Hamilton won at Spa-Francorchamps with a 28-point lead to show for it, but the race turned on McLaren's record grid penalty, a shortened start and a late tyre blow-out for Vettel.
The 2015 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Spa-Francorchamps on 23 August 2015, the eleventh round of the season. Lewis Hamilton won for Mercedes, with Rosberg second and Romain Grosjean third for Lotus after a late tyre failure for Vettel.
Lewis Hamilton won the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on 23 August, extending his championship lead over Nico Rosberg to 28 points. Romain Grosjean finished third for Lotus after Sebastian Vettel's right rear tyre exploded late in the race. McLaren's record grid penalty was another talking point all weekend.
What was the championship picture at Spa?
Hamilton entered the race 21 points clear of Rosberg and 42 points ahead of Vettel in the drivers' standings. Mercedes led the constructors' table by 147 points from Ferrari, while Williams was a further 85 points behind in third. Daniel Ricciardo was the defending winner, having taken victory at Spa in 2014.
A late tyre blow-out, a record grid penalty and a Lotus podium while the team's future was still in question.
What changed at the track and on the cars?
Pirelli, the sport's only tyre maker since 2011, supplied white-banded medium tyres as the prime and yellow-banded soft tyres as the option. The green-banded intermediate and blue-banded full wet tyres were brought as usual.
New asphalt had been laid on the inside of the final corner after Konstantin Tereshchenko's crash in a GP3 race in 2014, which replaced a patch of grass. Eau Rouge gained a fresh kerb on the apex of turn four, but the FIA took it away on Saturday after talks with the drivers. At La Source the kerb on the way out was trimmed, so a driver who ran wide could get back on track more easily.
Ferrari identified the race as its 900th Grand Prix participation. Kimi Raikkonen, the most successful active driver around Spa, signed on for another year in the week before the race. Mercedes brought a spoon-shaped low-downforce rear wing, which resembled the McLaren MP4-21 of 2006, to balance the long straights against the twisty second sector.
Red Bull tested two different rear wings on Friday. Ricciardo tried a very low-downforce wing, but Kvyat's Spa-oriented set-up, chosen to limit tyre wear, was the one both drivers used for qualifying and the race. McLaren arrived with a new power unit specification, and its racing director Eric Boullier warned that gains might not be visible until Singapore. The team also brought a new engine cover, an unprecedented tray design under the front of the floor, lower sidepods and a new radiator position.
A new start procedure applied from Spa onwards. Once they left the pit garage, drivers could change just one clutch setting, a rule designed to curb the pit wall's control over starts. Rosberg said the change would be challenging, Fernando Alonso thought it was not significant, and Ricciardo hoped it might help his team.
The Lotus team had legal trouble that weekend. A dispute with the former test driver Charles Pic, over the time the team had granted him in a 2014 car, went to arbitration. The cars faced the threat of impoundment. Bailiffs returned them, and Bernie Ecclestone stepped in to ensure staff were paid.
How did practice unfold?
Friday brought two 90-minute practice sessions, and Saturday a single hour. In the first, Rosberg was fastest after early power unit trouble, a quarter of a second ahead of Hamilton, while Ricciardo was third, just five hundredths slower than Hamilton, and Raikkonen was fourth.
Maldonado lost the rear of his Lotus at the exit of Les Combes and crashed into the tyre barriers, which brought a red flag for ten minutes while the barriers were repaired. Jolyon Palmer again took Grosjean's place and finished 17th.
The second session was also disrupted. Rosberg's rear tyre blew before Blanchimont, and the car spun up to the barrier, which led to a red flag. Before that failure he had posted the session's quickest lap, 1:49.687, which was three-tenths better than Hamilton's. The tyre was later blamed on an external cut, not a structural problem, but Rosberg still worried about the tyres for the race.
Hamilton was quickest in the Saturday session, almost half a second faster than Rosberg. Vettel and Raikkonen were third and fourth, and Perez and Hulkenberg were fifth and eighth. Grosjean almost spun while passing Raikkonen at turn 16 and complained about the move to his team.
How did qualifying settle the grid?
Hamilton took pole position at 1:47.197, his tenth pole in eleven races, which secured the FIA Pole Position Trophy at an early stage of the season. Rosberg was second, 0.458 seconds behind, and Bottas, Grosjean and Perez filled out the top five in a session shaped by penalties and failures.
Qualifying ran in three parts of 18, 15 and 12 minutes, with five drivers eliminated after each of the first two. Bottas went out first and came back last in the opening part, and his final lap was the one that kept him alive in the closing seconds. Both Manor cars, both McLarens and Sauber's Felipe Nasr were eliminated there. Verstappen progressed despite complaining of lost power.
The second part was disrupted when Raikkonen came to a halt with a loss of oil pressure, bringing a brief red flag. Verstappen did not take part in the session because of car problems, and was left in provisional 14th before his penalty. Ericsson, Kvyat and Hulkenberg were eliminated, and Hulkenberg was only three-tenths slower than Vettel in tenth.
