Max wins shortest race in history
RED Bull’s Max Verstappen emerged as the winner of the rain-ruined Belgian Grand Prix yesterday with only a handful of laps completed behind a safety car at a drenched and dangerous Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
Pole-sitter Verstappen was awarded half points, which moved him to within three points of Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ championship.
Williams’ George Russell took second, with Hamilton’s Mercedes in third in the shortest race in Formula One history – all 14 kilometres of it.
After the safety car gingerly led the 19 remaining cars on a formation lap with the spray flying and drivers like McLaren’s Lando Norris complaining of lack of visibility, the red flag was raised, signalling a suspension of the start procedure.
“It’s pretty awful. I can barely see the car in front at the minute,” Norris said over the team radio.
“There’s no way. We can’t race,” Alpine’s Fernando Alonso said.
Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff commented: “In my opinion, if it (the weather) doesn’t change, it’s too dangerous. As much as I love racing, this is maybe a step too far.”
Despite huge advances in car safety, organisers will have been very mindful of ensuring conditions were safe enough to resume at a notoriously demanding track where in 2019 French racer Anthoine Hubert died in a Formula 2 race.
The track was lined by 75 000 umbrella-clutching die-hard fans, some eating soggy chips and mayonnaise, but the bulk of them braving the conditions in support of local favourite Verstappen.
During the delay, drivers busied themselves filling in the wait in different ways – Russell taking to Twitter, Antonio Giovinazzi taking a nap on some Alfa Romeo crates and Daniel Ricciardo leading a Mexican wave in the pitlane stand.
Track officials played petanque on a gravel run-off area.
And Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin’s four-time former world champion, showed a neat touch in a two-a-side game of football against a Haas selection led by Mick Schumacher in the pits.
Thirty years ago at the same circuit, Schumacher’s father Michael took the first steps on the road to becoming a F1 legend, picking up a spare drive for Jordan when the team’s French driver Bertrand Gachot was otherwise engaged serving a prison sentence for
assault.
Organisers finally gave the go-ahead for a rolling start behind a safety car at 6.30pm local time, which was three-and-a-half hours after the scheduled 3pm start.
But after two laps, with the spray flying, the race was stopped, with conditions deemed too dicey
The signs were ominous from the start of the afternoon, when Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez aquaplaned on his way to the original start at Les Combes.
In the end, Saturday’s qualifying proved pivotal as Verstappen acknowledged.
“Now, in hindsight, it was important to get the pole position – but it was a shame not to do proper laps,” said the Belgian-born Dutch driver.
“The visibility was very low. If we had started at 3pm (local time), we would have had a better chance.
“It’s a win, but not really in the right way. Credit to the fans to stay here all day. In the cold and rain. They are the bigger winners today.”