2014 Belgian Grand Prix


The 2014 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Wallonia, on 24 August. It was the twelfth round of the 2014 Formula One World Championship and the 58th running of the event as part of the series. The 44-lap race was won by Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo from a fifth position start. Nico Rosberg finished second for Mercedes and Valtteri Bottas of Williams took third.
Although Rosberg won the pole position by posting the fastest lap in qualifying, he was immediately passed by his teammate Lewis Hamilton and the second Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel at the start. He returned to second after Vettel made a driver error at Les Combes corner and took the lead following contact with the right-hand end plate of his front wing and Hamilton's left-rear tyre on lap two. Rosberg made a pit stop to replace the front wing at the conclusion of lap eight, relinquishing the lead to Ricciardo. Over the course of the remainder of the race, Ricciardo maintained the lead and he responded to Rosberg's faster pace in the final ten laps to claim his second victory in a row and the third of his career.
Rosberg was booed by the crowd and he received an undisclosed punishment from Mercedes for his contact with Hamilton; both competitors had been permitted to race each other without the imposition of team orders. The result kept Ricciardo third in the Drivers' Championship and Rosberg increased his lead over Hamilton to 29 points after Hamilton retired with bodywork damage. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso maintained fourth from Bottas in fifth. Mercedes retained its lead over Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship with seven races left in the season.

Background

The race was the 12th of the 19 rounds in the 2014 Formula One World Championship and the 58th Belgian Grand Prix Formula One race. It was held at the 20-turn Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Wallonia on 24 August. Tyre supplier Pirelli brought four types of tyre to the race: two dry compounds and two wet-weather compounds. The drag reduction system had two activation zones for the race, one was on the straight linking the Bus Stop chicane and La Source corner, and the second was on the Kemmel Straight linking Radillion and Les Combes turns. Following the 2013 race, new debris fences were erected at La Source turn, the barrier on the inside of turn 11 was renewed and track drainage was improved.
Entering the race, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg led the World Drivers' Championship with 202 points, eleven ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton in second. Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull was third with 131 points after winning the preceding Hungarian Grand Prix four weeks earlier and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was fourth with 115 points. Valtteri Bottas for the Williams team was fifth with 95 points. Mercedes led the World Constructors' Championship with 393 points and they were ahead of Red Bull in second with 213 points. Ferrari were with 142 points and Williams were seven points behind in fourth. With 98 points, Force India held fifth place.
made his début at a Formula One race weekend, replacing Kamui Kobayashi at Caterham.
At the preceding Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton ignored team orders from Mercedes to allow Rosberg to pass him in the final laps. He reduced the Drivers' Championship deficit to 11 points with a third-place finish as Rosberg took fourth. The two discussed how the situation should be diffused in a meeting on the night of 21 August, three days before the Belgian Grand Prix. For his part, Hamilton said he desired a recreation of his best form from earlier in the season and sought to put his recent below-par qualifying performances behind him,
"I had some difficult weekends in the first part of the season, but then a bit of good fortune at the last race in Budapest kept me from damaging my car on the wall during that first lap, so hopefully that was a sign that my fortunes are changing at just the right time.There were so many positives to take from the opening eleven races, but both myself and the team always want more and know we are capable of more. The aim is to put the more difficult times of some of the previous weekends behind us and to recreate the best moments at every race from now on. I love driving at Spa, so there are few better places to start."

Rosberg stated that he would not underestimate the duel for the championship due to pace of the other teams, "In Formula One you just can't afford to give away any advantage and I know that both the team and myself will be working harder than ever to keep improving and maintain our position right to the very end. On top of that, the battle with Lewis has been so close all season – and it could well stay that way right up to the final race – so every last point will be crucial in that contest, too."
There was one change of driver going into the Grand Prix. Three-time co-winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 2011 Formula Nippon champion André Lotterer drove in lieu of Kamui Kobayashi at Caterham. At 32 years and 288 days old, Lotterer was the oldest driver to debut in Formula One since Giovanni Lavaggi at the 1995 German Grand Prix and it was his first time in a Formula One car since he was a test driver for Jaguar in the 2002 season. Marussia announced that GP2 Series competitor and test and reserve driver Alexander Rossi would be entered in place of regular driver Max Chilton, because of reported "contractual issues" but the organisation who represented Chilton said that he relinquished his role "voluntarily". Chilton's seat was subsequently reinstated following a successful request to the stewards by Marussia, meaning Rossi drove only in the first practice session. In that session, Sauber reserve driver Giedo van der Garde drove Esteban Gutiérrez's car.

Practice

Per the regulations for the 2014 season, three practice sessions were held, two 90-minute sessions on Friday and one 60-minute session on Saturday. In the first session, held in dry weather, Rosberg was fastest with a lap of 1 minute, 51.577 seconds, almost a tenth of a second quicker than his teammate Hamilton in second. The Ferrari cars of Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen were third and fifth; they were separated by Jenson Button's McLaren in fourth. Sergio Pérez of Force India led McLaren's Kevin Magnussen, the other Force India of Nico Hülkenberg, Ricciardo and Bottas in positions six to ten. During the session, Alonso briefly stopped at the edge of Eau Rouge corner with engine problems, and his teammate Räikkönen spun leaving the La Source hairpin before his car's energy recovery system overheated. Button's DRS was lodged open, Vettel's session ended early with a temperature-related exhaust failure and Marcus Ericsson spun his Caterham at the La Source hairpin.
Hamilton set the day's fastest lap on the soft compound tyre during a qualifying simulation in the second session at 1 minute, 49.189 seconds. Rosberg was 0.604 seconds slower in second and Alonso was third. Felipe Massa of Williams was fourth, Button fifth and Bottas sixth. Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat, Ricciardo, Magnussen and Hülkenberg followed in the top ten. Just after eight minutes into practice, Pastor Maldonado ran into the grass at the right-hand side exiting Rivage corner and heading into Pouhon turn. He lost control of his Lotus, speared across into a barrier on the left of the track, causing a red flag. The right-rear wheel was deranged from Maldonado's car and track marshals cleared debris. He was transported to the circuit's medical centre for a pre-cautionary check-up and was released soon after with no injuries found. A gearbox fault caused Gutiérrez to spin soon after at Blanchimont corner, prompting a second stoppage since he was unable to continue driving.
After the second session, Vettel, who was sidelined with an ignition failure in one cylinder that broke the exhaust and overheated his kinetic motor–generator unit, changed his engine, his fifth of the season. He avoided incurring a ten-place grid penalty because he reverted to an old engine that he used in the preceding Hungarian Grand Prix. Heavy overnight rain made the circuit damp and little on-track activity occurred during the first half an hour of the final session. Wet and intermediate tyres were used before the dry soft and medium tyres were used for the rest of the session as teams prepared for qualifying. Bottas was fastest on the drying track with a lap of 1 minute, 49.465 seconds late in the session. Ricciardo, Rosberg, Räikkönen, Hamilton, Alonso, Kvyat, Button, Massa and Jean-Éric Vergne of Toro Rosso completed the top ten.

Qualifying

Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts. The first part ran for 18 minutes, eliminating cars that finished the session 17th or below. The 107% rule was in effect, requiring drivers to reach a time within 107 per cent of the quickest lap to qualify. The second part lasted 15 minutes, eliminating cars that finished 11th to 16th. The final session ran for 12 minutes and determined pole position to tenth. Cars who progressed to the final session were not allowed to change tyres for the race's start, using the tyres with which they set their quickest lap times in the second session. Heavy rain returned 40 minutes before qualifying commenced and accompanied a hailstorm, making the circuit slippery. Although it later stopped, uncertainty over the weather caused teams to use wet-weather tyres. Rain returned at the conclusion of the first session and it remained for most of the following session before it turned sunny for the final session.
Rosberg was fastest in the first and third sessions and took his first pole position at Spa-Francorchamps, his fourth in a row, his seventh of 2014, and the 11th of his career with a time of 2 minutes and 5.591 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by his teammate Hamilton who had a grazed front left brake disc that caused his car to jerk and lost time by changing his braking points. Vettel and Alonso took third and fourth after their first timed laps of the final session and both drivers could not better the two Mercedes. Ricciardo qualified fifth after running wide at Blanchimont corner on his final lap. A loss of time in the first third of the lap caused Bottas to start from sixth. An understeer from flat-spotting his front tyres at the La Source hairpin in the second session meant Magnussen took seventh. Multiple driving errors from Räikkönen placed him in eighth. Ninth-placed Massa had a grazed front right disc in the track's heavy braking zones. Traffic on his warm-up lap comprised his tyre warming and slowed him. Button took tenth after he locked his brakes cresting a hill on the run to Les Combes corner.
Kvyat was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten because he was demoted to 11th in the final seconds of the second session. An exhaust system fault limited his teammate Vergne to three timed laps and 12th place. The wet track prevented Pérez from improving his lap and he took 13th. Sauber's Adrian Sutil pushed hard to start from 14th and Romain Grosjean of Lotus had a loss of rear car control that restricted him to 15th. Marussia driver Jules Bianchi entered the second session for the second successive year in Belgium and the third time in the last four races; he took 16th after balance issues at Les Combes corner and brake grazing problems caused him to run deep at Bruxelles turn. Maldonado failed to progress beyond the first session after he spun on his fastest lap and was 17th. Hülkenberg in 18th could not progress past the first session for the first time since the 2012 season due to a loss of brake feel and a minor driver error. A lack of battery power put Chilton 19th and powertrain problems restricted Gutiérrez to 20th. Lotterer in 21st out-qualified his Caterham teammate Ericsson in 22nd by almost a second.

