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25px Belgium  2013 Belgian Grand Prix
Race details
Race 11 of 19 in the 2013 Formula One season
Spa-Francorchamps
Spa-Francorchamps
Date 25 August 2013
Official name 2013 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix[1]
Location Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Spa, Belgium
Course Permanent racing facility
7.004 km (4.352 mi)
Distance 44 laps, 308.052 km (191.415 mi)
Pole position
Driver 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
Time 2:01.012
Fastest lap
Driver 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
Time 1:50.756 on lap 40
Podium
First 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
Second 25px Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari
Third 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton Mercedes

The 2013 Belgian Grand Prix (formally known as the 2013 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix)[1] was a Formula One motor race on 25 August 2013 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium.[2] It was the eleventh round of the 2013 season, and the 69th running of the Belgian Grand Prix.

The race was won by Sebastian Vettel in a Red Bull-Renault in a time of 1:23:42, registering an average speed of 220.80 km/h, thus extending his championship lead to 46 points. Second was Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari, and third was Lewis Hamilton (who had started from pole) in a Mercedes.[3][4][5]

Qualifying[]

Mercedes had taken 7 of the last 8 poles, yet they haven't shown their hands in practice sessions. On the other hand, Red Bull looks unbeatable to pole, but Spa's famous changing weather can make a lot of trouble for them. A shower came to the track right before qualifying got underway, with an air temperature of only 22℃. Like the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix, tyre supplier Pirelli brought its hardest two compounds, with the orange-banded hard compound tyre being the harder "prime" tyre, and the white-banded medium compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre.

Q1[]

All the drivers started the session with inters, Lewis Hamilton set the first benchmark of 2:07.008. As the track continued drying, Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber, and Sebastian Vettel all hit the front briefly. After the midpoint, most drivers pitted for a new set of intermidiate tyres while Giedo van der Garde took a gamble to switch onto the slicks. As times passing by, lap times improved rapidly, nearly pushed both Ferraris out of Q2. But Fernando Alonso managed to set the fastest time at the last moment and his team-mate Felipe Massa also made it into the next session. Van der Garde's decision proved a big success, for he impressively finished 3rd. In fact, three of the four drivers from Caterham and Marussia squeezed into Q2, the only one that failed to do so was Charles Pic, he will start the race from the last place on the grid. Also eliminated were the Williams duo, the two Toro Rossos, and the Sauber of Esteban Gutiérrez.

Q2[]

At the beginning of the 15 minutes period, drivers were divided into 2 groups, most of them used mediums, while several others including Webber and Alonso chose the hards. In the opening phase, Webber and Alonso were fighting for the top spot, their gap being merely two thousandths of a second. At the same time, Vettel and Hamilton stayed in the pits until there were about 7 minutes left on the board. After that it was time for mediums, first the two Lotuses, then Sebatian Vettel, all challenging for the first place. But finally Kimi Raikkonen put the fight to an end with a 1:48.296. Eliminated in Q2 were Sauber's Nico Hülkenberg, Force India's Adrian Sutil, McLaren's Sergio Pérez, Caterham's Giedo van der Garde who achieved the team's best qualifying result ever, and both the Marussias.

Q3[]

In fear of the incoming shower, all bar Paul di Resta queued at the pit exit with medium tyres. However just moments later, the Force India driver opted to use the inters. It soon turned out that the latter is right, the other 9 drivers didn't even start a flying lap before it got too wet outside, and they had to pit immediately. Di Resta then set the fastest lap time, with Felipe Massa in second. Just when it looked like he was going to take his maiden pole position, the track start to dry out. As there was 3 minutes left, Räikkönen gave the first shot to come to 3rd, ahead of Alonso. And Rosberg behind them posted a 2:02.251 to take the provisional pole. But none of them could cross the line before the chequered flag. With the ever-improving track, polesitter would be decided among three that still had one timed lap to go—Webber, Vettel, and Hamilton. Webber finished first to reduce the quickest time by almost a second. Then Vettel beat his team mate by a further one tenth of a second, Lewis Hamilton subsequently secured his fourth successive pole. The Lotuses and the Ferraris had to settle in rows 4 and 5.

