The 44-lap Belgian Grand Prix is always a complicated race to predict the strategy for, featuring the longest and most variable lap of the season, with unpredictable weather and a high probability of safety cars. In fact, it was a safety car that influenced the strategy last year, with nearly all the drivers changing tyres just once on lap 11: comparatively early in the race, meaning that careful tyre management was required towards to the end. On that occasion, the winning strategy was P Zero Yellow medium to P Zero White hard.
This year looks very different. For a start, race conditions are set to be much cooler than last year. And there’s a strong chance of rain too, with the Cinturato Green intermediate tyres dominating the day’s action.
Cooler weather should in theory make a one-stopper easier to achieve, but it might also push more drivers towards the P Zero Red soft, with a two-stopper coming into play, although in general teams like to limit the number of pit stops.
If it is dry, starting on the medium tyre offers the maximum flexibility, but with a wet qualifying session (as was the case today) and a dry race, all the drivers can start on whichever compound they choose out of their allocation
MARIO ISOLA – HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“First and foremost, we’re all relieved that Lando Norris is OK after a very big accident at one of the quickest points on the circuit. This was an extremely tricky qualifying where it was very hard to predict the weather from one minute to the next, forcing the teams to think on their feet. Similar conditions are expected for tomorrow, so that particular challenge is set to continue. The intermediate tyre, which was used for the bulk of today’s running, showed itself to be capable of handling a wide variety of wet and drying conditions. Tomorrow’s strategy – where we don’t even know yet which type of tyres the drivers will be starting the race on – is going to be mainly about adapting to changing circumstances, as we saw throughout today.”
MARIO ISOLA – HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
| FREE PRACTICE 3 – TOP 3 TIMES | ||
|---|---|---|
| DRIVER | TIME | COMPOUND |
| Verstappen | 1m56.924s | INTERMEDIATE USED |
| Perez | 1m57.871s | INTERMEDIATE NEW |
| Hamilton | 1m57.996s | INTERMEDIATE USED |
| QUALIFYING TOP 10 | ||
|---|---|---|
| DRIVER | TIME | COMPOUND |
| Verstappen | 1m59.765s | INTERMEDIATE NEW |
| Russell | 2m00.086s | INTERMEDIATE USED |
| Hamilton | 2m00.099s | INTERMEDIATE NEW |
| Ricciardo | 2m00.864s | INTERMEDIATE NEW |
| Vettel | 2m00.935s | INTERMEDIATE NEW |
| Gasly | 2m01.164s | INTERMEDIATE USED |
| Pérez | 2m02.112s | INTERMEDIATE NEW |
| Bottas | 2m02.502s | INTERMEDIATE NEW |
| Ocon | 2m03.513s | INTERMEDIATE NEW |
| Norris | DNF | INTERMEDIATE NEW |
| BEST TIME BY COMPOUND SO FAR | ||
|---|---|---|
| COMPOUND | DRIVER | TIME |
| HARD C2 | Verstappen | 1m45.905s |
| MEDIUM C3 | Bottas | 1m44.513s |
| SOFT C4 | Verstappen | 1m44.472s |
| INTERMEDIATE | Norris | 1m56.025s |
| WET | Norris | 2m06.780s |