F1 Belgian GP live commentary and updates - race day
Follow along for lap-by-lap updates of Formula 1's Belgian Grand Prix at Spa
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Hamilton's been told to pit, so he's going to be our test case here. Inters off, mediums on. What's he got in the locker?
Lap 11
Leclerc is wide at La Source, but Verstappen doesn't want to pass him there - he tries to tuck back in behind the Ferrari but can't make the move into Les Combes.
"I don't know if it's the downforce but my tyres are gone," Leclerc says.
It seems that McLaren is also trying to manage the gap between Piastri and Norris to enact a double-stack when it comes to switching tyres. It's drying up, surely won't be long before someone gambles.
Lap 10
Leclerc's got Verstappen right on his tail again, and the Dutchman has a look around the outside of Pouhon before deciding better of it.
Still, this is good for McLaren - Leclerc's 7.5s off the orange cars and keeping Verstappen away from interloping as the dry crossover approaches.
Lap 9
Hamilton has a look at Gasly but the low-downforce Alpine just hangs on in front.
Hulkenberg then tries to put a move on the Alpine before the end of the lap, but can't make it happen.
Lap 8
Hamilton dispatches Colapinto around the outside at Les Combes, so one Ferrari is making progress; the other is struggling to contain Verstappen.
Norris is hovering around DRS range of Piastri, but isn't quite able to take the final step into the one-second window.
Hamilton takes 14th from Hulkenberg, so he's having some fun in these early laps.
Lap 7
Leclerc's taking a very wide line through Rivage, which is letting Verstappen follow through Sector 2.
Russell is trying to chase them, but he's about 1.6s back. Tsunoda's closing in on Albon now.
Hamilton hurls his Ferrari down the inside of Sainz's Williams and takes 16th. Colapinto's next in the Briton's sights.
Lap 6
Norris is back on 'normal' pace now having looked vulnerable to Leclerc. Russell gets past Albon at the top straight to take fifth place.
Of the pitlane starters, Sainz and Hamilton have passed Stroll.
Leclerc has a wide at Les Fagnes and this forces him to be aggressive on the exit of Stavelot to keep Verstappen at bay.
"Why do I have no pack," Norris asks - no electrical deployment, so that's a big ol' power deficit.
"We used a lot on the safety car restart," the team responds, presumably deploying it from the pitwall.
Lap 5
Piastri is right on Norris' gearbox now, and gets a tow along the Kemmel Straight! He ducks out of the slipstream, and gets past to take the lead!
Retribution for Saturday? Piastri will surely think so.
Norris hits go though Blanchimont, squares off the chicane, and gets us under way.
Lap 4
There is a patch of dry track at Stavelot, it's drying quickly, but we're going around behind the safety car again for some reason.
It'll be a rolling start, presumably at the end of this lap. I think they tried to make it a standing start, but the grid's a bit uneven with standing water.
Lap 3
"It's drying pretty quick," Hamilton reports. No indication yet that we'll get a standing start.
We're getting a third lap behind the safety car.
"Right side of the grid is still wetter than the left," Norris reports, as he's angling for a rolling start.
Lap 2
That's our first sighter of the circuit in the books, it's not yet clear if we're about to get going again soon. Leclerc went a bit hot there at Raidillon and almost got a bit close to Piastri.
Can we go now? That looks fine at Pouhon.
"How is the visibility?" Piastri is asked. "Quite a lot better through Eau Rouge, after that it's still quite bad," comes the report.
The Belgian GP begins!
The cars follow the safety car out - this is the first lap. We'll get two laps behind the Aston Martin DBX Whatsitcalled, and then we'll review if the spray isn't too bad.
"The information at the moment is two laps under the safety car, and then they'll call [what to do]", Antonelli is told.
Four minutes to go.
Since we're almost up and running, I'll stop watching "Andre Agassi's greatest Grand Slam moments" and get back to focusing on a different discipline.
Could you get away with playing pro tennis in denim shorts today? Jannik's definitely not doing it.
Race will resume at 16:20 local time
There it is folks! We have a start time. 15 minutes to go.
Let it not be like 2021, where we got start times every 20 minutes, all stating times 20 minutes later...
We have the medical car doing some laps now, to many cheers in the crowd along the Kemmel Straight.
Lots of steam as the surface water evaporates, and the medical car almost has a moment out of the "Corner with No Name" (or Speakers' Corner, as it's also referred to).
