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The 2024 Belgian Grand Prix was a race of the unexpected with many ups and downs that made the audience witness the one of the most if not the most exciting race of this season, at first I was a bit skeptic of this season with Red Bull dominating last year, I was actually waiting for 2025 to start watching F1 again but boy is this a great season. From the planning and counter planning to the sudden and unexpected elimination, the race was a real one but tracks like SPA still lack the overtaking without DRS. Spa Francorchamps circuit which has a difficult track and always changing weather conditions is always one of those iconic races because its so fun to watch, the competition in this year’s race was very intense as the first four teams Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari were fighting for the lead with the difference of only a few tenths of a second, proving the great skills and strategies in Formula 1, been that the winner did only one pit stop, although latter on disqualify because of a technicality. This race was a great close before the summer brake, some drivers will try to go on have some fun and try to relax from the stress of racing every other weekend but some others will keep working hard to climb the ladder.

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The Build-Up to the Race

Mercedes' Struggles and Adjustments

The first day of the weekend saw Mercedes grappling with issues regarding the setup of their car, bouncing and purposing became a problem for the team, something that had affected Ferrari in the previous races too. In an attempt to enhance the car’s performance, Mercedes brought a major change in the car’s floor which was quite similar to the RB20. This modification was to increase the down force which was very vital especially for the fast turns of Spa circuit but they had to change back to the old floor on Saturday because of the rain that was expected to fall. This proved to be a good call as both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were able to achieve reasonable starting positions with Hamilton in P3 and Russell in P6 after applying penalties going to Verstappen who technically did pole position during qualifying.

Race Day: The Key Moments

The Start and Early Laps

As always, the first lap was a mess at turn 1, a known area for accidents but this time Hamilton made a good start and overtook Sergio Perez and got the second position. Verstappen who was penalized and started from a further back position, quickly moved up the ranks. Hamilton made a great move on the Kemmel Straight on lap three to overtake the leader, this paved the way for an intense fight at the front with Hamilton looking very good. For McLaren it was not such a good start been that their main driver Lando Norris got out into the gravel on turn one making him loose positions very early in the race on a track that is very difficult to pass others, the DRS effect is not so massive unless you are less than 0.7 sec behind the driver, a disaster start for Norris who is "fighting" for the championship. After two dramatic races for McLaren been Silverstone and Hungary everyone was probably asking how they going to fumble this race? well Norris did having a good qualify and then throw it out the window on turn 1.

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Strategic Decisions

The race strategy is one of the vital factors that influenced the results of the race. Almost all the leading cars chose a two stop approach with the starting tires being the medium compounds. Carlos Sainz decided to start the race on hard compound tires, which seemed to be a rather strange decision. On the other hand, Mercedes did a perfect job on managing their strategy, Hamilton and Russell made their stops at the right time to keep the positions they had. Russell’s first pit stop on lap 10 would later on raise controversy when he got the hard compound tires and ran them for 34 laps, many may argue why they didn't had Hamilton do something like that or why they favor this strategy to Russsell but actually they didn't, it was a gamble he decided to take when he saw himself stuck on fifth, while Hamilton had a great start and was holding ground, they had to play safe strategy with Hamilton and let Russell gamble away, same reason why they let them race to the end knowing Hamilton had a chance to over take Russell but he couldn't, if not he was desperate and loosing control of the car on the last three laps, this was not tires this was him taking too much risk when it was too late for him.

Mid Race Battles

Towards the second half of the race the fight for the lead position became more aggressive but different to what everyone thought Verstappen was not at the top three he was very quick at the beginning, was unable to overtake the McLaren of Lando Norris because of the latter’s faster speed on the straight, for many radio comms it look like he was holding back either saving tires or they were dealing with something else on the car. This enabled Hamilton to create a lead at the front while his partner, Russell; was engaged in a rather intense struggle with Oscar Piastri and Perez. Piastri who was driving exceptionally well was able to overtake both Russell and Perez and set his eyes on the lead, at a point when he finally got the lead was flying with clear air that car really came alive but then he was running out of tires and had to box. This year at SPA the cars that did had pace were McLaren and Mercedes, Ferrari became again a one lap car although at this point of the season we can say the seven top drivers are very close to each other during qualify so mid race on most grand prix the grid order would be almost 80% different than how they started.

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The Final Stint

The last few laps of the race were a fine display of managing the tires, tire whisper if you might want to call Russell, and how to use the car to the maximum. During the race, Russell who had pitted early was the leader of the race with Hamilton following him closely, even turning frustrated believing his team choose Russell over him with a "better" strategy and becoming desperate to pass Russell. Other than the two Mercedes fighting at the front there was not much excitement other than deception, we got Norris who could not pass Verstappen during the entire race even after having a faster car during the straight where DRS was a big help, he kept trying and just couldn't. Ferrari became a middle pack leader with not potential to fight for the lead, if we think about it we got seven fast drivers but when it comes to race we might only have three or four consistent drivers who have real race pace Hamilton, Verstappen, Piastri when the other four drivers Leclerc, Norris, Russell, Sainz most of the time fall apart during the race.

The Disqualification Drama

The Surprise Announcement

When it appeared that Russell had pull out of his hat a great win, all the sudden his car was been review, I cant blame the FIA because they probably wanted to verify how did he pull that off, 34 laps on hard tires. The FIA discovered that Russell’s car was 5kgs under the required weight and in result he was disqualified. This was a big blow to Mercedes, and this handed the win to Hamilton who had driven a perfect race, the disqualification was a painful blow to Russell who had put up one of the best performances ever. When I say a big blow to Mercedes because I mean a one two on SPA, what a race to finish before the summer break, talk about Mercedes come back wining two of the last three races, SPA on a very convincing and dominant way, hats off. The disqualification didn't affect the standings of the championship in a major way since Verstappen still so far away in points, Hamilton’s victory helped him gather more points for the constructors championship, he is not a direct Championship contender but getting some momentum, who knows probably turn things around for the second half of this season and be a challenger for second place, that would be a huge boost for him going into Ferrari next year.

The Belgian Grand Prix of 2024 will go down in history as one of the most exciting races with a lot of action on the track and a rather unexpected finish, not only having Russell driver on hard tires for 34 laps but then getting DQ. Hamilton was the best in this race and proved it, while Russell despite the disqualification proved that he has what it takes to become Mercedes first driver once Hamilton is out next year, Mercedes is starting to become a real contender probably not for any of the two championships but it could add to Red Bull wining even both of the championships if a lot of points keep been spread between the second three teams Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren and then all Red Bull has to do is stay close to the top on most races to win for a very slight margin of points. The teams will now take a break and head into the summer and will look back at the experiences from SPA and the next challenge. The championship race is still on and with several races left before the season is over, with McLaren looking like the number one contender for the constructors championship, Verstappen still 78 points on the lead of the Drivers Championship and even though their car was not dominant this weekend still look like a race winner contender, right now they have a bigger problem and thats Checo Perez who in my opinion will most likely be replace by Ricciardo as a test after the summer break.

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