Red Bull on Pole again! -Spa Belgium Grand Prix 2010

[newhorizon]

This is one race I wanted to be at today! Alas, late/lack of planning meant no Spa and will be watching it in the dry on TV!

Has anyone been to Spa-Francochamps? If so, would love to hear of your experiences and viewing points. Maybe something I'll get round to going to some other year.

Anyway, back to today's race another Red Bull on pole (Webber) at Spa-Franchchamps, Belgium in ever changing weather conditions.

2010 FORMULA 1 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
Pos No Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps
1 6 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:57.352 1:47.253 1:45.778 21
2 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:56.706 1:46.211 1:45.863 18
3 11 Robert Kubica Renault 1:56.041 1:47.320 1:46.100 19
4 5 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:58.487 1:47.245 1:46.127 23
5 1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:57.981 1:46.790 1:46.206 18
6 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:58.323 1:47.322 1:46.314 20
7 9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:55.757 1:47.797 1:46.602 19
8 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:58.730 1:47.292 1:46.659 18
9 10 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:55.442 1:47.821 1:47.053 20
10 8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:57.023 1:47.544 1:47.441 21
______________________________________________
[V11 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:56.313 1:47.874 16
12 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:54.826 1:47.885 16]

V -Note Schumacher who finished just out the Top 10 will be staring in 21st position taking a 10 place drop penalty after his incident with Barichello from last race.

RAIN Predicted in todays race so should be eventful, anyone could win, and I mean anyone, Spa is very challenging circuit and the weather is always unpredictable! Should be fun!!

 

[rosewall1]

Thanks for giving that info. Thank goodness we had watched the recording of qualifying before reading this.

 

[altinkum kev]

Come on Lewis..............

 

[altinkum kev]

Yessssssssssssssssssss !!!!

 

[dougie 1965]

well done lewis heart wiz in my mouth when he spun off

 

[newhorizon]

Woah, YES What a Race!

Oh so much can happen in a race.....thanks to the rain....and .....

Vettel! Oh Vettel!! (do like him, but he's got a lot to learn especially his over taking manoevres)

Schumacher made up 14 places he started in 21st position and finished 7th!! That's schumi getting back into is old form again...may see the rain-master emerge in 2011.

Result (assume everyone's watched it by now)...
scroll down....














2010 FORMULA 1 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts
1 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 44 1.29:04.268 2 25
2 6 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 44 +1.5 secs 1 18
3 11 Robert Kubica Renault 44 +3.4 secs 3 15
4 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 44 +8.2 secs 6 12
5 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 44 +9.0 secs 8 10
6 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 44 +12.3 secs 14 8
7 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 44 +15.5 secs 21 6
8 23 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 44 +16.6 secs 17 4
9 12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 44 +23.8 secs 23 2
10 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 44 +34.8 secs 1

25 points for a WIN
TOP 5 drivers who scored 0 points in this race:
ALONSO
BUTTON (thanks to Vettel)
VETTEL (thanks to himself! finished 15th)

So championship lead changes to HAMILTON (Mclaren)

still 6 RACES to go!!

NEXT Race: ITALY (Monza -12 Sept. 2010)

 

[Harem]

Wasn't Vettel also the cause of another accident in Sunday's race??

 

[newhorizon]

Wasn't Vettel also the cause of another accident in Sunday's race??

Not sure about cause of another accident but yes, after Vettels incident (accident) with Button (which took Button out of the race) around lap 16-17, Vettel touched with Liuzzi (FORCE INDIA) after over taking him in the chicane.


So..an eventful race for Vettel with no points scored for himself and also for Button and also Alonso scored zero points as he spun off much later when the rain started in the final few laps of the race.

 

[McDHibs]

Hi Newhorizon

I have been to Spa when I was part of the pit crew for a TVR Sagaris in the Britcar Series it was a 4 hour endurance race and we won. The view from where I was was great as we were in the old pits on the straight before eau rouge corner its a fantastic circuit but the rain came down like six inch nails.

I will find some photos and upload them.

Mike

 

[newhorizon]

Hi Newhorizon

I have been to Spa when I was part of the pit crew for a TVR Sagaris >
The view from where I was was great as we were in the old pits on the straight before eau rouge corner its a fantastic circuit but the rain came down like six inch nails.

I will find some photos and upload them.

Mike

Awesome!
The view and action from Eau Rouge or La Source must be fantastic...

 

[McDHibs]

Awesome!
The view and action from Eau Rouge or La Source must be fantastic...