The gazebos are going away now, and the coats are coming off among those in the crowd.
Can't be too long to go now, surely?
The three-hour window, according to the FIA, has not yet started as the race run-time has not been interrupted.
So, there's time to get a race in here - plus it's July, so plenty of daylight left.
The rain in certain parts of the circuit is beginning to stop, with blue cloud appearing over the circuit. Problem is, the circuit's so massive that it's still raining elsewhere...
We'll keep an eye on the race control boards, as the sun peeks over the Ardennes.
Notes from the FIA
On defining a start time:"We anticipate the rain to stop at 16:00. We will then target a start as soon as the standing water has been cleared from the track."
On visibility and the need to stay 10 car lengths behind: "The Stewards have determined that for the safe and orderly conduct of the event, in relation to the application of Articles 55.7 and 58.6 of the FIA Formula 1 Sporting Regulations requiring cars to be no more than 10 car lengths apart, no penalty will be applied provided that the distance to the car in front does not exceed 20 car lengths."
We've had a question that asks "why can't we just use the wet tyre?" - there's two reasons for that, one being that given the main issue is visibility, the wet's stronger at dispersing water - it disperses about 85 litres of water per second, the intermediate disperses about 35-40 litres per second.
The wet might make that mitigating factor a touch worse, but the other issue is that the wet is effectively a safety car tyre.
That all being said, the world feed has panned across Raidillon and it still looks distinctly rainy. Less so, as the camera pans across the paddock - let's keep fingers crossed!
So, thanks for joining us. What should we talk about?
Pierre Gasly hopes that the race can actually get going in about 15-20 minutes, which tallies with what Norris was told earlier.
So, we're hopeful of getting something underway relatively soon.
I can see the rationale; by the time the cars had circulated to disperse some water, we'd get the spray back with the rainfall and have to go through the same thing. At least we should have a full 44 laps...ish.
Points allocation in the event of shortened running
No points will be awarded today unless we get a minimum of two green flag laps in. This was voted through ahead of the 2022 season as a response to Spa 2021.
- For less than 25% of the race distance: 6-4-3-2-1 for the top 5.
- For 25% to 50% of the race distance: 13-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 for the top 9.
- For 50% to 75% of the race distance: 19-14-12-9-8-6-5-3-2-1 for the top 10.
- For 75% or more of the race distance: Full points will be awarded for the top 10.
Pierre Gasly spotted wearing his Anthoine Hubert tribute cap in the garage. I was given a similar one (one of his official Renault junior kit allowances) back in late '19 by former Arden team manager Kenny Kirwan, for whom Anthoine drove in F2 that year.
Back in the day when I did PR bits for F2 and GP3 (as-was), Anthoine was the first GP3 driver I interviewed. Lovely bloke. Much missed.
Lando Norris is told by McLaren engineer Will Joseph that the team is expecting a 30-40 minute delay before action can resume.
Il pleut. The rain is back at La Source, fittingly. Cover is being sought under gazebos, in garages, and under poncho.
"That's a bit silly, we should just run a few laps," Verstappen said over the radio when told about the aborted start procedure. "They're way too cautious and now the heavier rain is coming?"
"Expecting heavy rain in nine minutes," Albon is told. The approach is to wait for this next rain cell to pass and then hopefully get the show on the road.
The three-hour clock has been started, with the actual start of the race yet to start the secondary two-hour clock.
It's the age-old conundrum isn't it - visibility is quite poor and the standing water makes it tricky here, but equally we want to see some racing.
We're apparently in a gap between rain showers, and it's not raining now - so why not get going? Norris reports the standing water isn't too bad.
The starting procedure has been suspended
Red flag is out. The cars will follow the safety car into the pits and queue up.
"I can't see a lot behind the safety car so I can't imagine what it's like for everyone else," says Norris.
Formation lap begins
And the field is behind the Aston Martin safety car. Lando Norris gets away very slowly, already lots of spray just in getting off the grid.
Once the field passes, the pitlane starters join the back of the tail.
Tyre watch
...it's intermediates for everyone, as expected. Nobody likes the wet tyre.
It's wet, but no indications of any delays so far from the race control messages - although we will have the formation lap behind the safety car.
That may mean we get a few laps of running like this until the circuit's at least in reasonable shape to drive.
By: Autosport Staff