Hamilton was first among the Mercedes drivers to run a timed lap in the final part, and he went almost half a second quicker than Rosberg had in the second part. Rosberg improved as well, but he finished 0.458 seconds behind his teammate. Valtteri Bottas was 1.3 seconds off Hamilton's 1:47.197, and Grosjean delivered a lap the BBC called stunningly impressive for fourth. Perez was fifth for Force India, while Vettel made a mistake at the final chicane and managed only ninth.
Hamilton credited his improvement to the middle sector, which had been a weak point in the past. He said he had known the lines but had never put the corners together, and he gained most of his time over Rosberg there. Six poles in a row made him the first since Michael Schumacher in 2000 and 2001, while Mika Hakkinen in 1999 was the last driver to manage six in one season. Jenson Button, starting from the back, expected a lonely race for McLaren.
Why did McLaren start from the back?
McLaren started at the back of the grid because of a record run of power unit penalties. The team had used its sixth power unit at the Hungarian Grand Prix, then brought a seventh, heavily revised version for Belgium on the Friday. A further power unit change on Saturday brought the cumulative total to a 105-place grid penalty, a new record in Formula One.
The timing of the rules also mattered. A mid-season change in the regulations meant that penalties could no longer be applied as in-race time penalties, so McLaren's losses were paid at the start. Max Verstappen was given a ten-place penalty after he equipped a sixth power unit on Friday, and Grosjean took a five-place penalty after a gearbox change on Saturday. Kimi Raikkonen also received a five-place penalty, which set him back only two places because of other drivers' penalties.
How did the race start?
Hulkenberg reported a loss of power before the start and returned to the pit garage, but he made it to the grid. The fault came back on the formation lap; when the car stalled on the grid, officials scrapped the start and sent the cars on another lap. Sainz hit a similar snag on the second formation lap, was directed into the pit lane, and only got going once the race was underway. The race was therefore shortened to 43 laps.
Rosberg did not get away well and fell to fifth behind Perez, Ricciardo and Bottas, but he passed Bottas for fourth by the end of the first lap. Alonso made a good start for McLaren and moved up to twelfth, while Hamilton kept his lead and pulled clear of Perez early on.
Maldonado retired on lap two with a power failure, the second retirement of the race. On lap six Kvyat took eighth from Massa, and Grosjean had a quick start as well, passing Bottas for sixth on lap eight. Ricciardo made an early pit stop on lap eight, which forced Force India's hand, and Perez came in one lap later but still emerged behind the Red Bull.
Bottas was given a drive-through penalty because his team had fitted two different tyre compounds to his car at the same stop. On lap eleven Verstappen made a daring move on Nasr at Blanchimont, running wide on the outside, to climb into eleventh. Following the first stops, Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel, Raikkonen and Ricciardo were in order, with the top four still on their opening set.
Rosberg made his stop on lap 13 and came out slightly ahead of Perez, who had passed Ricciardo a lap earlier. Hamilton and Vettel pitted on laps 14 and 15, and Hulkenberg overtook Maldonado for sixth on lap 18.
What did the virtual safety car change?
On lap 21 Ricciardo's car abruptly halted as it left the Bus Stop chicane. A virtual safety car followed, and plenty of cars, Grosjean, Massa and Verstappen among them, stopped for fresh rubber. Kvyat stopped for fresh soft tyres on lap 29, which let him push hard to the finish.
Vettel decided to try to finish without a second pit stop for new tyres. Kvyat's newer tyres allowed him to pass Bottas, Raikkonen, Massa and Perez, and he finished fourth. Sainz retired from the race on lap 34, and Vettel's gamble did not work out.
How did Vettel's tyre failure decide the podium?
In the closing stages, Vettel's right rear tyre exploded on the Kemmel straight. The failure gave Grosjean the last place on the podium, Lotus's first rostrum since the 2013 United States Grand Prix, and the Frenchman's last to date.
Hamilton won the race, and Rosberg finished second, so the championship gap grew to 28 points.
| Driver | Result | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | Winner | Pole at 1:47.197; tenth pole in eleven races |
| Nico Rosberg | Second | 28 points behind Hamilton after the race |
| Romain Grosjean | Third | Lotus podium, first since the 2013 United States Grand Prix |
| Daniil Kvyat | Fourth | Pitted for new soft tyres on lap 29 and passed four cars |
| Sebastian Vettel | Lost podium | Right rear tyre exploded less than two laps from the finish |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Stopped, lap 21 | Sudden stop at the Bus Stop chicane |
| Carlos Sainz Jr | Retired, lap 34 | Problem during the race |
| Pastor Maldonado | Retired, lap two | Power failure |
What did the result mean for the championship?
The win moved Hamilton 28 points clear of Rosberg, with Vettel further back in the drivers' table. Mercedes had already built a 147-point lead over Ferrari in the constructors' standings before the race, and Williams was in third, a further 85 points behind.
Ferrari marked its 900th Grand Prix with a race that ended in a tyre failure for Vettel. Lotus, meanwhile, took a podium while its legal dispute and financial problems continued.
