driver who has done nothing wrong than being good at what he does!

  7. Felt Really sorry for paul Di resta……He was unlucky to have missed out the Pole yesterday and today this….. He deserves much better than the numbers that shows up on the points Board……

    1. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
      25th August 2013, 18:01

      Many drivers deserve more than the points on the board – Alonso, Hulkenberg, Kimi, Bianchi. I see promise in Bottas too.

      1. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
        25th August 2013, 18:02

        @tmax

        1. @shreyasf1fan point taken. But the problems for Alonso and Kimi et all are more with package etc. but it looks like for di rista the problems are more from misfortunes and little accidents. Also they have good number on their board already…

    2. @tmax

      I feel sorry for Di Resta as well. Firstly, his team doesn’t provide him with a championship winning package. Then they don’t time his qualifying runs properly.. I mean come on… they weren’t even looking at the umbrellas! Then they completely botched up his start, and they also let his teammate get ahead of him.

      That Di Resta chap has a hard life

  8. Well…. it is confirmed one more time.. this ALO peron must not be from this planet… I was thinking 3rd or 4th would´ve been the most he could have aspired but, 2nd? WOW!!! No all we need is some DNF´s and everything is going to be all right!! Monza seems to be doable.
    It ain´t over ´til the fat lady sings!!

  9. Many thanks to Maldonado for making the racing interesting :)!

    Seb is in imperious form. He won’t be beaten to the championship.

    Nevertheless, stonking drive from Alonso.

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