2013 Belgian Grand Prix

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

The 2013 Belgian Grand Prix (formally known as the 2013 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix) is a Formula One motor race that is scheduled to be held on 25 August 2013 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium. The race will be the eleventh round of the 2013 season, and marks the 69th running of the Belgian Grand Prix.

Report

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 mid-point, 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, but it was not over yet because for the fourth race running, Lewis Hamilton denied the world champion of pole with a 2:01.012. It's the 31st pole in his career. The Lotuses and the Ferraris had to settle in rows 4 and 5. Mercedes continues their phenomenal performances in qualifying, and after their triumph in Hungary last time out, victory seems within grasp for them, although Red Bull, Lotus, and of course Ferrari will surely keep the silver arrow under great pressure.

Classification

Qualifying

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

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	44		2	25
2	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	44	+16.8	9	18
3	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	44	+27.7	1	15
4	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	44	+29.8	4	12
5	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	44	+33.8	3	10
6	5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	44	+40.7	6	8
7	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	44	+53.9	10	6
8	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	44	+55.8	7	4
9	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	44	+69.5	12	2
10	10	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	44	+73.4	19	1
11	6	Sergio Pérez	McLaren-Mercedes	44	+81.9	13
12	18	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	44	+86.7	18
13	11	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	44	+88.2	11
14	12	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	44		21
15	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams F1-Renault	44		20
16	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	43	+1 lap	14
17	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	43	+1 lap	17
18	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	43	+1 lap	15
19	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	42	+2 laps	16
Ret	14	Paul di Resta	Force India–Mercedes	31	Collision	5
Ret	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	25	Brakes	8
Ret	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	8	Oil leak	22
Source: