2013 Belgian Grand Prix

2013 Belgian Grand Prix
Race 11 of 19 in the 2013 Formula One World Championship
Spa-Francorchamps
Race details
Date	25 August 2013
Official name	2013 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix
Location	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Spa, Belgium
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	7.004 km (4.352 miles)
Distance	44 laps, 308.052 km (191.415 miles)
Pole position
Driver	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Time	2:01.012
Fastest lap
Driver	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Time	1:50.756 on lap 40
Podium
First	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Second	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
Third	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Lap leaders

The 2013 Belgian Grand Prix (formally known as the 2013 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race on 25 August 2013 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium. It was the eleventh round of the 2013 season, and the 69th running of the Belgian Grand Prix.

The race was won by Sebastian Vettel in a Red Bull-Renault in a time of 1:23:42, registering an average speed of 220.80 km/h, thus extending his championship lead to 46 points. Second was Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari, and third was Lewis Hamilton (who had started from pole) in a Mercedes.

Qualifying

Mercedes had taken 7 of the last 8 poles, yet they haven't shown their hands in practice sessions. On the other hand, Red Bull looks unbeatable to pole, but Spa's famous changing weather can make a lot of trouble for them. A shower came to the track right before qualifying got underway, with an air temperature of only 22℃.Like the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix , tyre supplier Pirelli brought its hardest two compounds, with the orange-banded hard compound tyre being the harder "prime" tyre, and the white-banded medium compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre.

Q1

All the drivers started the session with inters, Lewis Hamilton set the first benchmark of 2:07.008. As the track continued drying, Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber, and Sebastian Vettel all hit the front briefly. After the mid-point, most drivers pitted for a new set of intermidiate tyres while Giedo van der Garde took a gamble to switch onto the slicks. As times passing by, lap times improved rapidly, nearly pushed both Ferraris out of Q2. But Fernando Alonso managed to set the fastest time at the last moment and his team-mate Felipe Massa also made it into the next session. Van der Garde's decision proved a big success, for he impressively finished 3rd. In fact, three of the four drivers from Caterham and Marussia squeezed into Q2, the only one that failed to do so was Charles Pic, he will start the race from the last place on the grid. Also eliminated were the Williams duo, the two Toro Rossos, and the Sauber of Esteban Gutiérrez.

Q2

At the beginning of the 15 minutes period, drivers were divided into 2 groups, most of them used mediums, while several others including Webber and Alonso chose the hards. In the opening phase, Webber and Alonso were fighting for the top spot, their gap being merely two thousandths of a second. At the same time, Vettel and Hamilton stayed in the pits until there were about 7 minutes left on the board. After that it was time for mediums, first the two Lotuses, then Sebatian Vettel, all challenging for the first place. But finally Kimi Raikkonen put the fight to an end with a 1:48.296. Eliminated in Q2 were Sauber's Nico Hülkenberg, Force India's Adrian Sutil, McLaren's Sergio Pérez, Caterham's Giedo van der Garde who achieved the team's best qualifying result ever, and both the Marussias.

Q3

In fear of the incoming shower, all bar Paul di Resta queued at the pit exit with medium tyres. However just moments later, the Force India driver opted to use the inters. It soon turned out that the latter is right, the other 9 drivers didn't even start a flying lap before it got too wet outside, and they had to pit immediately. Di Resta then set the fastest lap time, with Felipe Massa in second. Just when it looked like he was going to take his maiden pole position, the track start to dry out. As there was 3 minutes left, Räikkönen gave the first shot to come to 3rd, ahead of Alonso. And Rosberg behind them posted a 2:02.251 to take the provisional pole. But none of them could cross the line before the chequered flag. With the ever-improving track, polesitter would be decided among three that still had one timed lap to go—Webber, Vettel, and Hamilton. Webber finished first to reduce the quickest time by almost a second. Then Vettel beat his team mate by a further one tenth of a second, Lewis Hamilton subsequently secured his fourth successive pole. The Lotuses and the Ferraris had to settle in rows 4 and 5.

Race

Mark Webber suffered clutch problems right from the start and fell from third to sixth after one lap. On the other hand, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso both enjoyed a great getaway, running in fourth and fifth places respectively. Sebastian Vettel had a great run up Eau Rouge and overtook pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton down Kemmel Straight on the first lap and quickly took a commanding lead over the Mercedes duo. Alonso and Webber both passed Button and the Spaniard continued to fight his way up the field, overtaking Nico Rosberg for third place. Kimi Räikkönen was also working his way up the field, but excessive brake dust was coming out of the Finn's left front wheel at an early stage in the race.

On the eight lap, Sergio Pérez was handed a drive through penalty for forcing Romain Grosjean off the track. As a result, Grosjean had to straightline Les Combes and fell from eight to tenth as Felipe Massa took advantage. Räikkönen's brakes ultimately failed as the Finn went off massively at the Chicane, nearly collecting Massa in the process. The Lotus driver retired the car, which meant that his record run of consecutive points finishes ended at 27. It was later discovered that a loose visor tear-off got stuck inside the left front brake duct, causing the disc to overheat. After the first round of pit stops, Hamilton successfully retained second place from Alonso, but the latter quickly found his way through.

Further down the order, a battle involving Esteban Gutiérrez, Pastor Maldonado and the Force India duo was raging. As the four cars were approaching the final chicane, the young Mexican successfully made his move on both Adrian Sutil and Maldonado. The German tried to follow, but clipped the Williams driver's front wing. Maldonado dove for the pits only to collect Paul di Resta's Force India. As a result, the Venezuelan had to pit for a new front wing and received a ten seconds stop-and-go penalty while di Resta retired his car on the spot. Despite making a successful move, he had a drive-through penalty for leaving the track limits.

Vettel won the race, ahead of Alonso and Hamilton. Nico Rosberg successfully fought off Webber for fourth, finishing less than three seconds behind his teammate. Button took sixth for McLaren, while the race-long scrap between Massa and Grosjean ended with the Brazilian in front for seventh. Sutil and Daniel Ricciardo took ninth and tenth respectively.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	2:00.368	1:49.067	2:01.012	1
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	2:01.863	1:48.646	2:01.200	2
3	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	2:01.597	1:48.641	2:01.325	3
4	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	2:01.099	1:48.552	2:02.251	4
5	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	2:02.338	1:48.925	2:02.332	5
6	5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	2:01.301	1:48.641	2:03.075	6
7	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	2:02.476	1:48.649	2:03.081	7
8	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	2:01.151	1:48.296	2:03.390	8
9	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	2:00.190	1:48.309	2:03.482	9
10	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	2:01.462	1:49.020	2:04.059	10
11	11	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	2:01.712	1:49.088		11
12	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	2:02.749	1:49.103		12
13	6	Sergio Pérez	McLaren-Mercedes	2:02.425	1:49.304		13
14	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	2:00.564	1:52.036		14
15	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	2:02.110	1:52.563		15
16	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	2:02.948	1:52.762		16
17	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	2:03.072			17
18	18	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	2:03.300			18
19	19	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	2:03.317			19
20	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	2:03.432			20
21	12	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	2:04.324			21
22	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	2:07.384			22
107% time:2:08.603
Source:

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	44	1:23:42.196	2	25
2	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	44	+16.869	9	18
3	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	44	+27.734	1	15
4	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	44	+29.872	4	12
5	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	44	+33.845	3	10
6	5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	44	+40.794	6	8
7	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	44	+53.922	10	6
8	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	44	+55.846	7	4
9	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	44	+1:09.547	12	2
10	19	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	44	+1:13.470	19	1
11	6	Sergio Pérez	McLaren-Mercedes	44	+1:21.936	13
12	18	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	44	+1:26.740	18
13	11	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	44	+1:28.258	11
14	12	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	44	+1:40.436	21
15	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	44	+1:47.456	20
16	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	43	+1 Lap	14
17	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	43	+1 Lap	17
18	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	43	+1 Lap	15
19	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	42	+2 Laps	16
Ret	14	Paul di Resta	Force India–Mercedes	26	Collision	5
Ret	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	25	Brakes	8
Ret	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	8	Oil leak	22
Source:

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos.	Driver	Points
	1	Sebastian Vettel	197
1	2	Fernando Alonso	151
1	3	Lewis Hamilton	139
2	4	Kimi Räikkönen	134
	5	Mark Webber	115

Constructors' Championship standings

	Pos.	Constructor	Points
	1	Red Bull-Renault	312
	2	Mercedes	235
	3	Ferrari	218
	4	Lotus-Renault	187
1	5	McLaren-Mercedes	65

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Greenpeace protest

Greenpeace used the Belgian Grand Prix as a main point of protests against Shell, a principal sponsor of the race. Greenpeace activists went to the track and put up a number of banners protesting against Shell drilling in the Arctic. These included two remote controlled banners which scrolled up in front of the podium celebrations, which were quickly disposed of by security, and a large banner on the main grandstand. The official world feed broadcast did not show any banner in detail.