Its just incredible some photos as promised

Mike

 

[McDHibs]

The car was written off at the britcar 24hr race Andy Neate was injured badly but recovered to drive in this years touring car championship.

 

[newhorizon]

Great photos, thanks.

I particularly liked this one of yours:-

Just love the steep angle at which the cars fly down..the view and sound must be amazing!1

I'm jealous! Are you permanent pit crew for this Britcar team? Have you been to any F1 races or other races at Spa?

Oooh so many questions..as I so much wanted to go to Spa this season as its an all time great circuit. Another new track I keen to see is Abu Dhabi...not quite the drama of Spa though.

Thanks again, really enjoyed them.

 

[McDHibs]

The company I worked for sponsored the team as a client was involved with the racing and as me and my boss were motor racing fans we went to every race just to watch but had pit passes etc. Then one day they asked us to come down and see if we were good enough to crew the car so we turned up and got the chance to crew at Spa and beyond I was refueling and my boss did tires and fire marshal duties. we only managed one more race at Brans hatch then the car was hit by a Ginetta at Silverstone after a Mosler spun it at the start and was written off video here [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3I5b_PULVA]YouTube - Britcar 24hour 2008 start crash[/ame]

Mike

 

[yalimart]

A freind of mine is a formula ford champion a few times over, he is speed mad ! he went to spa on his motor bike and rode the circuit, he mentioned going down a hill into an adverse camber which felt pretty wicked !
i guess thats the hill on your photo mcdhibs ! i hadnt realised there was such a gradient !

martin

 

[McDHibs]

Yes martin

the old pit straight is very steep the TVR was doing 200+ mph in the dry at the end of the pit straight it had an eight litre chevvy engine in it. I wish they had just replaced the pits and not made new ones at the back as the new pit staight is too short and takes away a lot of the drama. I rode round it on the back of a 50cc scooter think we reached 42mph at the end of the pit straight and were at about 20 mph at the top of eau rouge its very steep I was out of breath just walking up it.

Lots of good memories from that weekend.

Mike

 

[newhorizon]

The company I worked for sponsored the team as a client was involved with the racing and as me and my boss were motor racing fans we went to every race just to watch but had pit passes etc. Then one day they asked us to come down and see if we were good enough to crew the car so we turned up and got the chance to crew at Spa and beyond I was refueling and my boss did tires and fire marshal duties. we only managed one more race at Brans hatch then the car was hit by a Ginetta at Silverstone after a Mosler spun it at the start and was written off 24hour
Mike

Lucky you! Wish my boss liked motor racing
So how long did your boss take to change the tyres? Did you have 2-3 types like Inters, Full wets as in F1 racing or is it different?
Thanks for videos, looks pretty bad accident, hope he recovered quickly.
Well...if you ever get any pit lane passes again you know where I am

 

[McDHibs]

Yes 3 types of tires slick inter and full wets pit stops were a bit strange as group 1 cars Ferrari's, Aston martin's, Moslers and us had to stay in the pits for a minimum of a minute, group 2 porches etc 45 seconds and tuned road cars were group 3 and 4, 30 seconds and no minimum time depending on power. The Idea was that if everyone drove exactly to the cars best we would all cross the line together. 3 drivers for each car and we were stopping 2-3 times an hour mainly for fuel. I was crapping myself most of the time in case I made an arse of it.

Mike

 

[newhorizon]

Sounds like you had your work cut out. So much a team sport nowadays..I get tense just watching if a spanner etc or even the fuel rig itself gets stuck on the car during a pit stop!

 

[McDHibs]

As you can see in the photo I am holding a gravity fed fuel rig the fuel had to be hand pumped into the rig and each pit stop required 2 full rigs of fuel 50 ltrs in total enough for 15 laps so it was non stop either pumping fuel or filling the car. I managed to splash my shoulders and arms with race fuel when lifting the rig and had to be dowsed in water and barrier cream before pulling my overalls back on and getting back to the race.

Great feeling to win but very very tired we arrived at 7am on race day prepared the car for testing then qualifying trying out different tire compounds and pressures we qualified 2nd then the Lambo that was on pole crashed in a Dutch Supercar show race [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgLSBryAK-8]YouTube - Spa Crash[/ame] so we were promoted to pole, race started at 5pm finished at 9pm 3 hours to pack up then drove straight to the port and got home around 9am the following day no sleep but shared the driving.

So its not as glamorous as it looks.

But great fun never the less

Mike