Qualifying classification

The fastest lap in each of the three sessions is denoted in bold and the winner of pole position is indicated by a.

Race

The race began from a standing start at 14:00 Central European Summer Time. The weather at the start was dry with dark clouds, and some rain had fallen. The air temperature was between and the track temperature ranged from ; forecasts on Sunday predicted rain to fall but not with the same intensity as on Saturday. Every driver, except for Sutil, began on the soft compound tyres. The soft compound tyre was predicted to be 13 seconds faster over 15 laps and degradation rate research prompted most teams to make two pit stops for their drivers. As the Ferrari mechanics were about to start Alonso's car on the grid, it failed to respond because its battery had been emptied for unspecified reasons. They retrieved a jump-start battery from their garage and used it on his car. This incurred Alonso a five-second time penalty that he was required to take at his first pit stop since Ferrari broke a regulation mandating all team personnel to vacate the track 15 seconds before the start of the formation lap. Alonso's mechanics completed the installation of the spare battery before the last car passed him, allowing him to start from fourth.
Although he stopped slightly outside of his grid slot and reversed to find a good angle, Hamilton used his teammate Rosberg's slower start to lead into the La Source hairpin. Vettel out-braked Rosberg on the left and passed him going uphill towards Eau Rouge corner putting himself between the two Mercedes. He deployed of electrical energy on the Kemmel Straight as Hamilton attempted to prevent Vettel from clinging onto his slipstream by defending on the right. That encouraged Vettel to steer left and he out-braked Hamilton on cold tyres. He locked his tyres and used the run-off area to return to the track in third, behind Rosberg but in front of Ricciardo. Elsewhere, Bianchi and Grosjean made contact at the exit to the La Source hairpin, puncturing Bianchi's right-rear tyre and forcing him into the pit lane for a replacement wheel. At the end of the first lap, Hamilton led his teammate Rosberg by half a second, with Vettel third. Alonso and Ricciardo rounded out the top five. Maldonado became the first driver to retire from the Grand Prix with a suspected exhaust failure that caused smoke to emit from the rear of his car on lap two.
was put out of contention from contact with his teammate Rosberg on lap two. He subsequently implored his team Mercedes to retire him and was allowed to on the 39th lap.
That lap, Hamilton again went defensive but this time from Rosberg, his teammate, who slipstreamed him. Rosberg put Hamilton on the outside line as his front wing was level with Hamilton's side pod when the two entered Les Combes corner. As Hamilton was halfway through the left-hand turn, his left-rear tyre was punctured by Rosberg's front right wing endplate. A section of endplate was launched airborne; much of Rosberg's front wing remained intact. Hamilton's tyre delaminated at the exit to Pouhon corner and it caused downforce-related bodywork damage. He drove slowly to the pit lane and rejoined the race in 19th. DRS was enabled on the third lap. On that lap, Ricciardo's low-downforce setup gave him an efficient DRS and he passed Alonso for third into Les Combes corner. Ricciardo quickly drew close to his teammate Vettel. After Vettel ran wide onto the damp artificial grass through Pouhon corner on lap five, he slid luridly and Ricciardo got past for second. On the same lap, Lotterer was retired from a loss of power, possibly caused by him driving over a kerb too hard at Blancimont turn. Pérez passed Massa to take ninth on lap six and Bottas used DRS to overtake Alonso for fourth on the Kemmel Straight.
Rosberg was called into the pit lane at the end of lap eight for a replacement front wing and the medium compound tyres. He rejoined the race in 15th. Räikkönen made a pit stop on the same lap in Ferrari's attempt to put him ahead of Bottas and Vettel after the pit stops ended. On lap 10, a section of tyre carcass from Bianchi's punctured tyre wrapped itself around Rosberg's radio antenna and it diverted his attention before releasing itself. Between laps 10 and 12, Vettel, Ricciardo, Bottas and Alonso made their first pit stops. After the pit stops, Ricciardo led Räikkönen by 2.4 seconds, with Vettel a further three seconds behind in third, Rosberg was fourth and Bottas fifth. Vergne was overtaken for seventh at the Bus Stop chicane by Magnussen on the 15th lap. Back in fourth, Rosberg's pit stop on the eighth lap compromised him strategy-wise and he could not pass Vettel on the straights. He attempted to brake later than Vettel on the outside at the Bus Stop chicane on lap 17; he locked his tyres on the run-off area. Bottas then slipstreamed Rosberg on the Kemmel Straight and deployed DRS to overtake him for fourth. Two laps later, Rosberg made a second pit stop to replace his flat-spotted tyres with the soft compounds and emerged in 11th.
Räikkönen was almost eight seconds behind Ricciardo when Ferrari asked him to enter the pit lane on the 20th lap because his rear tyres had degraded enough to prompt a tyre change. On lap 21, Hamilton in 17th implored Mercedes to retire him because of his car's bodywork damage; the team insisted he continue in anticipation of a safety car deployment. Rosberg passed Pérez to take over seventh on lap 22. That lap, Vettel who lapped in the 1 minute and 55 second range to Rosberg's 1 minute and 51 minute laps made his pit stop and emerged in eighth, behind Rosberg and Räikkönen. During lap 23, Magnussen in fourth blocked Alonso from overtaking him three times. That lap, Rosberg passed Button for fourth, only for Button to reclaim the position because Rosberg had a fuel limit issue. On the following lap, Rosberg tried again to pass Button and he was successful that time round. He later passed Alonso on the Kemmel Straight for third on lap 25. That lap, Hamilton overtook Grosjean for 16th and Button lost fifth to Vettel at the Bus Stop chicane.
took his second consecutive victory and claimed the third win of his career.
Ricciardo made his second pit stop from the lead at the conclusion of the 27th lap and had the medium compound tyres installed on his car. He exited from his stop 3.7 seconds ahead of Rosberg in third. Bottas took the lead for one lap, before making his own stop at the end of the lap 28 and emerged in fifth. Bottas overtook Vettel for fourth on the outside at Les Combes corner on lap 30. Four laps later, Grosjean retired from downforce-related damage sustained to his Lotus at his second pit stop. After Ricciardo re-assumed the lead earlier, Rosberg's soft compound tyres were worn and he could not match Ricciardo's pace. Mercedes decided to put Rosberg on a third pit stop to get the win from Ricciardo on the final lap. Red Bull responded by providing Ricciardo with a target lap time of 1 minute, 53.400 seconds to prevent Rosberg from overtaking him, which he achieved consistently. Rosberg's pit stop came at the end of lap 34. He passed Bottas and Räikkönen to return to second by lap 36.
Hamilton's request to retire was granted on the 39th lap and he entered the pit lane to be pushed into his garage. Around that period, Bottas challenged his compatriot Räikkönen for third on the outside of Les Combes corner but Räikkönen prevented Bottas from completing the pass. Bottas attempted again on lap 40 and got by Räikkönen on the Kemmel Straight. One lap later, Bianchi retired with a failed gearbox. As Alonso slipstreamed Magnussen at on the Kemmel Straight and lapped Ericsson on lap 42, Magnussen steered to the right and Alonso put half of his Ferrari onto the grass to avoid a major crash. Alonso's loss of momentum allowed Button to overtake him into Les Combes corner. Button then failed to pass his teammate Magnussen at Rivage turn. That allowed Alonso and Vettel to get past Button and demote him to seventh. Alonso tried again to pass Magnussen on lap 43 at Les Combes corner though it encouraged Vettel to draw alongside him. He tried for a third time at Rivage corner but was put onto the grass and Vettel overtook Alonso.
Starting the final lap, Vettel overtook Magnussen into the La Source hairpin and Alonso attempted an pass on the inside of the latter. Alonso made contact with the rear of Magnussen's car, breaking his front wing, and Button passed Alonso for seventh. Meanwhile, Ricciardo maintained the lead under pressure from Rosberg to take his second successive win, and the third of his career. Rosberg in second followed 3.383 seconds later and Bottas finished third. Off the podium, Räikkönen took his best result of the season in fourth and his highest finish since the 2013 Korean Grand Prix. Magnussen finished fifth on the road and Vettel sixth. Button, Alonso, Pérez and Kvyat rounded out the top ten finishers. Outside the top ten, Hülkenberg, Vergne, Massa, Sutil, Gutiérrez, Chilton, Ericsson and Bianchi were the final finishers.

Post-race

At the podium interviews, conducted by former team owner Eddie Jordan, Robserg was booed by the crowd four times for his contact with Hamilton on lap two, which they perceived as intentional. He blamed the reaction on a small group of Hamilton's British support and urged them to acquaint themselves with the regulations and a drivers' code of conduct before booing. Ricciardo said that he had to maintain his lap times after Rosberg entered the pit lane and not hit anything. Rosberg spoke of his confidence that his team could have dominated because of their quick pace and Bottas said it would be difficult for Williams to win because of Mercedes' outright speed. In the later press conference, Ricciardo stated that he had foreseen himself accruing enough points to put himself in contention for the Drivers' Championship. Rosberg revealed that his strategy was altered because of the damage to his car and declined to reveal details of the meeting with Mercedes after the Hungarian Grand Prix concerning envisaging contact with Hamilton. Bottas said a slow start caused him to be delayed by other cars but called the duel with compatriot Räikkönen "a clean and fair fight".
The collision between Rosberg and Hamilton on lap two overshadowed the race. The stewards investigated the contact and declared it "a racing incident", with neither driver to blame. Hamilton claimed after a meeting that Rosberg admitted to have made wilful contact to "prove a point" and that Hamilton could have avoided the situation. Rosberg initially denied any wrongdoing by saying he discerned no risk in attempting the manoeuvre. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff called the contact "absolutely unacceptable" and the team's non-executive chairman Niki Lauda echoed his colleague's view, "If these things happen at the end of the race when they are fighting, we can talk about it. But on the second lap, it is ridiculous." Rosberg denied Hamlton's version of the internal meeting two days after the race and that there was "a very good and important discussion after the race, everybody gave their opinion and now we move forward". The championship's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, stated Hamilton's claims did not warrant a review the contact under the FIA International Sporting Code, which states if "a new element was discovered" regardless of the stewards' decision, a second meeting had to be convened to address it.
Five days after the race Mercedes held a meeting between senior members of the team and both drivers to determine what measures were to be taken to maintain their championship aspirations. Rosberg incurred an undisclosed punishment during the half an hour conference and he and Hamilton were permitted to continue battling each other for the rest of the season without the imposition of team orders favouring one driver over the other. Rosberg accepted responsibility for causing the contact from an "error of judgement" and apologised to Hamilton and Mercedes and the fans of Formula One. Hamilton said through a statement that he admitted mistakes during the rivalry with Rosberg over the course of the season but believed it would be an error to apportion blame to one driver, "There is a deep foundation that still exists for me and Nico to work from, in spite of our difficult times and differences."
The stewards deemed Magnussen to have provided Alonso with inadequate space and forced him to run off the track on the Kemmel Straight while lapping Ericsson. They imposed a twenty-second time penalty on Magnussen, demoting him from fifth to twelfth. It elevated Alonso to seventh and Hülkenberg to tenth. Alonso said he was not concerned since he was battling for position outside of the top five, "He was lapping a Caterham and we were all in the slipstream. I tried to overtake and he closed maybe a little bit too much because half the car was on the grass." Magnussen commented on the penalty, "Everyone around me had slightly fresher tyres and they're not the easiest guys to keep behind. So I just tried my best to defend my position as well as I could." The McLaren racing director Éric Boullier argued that Magnussen's move needed to be embraced by Formula One and believed the former had made adequate progress over the year,
"Obviously it is part of the experience he is gaining over the season. He is very motivated. He is new to the category and it is nice to see the big boys a pushing a little bit to show him 'stay behind, kid'. It is part of the learning process, so it is good. I think it is not easy to step into F1, especially with a top team. There is a lot of pressure in delivering when there is no more testing. It is not easy."

The race result increased Rosberg's lead in the Drivers' Championship to 29 points over his teammate Hamilton in second place. Ricciardo's victory maintained him third with 126 points, while Alonso's seventh-place finish moved him to eleven points ahead of Bottas in fifth. In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes maintained their advantage with 411 points. Red Bull remained in second with 254 points. Ferrari in third place increased their advantage over Williams in fourth to ten points as McLaren overtook Force India for fifth with seven races left in the season.

Race classification

Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold and by a.
Notes:
;Drivers' Championship standings
;Constructors' Championship standings