Familiar 1-2-3 at the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix
Photo: Honda Racing
If you’re a new Formula One fan looking to watch your first race, you can skip the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix. Unfortunately, that this can be said of any race held at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit reflects poorly upon the championship as a whole.
From lights out to the checkered flag, the first three positions were as though immutable. Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, and Max Verstappen were 1-2-3 throughout the whole race, their positions unwavering and unchallenged, without any wheel-to-wheel action between them. It’s something we’ve seen too often lately, and in the process, Hamilton fittingly set a new all-time record for leading more kilometers than any other driver in history.
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Bottas, once again, simply didn’t have the measure of his teammate. If anything, it seemed more likely that he would drop to third than make his way into the lead. If Bottas and Verstappen swapped seats, we’d probably have an exciting championship on our hands. But after the tense, 3-year Hamilton v Rosberg rivalry, Mercedes will likely never hire someone it believes could truly challenge its star driver. After all, it’s not like it needs to.
Verstappen’s teammate, Alexander Albon, finally had a chance to get a good result after qualifying in a position representative of his car’s performance. But while Verstappen was busy challenging the near-untouchable Mercedes, Albon fell behind the two Renault drivers, a performance that should be of concern for Red Bull Racing.
Pierre Gasly, in the Honda-powered AlphaTauri, had a pretty good race, and in fact was named “Driver of the Day” in the official fan vote. He started 12th and finished eighth, a decent result, but it was likely his daring overtake on Sergio Pérez that earned him viewers’ appreciation.
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Gasly had gone side-by-side with the Mexican at the bottom of Eau Rouge, committing to a pass and succeeding when many drivers would either back out or crash. Before that, Pérez had tried to discourage him from the attempt by squeezing him near the wall, which could have easily ended in a nasty crash.
“I don’t know how much space we had…oh my god, I thought we are in the wall,” Gasly later told Sky Sports F1. “I was like, ‘I can’t move more than that,’ and at that point we are probably going 280-300 [kph]. Sergio really squeezed me and I was like, ‘I’m not going to lift, I’m going to make this work.’ It was tight!”
Tight indeed. Unfortunately, the rest of the race wasn’t. If only the rain, which had been forecast to pour from the heavens all weekend, had actually made an appearance at the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix. Alas, heaven seems a far way off from this F1 hell.
Previous Race: 2020 Spanish Grand Prix
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.