BELGIAN "GRAND PRIX" 2021

This was the weekend when it was consistently down-pouring at Spa (which, as a track, is terrifying enough without it being all wet).

During the wet qualifying, Lando Norris had a huge, high-speed crash that spun him around a million times. Qualifying was the best part of the weekend by far, though, when it looked like Hamilton was going to get pole, and then ALL THE SUDDEN, GEORGE RUSSELL started setting purple sectors at the last minute and shot to the top of the timings. Then Max, God bless him, finished his fast lap and took pole. It was awesome.

George Russell started second! Max on pole! Raining all weekend!

As for the "race" itself: it was delayed for nearly FOUR HOURS because of constant rain, then they only ran 2 laps behind the safety car and that was it. I'm glad they didn't run, though, because safety for these boys comes first.

The whole situation was completely confusing though (has the race started or not? Can Perez, who crashed on his way to the grid, rejoin the race if his car is fixed? How long until the rain clears? Will it clear? How much can these poor, soaking, freezing fans take?) I have never seen so much confusion in my life.

So overall, calling it a "grand prix" is pretty generous. I've never seen anything like this weekend.

Emoji of the week: rain cloud.

Notes:

Free Practice 1

• here we are back at iconic Spa!!

• WOAH ITS RAINING, and there are tons of drivers who have never driven Spa in the wet and it’s a 90% risk of rain for FP1

• It’s that time of the year when you have all of your Usual Suspects where you already know, as soon as a yellow flag comes out and based on who is out there, who messed up. In this case it keeps being Yuki

• Yuki has a spin and Kimi has a spin, both in the same place at different times

• Kimi lightly hits the very slim pit entrance wall

• Bottas will still start this race with a 5 place grid penalty for causing that HUGE collision at the start of the race in Hungary

• They discuss the engine penalties and Paul roasts Lance Stroll for hitting Charles last race and damaging his engine although Charles did nothing wrong and yet Charles is the one being punished for it

• Hamilton is on a fast lap and Latifi gets in his way and totally impedes him hahahahah

• Charles has a scary moment dipping a wheel in the gravel but keeps it all good and no damage, just gravel in the track

Free Practice 2

• Sergio Perez signed a contract extension for another year at Red Bull!! Yay!!!

• First ever visor camera angle where we can see what Alonso sees as he drives

• Ocon has a big spin and could have totally put it into the wall but doesn’t and it was so lucky but I am hoping this will calm Ocon down from his race win high

• Oh NO Charles hits the wall but it wasn’t too high speed and it was a small mistake, so red flag to clean it up but it’s so sad to that it was Charles who crashed out

• OHH NOOO Max crashes out at the same corner as Charles did in Turn 7 and causes a red flag NO Maxy!!

Free Practice 3

• Max’s car is totally fixed from the crash, but Charles had to take a new chassis

• It’s still super rainy this session so lots of spray and we have to see what kind of running we get

• This Alonso helmet cam at Spa is so actually terrifying

• They’re talking about why Seb was disqualified last race for apparently his fuel evaporated from race conditions and it was less than they needed to test at the end and they just disqualified

• Gasly has a spin and does really well to keep it out of the wall

• Charles has to go back into the garage because there’s something loose in the cockpit

• Lando does a test run of the slicks in the wet and he manages to keep it together but it is SUPER slippery

Qualifying

• DELAYED SESSION because of so much rain!! There is too much standing water on the track for even wet tires and we get a five minute warning before the start

• Everyone goes out on the wets except the two Williams who are on inters which turn out to be the right choice cause they are smashing everyone else’s times and George is going fastest and everyone needs to box for inters

• Latifi screws up one of George’s laps by going off in the inters ahead of George and causing a yellow so he has to slow

• Everyone realizes they have to box for inters cause they are getting smashed by the Williams

• Rain to sun to rain to sun so what are they gonna do

• Power supply to the pit wall failed during the start of the session to reset everything

• Crazy track changes and it’s a total toss up who will get out

• Ocon is in 15th again at the end of Q1 after all this talk about Ocon winning last time

• Out in Q1: Gio, Yuki, Kimi, Lil Schu and Mazepin

• Stewards looking at a Sainz and Ocon incident in Q2

• Out in Q2: Charles, Sainz, Alonso, Stroll

• Now it’s full wet conditions again for Q3! This is a wild qualifying session

• Seb says red flag, it’s too wet out here

• They ask Lando how conditions are and he says there’s some aquaplaning

• LANDO HAS A HUUUUUUUUGE WET WEATHER CRASH and a LOT OF SPINNING and ends up taking almost all four wheels off and thank GOD he is okay but man that was terrifying and we just were watching in horror

• SEB pulls up beside Lando after the crash to MAKE SURE HE’S OKAY by giving a thumbs up and Lando gives a thumbs up and THAT IS THE SEB I LOVE and he is furious on the radio that they didn’t stop the session earlier so that a crash could be avoided

• They finally restart and it’s suuuuuuuper scary

• it looked like it was all over and that Hamilton was gonna get pole again BUT THEN GEORGE RUSSELL got a fastest lap!!! AND IT LOOKED LIKE GEORGE RUSSELL WAS GONNA GET POLE IN THE WILLIAMS AND HE NEARLY DID

• BUT THEN MAX GOT POLE IN THE LAST SECOND AND GEORGE IN SECOND AHHHHH

Race

• SERGIO PEREZ CRASHED ON HIS WAY TO THE GRID AND WILL NOT RACE NOOOOOOOOOOOO

• DELAYED START BECAUSE THE RAIN IS SO BAD AND it has been such a miserable wet weekend. They said ten minute delay but it looks AWFUL out there and they keep delaying it by 5 minutes every time

• Of course Lewis gets out of the car first when they announce the delay and why is he out of the car and then he has someone wiping off his feet before he gets back in the car barfff

• This just promises so much chaos and I am so frightened

• It will be a safety car start when it does get going

• They start formation lap 25 minutes after the start time but they should NOT be starting this race in this wet conditions

• It’s completely blind out there

• Everyone complains except Max who is ready to go but it’s suuuuuuuuper dangerous and they report Start Procedure Suspended and then they pull a red flag and take everyone into the pit lane and we are not starting for the foreseeable future

• Now they are not even sure if they are going to get this race run this afternoon because it is SO RAINY

• This is just the most insane thing because nobody knows if the race has actually started or not because of the formation lap

• Okay SO - after 3 hours and 10 minutes, they are getting back into their cars but there is no change in conditions and it’s raining just as bad so it seems like they are going to just have 2 laps to have 50 percent points so geeeez, who knows what is going on right now

• The delays have meant that Red Bull fixed Perez’s car and he can start from the back but that was actually a point of contention as well

• So they put them out for two laps behind the safety car and they brought them back in with a second red flag so now the race has officially started and the timer is ticking down and we have an hour to wait and see if they will go back out but honestly they will not be doing that for sure, it’s actually worse out there than it was on the first 2 formation laps originally

• No one got to race, so the winners were the order from qualifying: Max won, George Russell in second (!!!) and Hamilton in third. They still had a podium. But it was half-points for this race, apparently, rather than full. That’s why they ran two laps. Because half-points are given if you run at least two laps.