A belated Belgian Grand Prix Blog..

So Spa was a long time ago now and my blog has been more and more delayed as I was without internet in Palma and I’m still  having internet issues at my new place in Daventry so this weekend has been my first opportunity to upload my Spa blog.. 

Seb returns to the top step…

Despite having the most commanding lead that he had had all year, Vettel hadn’t won a race since Valencia…until Spa. He looked in trouble in the early stages as he quite literally raced through his tyres, but his so-called ‘free’ pit stop meant that he barely lost out in the end. His out and out speed saw him return to the front and while Mark closed in on Seb in the final few laps, it never really looked in doubt. Seb’s supreme talent and the odd bit of luck along the way means this really is his year…far more so than last year when you think he didn't lead the Championship last year until the final round. 

Alonso fades away after a promising start

Fernando Alonso was frighteningly quick in the early stages of the Grand Prix, setting fastest lap after fastest lap and as Vettel was wearing his tyres out, Lewis and Fernando looked like they may be the two main contenders for the race win. It was the racy Fernando of old, an Alonso who we haven’t seen all that much of this season as he simply hasn’t had the confidence in the car but after a stunning start, Fernando looked like he could do some damage at Spa. However, it soon became clear that Spa – like most of the other races this season – was to be a tale of tyres. While blisteringly quick on the soft tyres, and initially fast on the hard tyres, Button’s poor qualifying meant that he had an extra set of softs and by the closing stages, Fernando was a sitting duck as Jenson cruised past him. It was an impossible situation for him as – by that point – he would have lost positions whether he pitted for new tyres or not… We’ve seen such promising starts from Ferrari but they’re consistently struggling with the Pirellis and they’ll need to find something special to give the Tifosi something to celebrate in Monza but there’s no ruling 

them out. 

Another tough day at the office for Lewis while Jenson collects more points…

Well Lewis was understandably despondent after another DNF and in the run-up to Monza he’s been quoted as saying that 2011 has been his worst season in F1 to date. The team obviously thought Lewis was in with a strong chance of victory at Spa but when speaking to the Spanish press (I watched the race in Palma remember!) Lewis was actually even more down on his luck than he had been to the BBC. It doesn’t really matter who was at fault, but it was a shame to lose Lewis so early in the race, particularly as his teammate who had such a disappointment in qualifying showed such strong pace at the end of the race.

An impressive drive from Schumacher…20 years on!

I for one was gutted that Michael was forced to start from 24^th on Sunday. However you feel about Schumacher, whether you think he’s a flawed character or a pure genius, he’s had a sensational F1 career and it can’t be easy for him to be so off the pace after years of utter domination and starting 24^th certainly wasn’t the best way to celebrate 20 years since his F1 debut. Michael scoring a well deserved 5^th place and importantly beating teammate Nico Rosberg was probably the best result he could have hoped for and well deserved.