The Winners and Losers from F1’s Belgian Grand Prix

Atrocious conditions resulted in the Belgian Grand Prix officially going down in history as being the shortest-ever F1 race.

There was no racing done and just two laps completed behind the safety car before the event was abandoned following numerous delays as confusion reigned supreme.

Nevertheless, the official result still had important ramifications for the world championship.

Here are our winners and losers from the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix…

Winners:

Red Bull

Red Bull will come away from the Belgian GP weekend happy to have cut the gap to Mercedes in both world championships, even if Sergio Perez failed to score.

Max Verstappen delivered on Saturday to put himself in prime position on Sunday and ultimately capitalise on the torrid weather to be declared the race winner in the wierdest circumstances.

With George Russell separating F1 2021’s title protagonists, Verstappen has cut Hamilton’s championship advantage to just five points heading into his home race, the Dutch Grand Prix, next weekend.

Victory on home soil would hand Verstappen the lead in the title race regardless of where Hamilton finishes.

George Russell and Williams

The Belgian GP provided Russell and his Williams team with a truly memorable result as he claimed a maiden podium with a second-place finish that would have been extremely unlikely had actual green flag racing taken place.

Russell may be considered fortuitous but the Briton ultimately laid the foundations for an incredible podium with his astonishing qualifying performance.

Despite the strange circumstances, it would be hard to begrudge Russell of the result and a welcome change of fortune following so many previous near-misses and bad luck.

Russell’s P2 and nine points, coupled with a point picked up by Nicholas Latifi for being classified ninth, sees Williams open up a 17-point cushion to Alfa Romeo and surely gives the Grove outfit one hand on eighth place in the constructors’ standings.

Daniel Ricciardo

Another driver who produced a brilliant performance on Saturday to set up a fine result was McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.

Qualifying fourth on the grid marked a big breakthrough for Ricciardo, who has struggled to adapt to McLaren’s 2021 car ever since making the switch from Renault over the winter.

On a weekend he recorded both his best qualifying and race result for McLaren, the Australian helped his side reclaim third place over chief rival Ferrari in their intense world championship battle.

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel also excelled in qualifying and fifth-place on Sunday acted as a boost for Aston Martin’s aspirations of beating Alpine and AlphaTauri in the race for P5 in the constructors’ championship, even if he felt he points shouldn’t have been awarded.

The four-time world champion continued to show why he is a firm fan favourite on Saturday when he stopped on the track to check Lando Norris was okay following the McLaren driver’s huge qualifying crash.

Losers:

The fans

You really have to feel sorry for the fans - especially those in general admission - who were undoubtedly the biggest losers on a baffling day at Spa as they braved it out in awful conditions all day in the hope of seeing some racing, only to get two laps being the safety car. 

The fans had to wait over three hours in miserable weather between the initial attempt to start the race and the safety car leading the field back out at 1817 local time.

Afterward, Hamilton said the fans “deserve their money back” for what he described as “a farce” of a Belgian GP - and we agree.

Lando Norris

Oh, what could have been for Norris!

Had he not suffered his scary high-speed accident at Eau Rouge, the Briton way well have been headed for a maiden pole and victory in Belgium.

Norris was the pacesetter in both Q1 and Q2 and was absolutely flying before his crash. Conditions on race day prevented Norris from pulling off a fightback drive, leaving him point-less for the second race running.

Sergio Perez

Perez threw away certain points for Red Bull when he crashed at Les Combes en route to the grid before the race had even begun.

The Mexican had been due to start from seventh and would have scored some crucial points in the championship battle had he not lost control of his Red Bull.

Despite a herculean effort from his mechanics to repair his car and Red Bull getting the green light to start the race from the back of the grid, any hope of a recovery was undone by the failure to complete any racing laps.

Mercedes

A frustrating day for Mercedes as the reigning world champions could do nothing to stop Red Bull from eating into their leads in both world championship with a five-point swing thanks to Verstappen’s victory.

Mercedes were hopeful that their more race-focused set-up gamble would have paid off on Sunday and enabled Hamilton to turn the tables on Verstappen, but they never got the chance to see.

With the sole laps taking place behind the safety car, Valtteri Bottas was stuck outside of the points following his qualifying struggles and five-place grid penalty.

With small margins set to be key in deciding which way the title ultimately goes, Mercedes will be praying it doesn't come to rue Spa at the end of the year.