2014 Belgian Grand Prix

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Belgium  2014 Belgian Grand Prix
Race details[1][2]
Race 12 of 19 in the 2014 Formula One season
Layout of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit
Layout of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit
Date 24 August 2014
Official name 2014 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix
Location Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Stavelot, Belgium
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 7.004 km (4.352 mi)
Distance 44 laps, 308.052 km (191.415 mi)
Weather Mostly cloudy with maximum temperatures reaching 16 degrees during the day.
Attendance 80,000
Pole position
Driver Mercedes
Time 2:05.591
Fastest lap
Driver Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes
Time 1:50.511 on lap 36
Podium
First Red Bull Racing-Renault
Second Mercedes
Third Williams-Mercedes
Lap leaders

The 2014 Belgian Grand Prix (formally the 2014 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix)[1] was a Formula One motor race held on 24 August 2014 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium.[2] It was the twelfth round of the 2014 Formula One season, and the 70th Belgian Grand Prix. The 44-lap race was won by Daniel Ricciardo for the Red Bull team, after starting from fifth position. Nico Rosberg finished second in a Mercedes, with Valtteri Bottas third for the Williams team.

The victory was Ricciardo's second consecutive win; he started from fourth on the grid to win the Hungarian Grand Prix four weeks prior. Rosberg's second place increased his gap to Hamilton in the Drivers' Championship to 29 points. Mercedes established a 157-point lead over Red Bull team in the Constructors' Championship, with seven races of the season remaining.[3]

Report

Background

The Grand Prix was contested by eleven teams, each of two drivers. The teams, also known as constructors, were Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, Lotus, McLaren, Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso, Williams, Marussia and Caterham. Tyre supplier Pirelli brought four different tyre compounds for the race; two dry compounds, the medium "primes" and the soft "options" and two wet-weather compounds, the intermediate and full wet. The drag reduction system (DRS) had two activation zones for the race; one was on the start/finish straight from the final to first corners, and the second on the straight between turns four and five.[4]

Going into the race, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg led the Drivers' Championship with 202 points, ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton with 191 points and Daniel Ricciardo with 131. Fernando Alonso was fourth with 115 points while Valtteri Bottas was fifth with 95 points.[4] In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes were leading with 393 points and Red Bull were second with 219 points. Ferrari with 142 points and Williams with 135 points contended for third place, with Force India fifth with 98 points.[4] Mercedes had so far dominated the championship, winning nine out of the eleven previous races, with Ricciardo winning the Canadian and Hungarian Grands Prix. Kevin Magnussen, Bottas and Alonso had each gained second-place finishes, and Vettel, Jenson Button and Sergio Pérez had achieved third place podium finishes.[4]

There were two driver changes heading into the race. Having been in one of the two Caterham cars since the first race of the season in Australia, Kamui Kobayashi was replaced by three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner André Lotterer.[5] The second driver change was Alexander Rossi who was drafted into Marussia to replace Max Chilton. Chilton had part of the team since the first round and was sidelined for Belgium, as a result of "contractual issues".[6] Marussia later announced on 22 August that Chilton's race seat was reinstated, and Rossi only took part in the event's first practice session.[7]

Practice and qualifying

Three practice sessions were held before the race; two 90 minute sessions on Friday and one lasting an hour on Saturday.[8] Rosberg was the fastest driver in the first practice session, ahead of Hamilton and Alonso.[9] Hamilton was fastest in the second session, ahead of Rosberg, Alonso and Felipe Massa – although the Mercedes driver had run wide during the practice session. The session was disrupted by incidents as Pastor Maldonado struck the barriers and Esteban Gutiérrez spun off – both incidents requiring a suspension as marshals needed to clear the track of both cars.[10]

The qualifying session on Saturday afternoon was split into three parts. The first part ran for 18 minutes and eliminated the cars from qualifying that finished 17th or lower. During this session, the 107% rule was in effect, which necessitated each driver to set a time within 107% of the quickest lap to qualify for the race. The second part of qualifying lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars in positions 11 to 16. The final part of qualifying determined positions from first to tenth, and decided pole position.[8]

Rosberg took his seventh pole position of the season, and his first at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, with a time of 2:05.591. Hamilton qualified behind him in second, complaining of glazed brakes.[11] This was Hamilton's first front row start since the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix five races previously, having suffered a string of various qualifying issues.