Race[]

Mark Webber suffered clutch problems right from the start and fell from third to sixth after one lap. On the other hand, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso both enjoyed a great getaway, running in fourth and fifth places respectively. Sebastian Vettel had a great run up Eau Rouge and overtook pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton down Kemmel Straight on the first lap and quickly took a commanding lead over the Mercedes duo. Alonso and Webber both passed Button and the Spaniard continued to fight his way up the field, overtaking Nico Rosberg for third place. Kimi Räikkönen was also working his way up the field, but excessive brake dust was coming out of the Finn's left front wheel at an early stage in the race.

On the eight lap, Sergio Pérez was handed a drive through penalty for forcing Romain Grosjean off the track. As a result, Grosjean had to straightline Les Combes and fell from eight to tenth as Felipe Massa took advantage. Räikkönen's brakes ultimately failed as the Finn went off massively at the Chicane, nearly collecting Massa in the process. The Lotus driver retired the car, which meant that his record run of consecutive points finishes ended at 27. It was later discovered that a loose visor tear-off got stuck inside the left front brake duct, causing the disc to overheat.[6] After the first round of pit stops, Hamilton successfully retained second place from Alonso, but the latter quickly found his way through.

Further down the order, a battle involving Esteban Gutiérrez, Pastor Maldonado and the Force India duo was raging. As the four cars were approaching the final chicane, the young Mexican successfully made his move on both Adrian Sutil and Maldonado. The German tried to follow, but clipped the Williams driver's front wing. Maldonado dove for the pits only to collect Paul di Resta's Force India. As a result, the Venezuelan had to pit for a new front wing and received a ten seconds stop-and-go penalty while di Resta retired his car on the spot.

Vettel won the race, ahead of Alonso and Hamilton. Nico Rosberg successfully fought off Webber for fourth, finishing less than three seconds behind his teammate. Button took sixth for McLaren, while the race-long scrap between Massa and Grosjean ended with the Brazilian in front for seventh. Sutil and Daniel Ricciardo took ninth and tenth respectively.

Classification[]

Qualifying[]

Pos. No. Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 Grid
1 10 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2:00.368 1:49.067 2:01.012 1
2 1 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 2:01.863 1:48.646 2:01.200 2
3 2 25px Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 2:01.597 1:48.641 2:01.325 3
4 9 25px Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 2:01.099 1:48.552 2:02.251 4
5 14 25px Great Britain Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 2:02.338 1:48.925 2:02.332 5
6 5 25px Great Britain Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 2:01.301 1:48.641 2:03.075 6
7 8 25px France Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 2:02.476 1:48.649 2:03.081 7
8 7 25px Finland Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 2:01.151 1:48.296 2:03.390 8
9 3 25px Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari 2:00.190 1:48.309 2:03.482 9
10 4 25px Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari 2:01.462 1:49.020 2:04.059 10
11 11 25px Germany Nico Hülkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 2:01.712 1:49.088 11
12 15 25px Germany Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 2:02.749 1:49.103 12
13 6 25px Mexico Sergio Pérez McLaren-Mercedes 2:02.425 1:49.304 13
14 21 25px Netherlands Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 2:00.564 1:52.036 14
15 22 25px France Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 2:02.110 1:52.563 15
16 23 25px Great Britain Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 2:02.948 1:52.762 16
17 16 25px The flag of Venezuela Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 2:03.072 17
18 18 25px France Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2:03.300 18
19 19 25px Australia Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2:03.317 19
20 17 25px Finland Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 2:03.432 20
21 12 25px Mexico Esteban Gutiérrez Sauber-Ferrari 2:04.324 21
22 20 25px France Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 2:07.384 22
107% time:2:08.603
Source:[7]

Race[]

Pos. No. Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 1 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 44 1:23:42.196 2 25
2 3 25px Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari 44 +16.869 9 18
3 10 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 44 +27.734 1 15
4 9 25px Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 44 +29.872 4 12
5 2 25px Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 44 +33.845 3 10
6 5 25px Great Britain Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 44 +40.794 6 8
7 4 25px Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari 44 +53.922 10 6
8 8 25px France Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 44 +55.846 7 4
9 15 25px Germany Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 44 +1:09.547 12 2
10 10 25px Australia Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 44 +1:13.470 19 1
11 6 25px Mexico Sergio Pérez McLaren-Mercedes 44 +1:21.936 13
12 18 25px France Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 44 +1:26.740 18
13 11 25px Germany Nico Hülkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 44 +1:28.258 11
14 12 25px Mexico Esteban Gutiérrez Sauber-Ferrari 44 +1:40.436 21
15 17 25px Finland Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 44 +1:47.456 20
16 21 25px Netherlands Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 43 +1 Lap 14
17 16 25px The flag of Venezuela Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 43 +1 Lap 17
18 22 25px France Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 43 +1 Lap 15
19 23 25px Great Britain Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 42 +2 Laps 16
Ret 14 25px Great Britain Paul di Resta Force IndiaMercedes 26 Collision 5
Ret 7 25px Finland Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 25 Brakes 8
Ret 20 25px France Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 8 Oil leak 22
Source:[8]

