Belgian GP | Wet conditions mix the grid for tomorrow's race
A brief summary of the Saturday on the track of Spa-Francorchamps.
Saturday on the Belgian track of Spa-Francorchamps has brought to us a lot of interesting events. First of all, the dry conditions during the FP3 gave Vettel the top time during the session. Following him we had his teammate Raikkonen, with Hamilton and Bottas behind. On the 5th and 6th we've got the two Red Bull drivers: Verstappen and Ricciardo. The top ten was closed by: Leclerc, Perez, Hulkenberg and Ocon. The qualifying has been much more dramatic, due to completely dry conditions in Q1 and Q2 and quite a lot of rain in the Q3. Because of this, we've got quite unexpected starting grid for tomorrow's race: Hamilton with P1, Vettel with P2, Esteban Ocon on P3 and his teammate, Perez on P4, followed by Grosjean, Raikkonen, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Magnussen and Bottas on P10 (he will receive a penalty anyway, which means he will be starting from the back of the grid). On 11th and 12th position we've got the Toro Rosso drivers, Gasly and Hartley, followed by the two Sauber drivers, Leclerc and Ericsson, again followed by two drivers, this time from Renault, Hulkenberg and Sainz consecutively. Alonso, Sirotkin, Stroll and Vandoorne are closing the grid in the qualifying, but as mentioned before Bottas will receive a penalty, as well as Hulkenberg.
During the media briefing, Nico Hulkenberg said that today's results are very good for Force India and they came at a particularly good time. He admitted that he still talks and is friends with people from the team, so to score 3rd and 4th during the qualifying is a very positive thing for them. Hulkenberg admitted that Force India has been strong this weekend, keeping a good pace, which we could observe due to the new-old championship team mostly out-perfroming the team from Enstone. In the meeting with the press, Daniel Ricciardo said that their results are not satisfying and it's clear to see the lack of speed during this Grand Prix in both of the Red Bull cars. He also admitted that they have been experimenting with the front wings, but afterwards they decided to stay with the smaller wing, because otherwise they would not be able to overtake the others.
The starting grid for tomorrow looks crazy, will the race results be similar? How will the cars and drivers behave in conditions much different than in the last part of qualifying? We will find out in the last day of the Belgian GP 2018.