Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso summed up perfectly the outcome of the Belgian GP that took place yesterday at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Ardennes forest: “Red Bull had a pace advantage of one second of something like that today. And in the final part of the race maybe more, maybe 1.5 seconds. So when you have a car that is 1.5 seconds faster than the rest it’s easy for you to stop one lap earlier or one lap later.”
And this despite the fact that RBR’s cars faced a problem with tire blistering and asked for permission to change the car’s suspension settings. The stewards denied their petition and the team even considered changing the settings anyway and taking the penalty, starting from the pit lane.
In the end, they decided to race, and it proved to be the right choice. Sebastian Vettel was once again the winner, extending his lead to 92 points over his closest rival, team mate Mark Webber who finished second.
The final place on the podium went to McLaren’s Jenson Button who put in an excellent performance despite starting from 13th place on the grid. Alonso admitted that fourth place was the best he could do, and is currently third in the driver’s standings. But the championship, with just seven races remaining, seems a done deal for Vettel and Red Bull Racing for the second year in a row.
However, the man who stole some of Vettel’s glory at Spa was none other than Michael Schumacher, who celebrated his 20th anniversary of racing in Formula 1. And not only did he put on a show for the cameras, with both his former (Ferrari) and current team (Mercedes), awarding him presents, but he showed that no matter what his detractors say, he still has what it takes to compete despite being 42 years old.
On the same track that 20 years ago he made his maiden appearance in Formula 1, finishing an impressive seventh with a second-tier car and despite never ever having driven there, on Sunday he fought closely with his team mate Nico Rosberg and beat him fair and square, crossing the finishing line in fifth place.