Race

The race started at 14:00 local time (UTC+1). The conditions on the grid were dry before the race. Alonso's car stalled on the grid, and later got off the grid to retake his starting position. The race was made controversial when on lap two, the two Mercedes drivers collided going into Les Combes, puncturing Hamilton's tyre and damaging Rosberg's front wing.[12] The incident was later deemed Rosberg's fault by the Mercedes team.[13]

Post-race

The race result left Rosberg leading the Drivers' Championship with 220 points. Hamilton, who failed to score in Belgium, was second with 191 points, 35 points ahead of Ricciardo and 70 ahead of Alonso. Bottas was fifth with 110 points. In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes maintained their lead with 411 points, Red Bull retained second with 254 points, and Ferrari remained in third with 160 points, with seven races of the season remaining.

Shortly after the race, Hamilton accused Rosberg of deliberately crashing into him; Hamilton stated that Rosberg "said he did it on purpose, he said he could have avoided it. He said "I did it to prove a point." Rosberg initially denied any wrongdoing, saying that "I gave it a go. I didn't see any risk in trying to overtake, so why should I not try?" Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff said that "We had a collision that could have been avoided, a second-lap collision. It was Nico who attacked and he shouldn't have done it." At that point, it appeared that the team was letting the rivalry between Rosberg and Hamilton grow out of control, following a prior incident at the Monaco Grand Prix.[14]

Classification

Qualifying

Pos. No. Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 Grid
1 6 Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 2:07.130 2:06.723 2:05.591 1
2 44 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2:07.280 2:06.609 2:05.819 2
3 1 Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 2:10.105 2:08.868 2:07.717 3
4 14 Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari 2:10.197 2:08.450 2:07.786 4
5 3 Australia Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 2:10.089 2:08.989 2:07.911 5
6 77 Finland Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 2:09.250 2:08.451 2:08.049 6
7 20 Denmark Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 2:11.081 2:08.901 2:08.679 7
8 7 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 2:09.885 2:08.646 2:08.780 8
9 19 Brazil Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 2:08.403 2:08.833 2:09.178 9
10 22 United Kingdom Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 2:10.529 2:09.272 2:09.776 10
11 26 Russia Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 2:10.445 2:09.377 11
12 25 France Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 2:09.811 2:09.805 12
13 11 Mexico Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 2:10.666 2:10.084 13
14 99 Germany Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 2:11.051 2:10.238 14
15 8 France Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 2:10.898 2:11.087 15
16 17 France Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 2:11.051 2:12.470 16
17 13 Venezuela Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 2:11.261 17
18 27 Germany Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 2:11.267 18
19 4 United Kingdom Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 2:12.566 19
20 21 Mexico Esteban Gutiérrez Sauber-Ferrari 2:13.414 20
21 45 Germany André Lotterer Caterham-Renault 2:13.469 21
22 9 Sweden Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 2:14.438 22
107% time: 2:16.029
Source:[15]

Race

Pos. No. Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 3 Australia Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 44 1:24:36.556 5 25
2 6 Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 44 +3.383 1 18
3 77 Finland Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 44 +28.032 6 15
4 7 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 44 +36.815 8 12
5 1 Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 44 +52.196 3 10
6 22 United Kingdom Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 44 +54.580 10 8
7 14 Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari 44 +1:01.162 4 6
8 11 Mexico Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 44 +1:04.293 13 4
9 26 Russia Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 44 +1:05.347 11 2
10 27 Germany Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 44 +1:05.697 18 1
11 25 France Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 44 +1:11.920 12
121 20 Denmark Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 44 +1:14.262 7
13 19 Brazil Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 44 +1:15.975 9
14 99 Germany Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 44 +1:22.447 14
15 21 Mexico Esteban Gutiérrez Sauber-Ferrari 44 +1:30.825 20
16 4 United Kingdom Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 43 +1 lap 19
17 9 Sweden Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 43 +1 lap 22
18 17 France Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 39 Gearbox 16
Ret 44 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 38 Collision damage 2
Ret 8 France Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 33 Power unit 15
Ret 45 Germany André Lotterer Caterham-Renault 1 Electrical 21
Ret 13 Venezuela Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1 Exhaust 17
Source:[16]

^1  — Kevin Magnussen originally finished sixth but had 20 seconds added to his race time for forcing Fernando Alonso off track.[16]

Championship standings after the race

  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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External links


Previous race:
2014 Hungarian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
2014 season
Next race:
2014 Italian Grand Prix
Previous race:
2013 Belgian Grand Prix
Belgian Grand Prix Next race:
2015 Belgian Grand Prix