Standings after the race[]

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos. Driver Points
Nuvola single chevron right.svg 1 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel 197
1uparrow green.svg 1 2 25px Spain Fernando Alonso 151
1uparrow green.svg 1 3 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton 139
1downarrow red.svg 2 4 25px Finland Kimi Räikkönen 134
Nuvola single chevron right.svg 5 25px Australia Mark Webber 115
Constructors' Championship standings
Pos. Constructor Points
Nuvola single chevron right.svg 1 25px Austria Red Bull-Renault 312
Nuvola single chevron right.svg 2 25px Germany Mercedes 235
Nuvola single chevron right.svg 3 25px Italy Ferrari 218
Nuvola single chevron right.svg 4 25px Great Britain Lotus-Renault 187
1uparrow green.svg 1 5 25px Great Britain McLaren-Mercedes 65
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Greenpeace protest[]

Greenpeace used the Belgian Grand Prix as a main point of protests against Shell, a principal sponsor of the race. Greenpeace activists went to the track and put up a number of banners protesting against Shell drilling in the Arctic.[9] These included two remote controlled banners which scrolled up in front of the podium celebrations,[10] which were quickly disposed of by security, and a large banner on the main grandstand. The official world feed broadcast did not show any banner in detail.[11][12]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 "2013 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. http://www.formula1.com/races/in_detail/belgium_904/circuit_diagram.html. Retrieved 28 July 2013. 
  2. "FIA Formula One calendar". FIA.com. Fedération Internationale de l'Automobile. http://www.fia.com/championship/formula-1-world-championship/2013/calendar. Retrieved 28 July 2013. 
  3. "British bid crushed as Red Bull master senses fourth world title". Daily Mail. 25 August 2013. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-2401832/Sebastian-Vettel-clear-Lewis-Hamilton-British-bid-crushed-Red-Bull-master-senses-fourth-F1-title.html?ito=feeds-newsxml. Retrieved 26 August 2013. 
  4. "Sebastian Vettel blows away Lewis Hamilton’s title challenge inside 30 seconds". The Independent. 25 August 2013. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/motor-racing/belgian-grand-prix-sebastian-vettel-blows-away-lewis-hamiltons-title-challenge-inside-30-seconds-8784075.html. Retrieved 26 August 2013. 
  5. "Sebastian Vettel wins with ease in Belgium, Lewis Hamilton third". BBC Sport. 25 August 2013. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/23832849. Retrieved 26 August 2013. 
  6. "F1: Lotus confirms cause of Kimi Raikkonen's brake failure at Spa". 27 August 2013. http://www.auto123.com/en/racing-news/f1-lotus-confirms-cause-of-kimi-raikkonens-brake-failure-at-spa?artid=159244. Retrieved 31 August 2013. 
  7. "2013 Belgian Grand Prix qualifying results". Formula One Administration. 24 August 2013. http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2013/904/7244/. Retrieved 24 August 2013. 
  8. "Belgian GP: Sebastian Vettel scores routine win as weather stays dry". Autosport (Haymarket Media Group). 25 August 2013. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109472. Retrieved 25 August 2013. 
  9. "It's time to separate the sponsor from the sport". Greenpeace. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/its-time-to-separate-the-sponsor-from-the-spo/blog/46356/. Retrieved 29 August 2013. 
  10. "The video Shell doesn't want you to see". Greenpeace. http://vimeo.com/73215350. Retrieved 29 August 2013. 
  11. "Greenpeace protest Shell at Belgian GP". Reuters. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/08/25/uk-motor-racing-prix-protest-idUKBRE97O07J20130825. Retrieved 28 August 2013. 
  12. "Greenpeace activists protest Shell plans as Sebastian Vettel wins at Spa". CNN. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/25/sport/motorsport/greenpeace-shell-vettel-f1-motorsport. Retrieved 28 August 2013. 

External links[]



Previous race:
2013 Hungarian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
2013 season
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2013 Italian Grand Prix
Previous race:
2012 Belgian Grand Prix
Belgian Grand Prix Next race:
2014 Belgian Grand Prix
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