2007 Belgian Grand Prix
Race 14 of 17 in the 2007 Formula One World Championship
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Race details[1]
Date September 16, 2007
Official name 2007 Formula 1 ING Belgian Grand Prix
Location Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Francorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium[2]
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 7.004 km (4.352 miles)
Distance 44 laps, 308.176 km (191.492 miles)
Weather Partly cloudy, mild and dry
Pole position
Driver
Ferrari
Time 1:45.994
Fastest lap
Driver Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari
Time 1:48.036 on lap 34
Podium
First
Ferrari
Second
Ferrari
Third
McLaren-Mercedes
Lap leaders
The race winner, Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen.

The 2007 Belgian Grand Prix (officially the 2007 Formula 1 ING Belgian Grand Prix)[3] was the fourteenth race of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship, returning to the Formula One calendar after a year's absence. It was held on 16 September at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, near the village of Francorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium.

Report

Background

Going into the race, McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton led the Drivers' Championship by three points from teammate Fernando Alonso and Scuderia Ferrari led the Constructors' Championship by 57 points from BMW Sauber after the exclusion of McLaren from the Constructors' Championship following the Ferrari/McLaren spy saga. Otherwise McLaren would have been leading the Championship.

The race also marked the 100th race start for Australian Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber.

Practice

Ferrari tried the new for the first time traffic light system.[4]

Qualifying

The usual drivers were eliminated in the first qualifying session—Adrian Sutil and Sakon Yamamoto went out in the Spykers along with Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson in the Super Aguris, Rubens Barrichello in the Honda and Sebastian Vettel in the Toro Rosso.

The second qualifying session was unusual as six drivers in six different cars were eliminated—Alexander Wurz of Williams, Vitantonio Liuzzi of Toro Rosso, Jenson Button of Honda, David Coulthard of Red Bull Racing. Giancarlo Fisichella of Renault and Ralf Schumacher of Toyota. Fisichella was later relegated right to the back of the grid after changing his engine after qualifying.

This left seven different teams in the top 10. Heikki Kovalainen qualified tenth for Renault, just behind Jarno Trulli in the Toyota. Ahead of them were Mark Webber's Red Bull and Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber. Nico Rosberg did very well in the Williams to qualify on row 3 alongside Robert Kubica in the second BMW Sauber. However, the Pole was given a ten place grid drop for an engine change. Once again, McLaren and Ferrari occupied the top four places. Fernando Alonso pipped McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton to 3rd place, but Ferrari dominated, with Kimi Räikkönen beating Felipe Massa to get his 14th career pole and lock out the front row for the Italian team.

Due to FIA rules about the order in which penalties are applied, Kubica's penalty was applied first. This left him 15th and behind Fisichella. Then the Italian's penalty was applied, so Kubica ended up 14th. This meant Coulthard, Button and Liuzzi all gained two places as both drivers had been ahead of them.

Race

The order from the start remained fairly unchanged with the Ferraris of Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa led away from Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, although there was a lot of pushing between the McLarens as Hamilton attempted to pass around the outside of turn one, but Alonso pushed him wide onto the tarmac on the outside of the corner.

Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault suffered a suspension failure on lap 2, making him the first retirement of the race. He had been running last. Also on lap 2, Alexander Wurz spun in the Williams, slipping to the back of the field.

Sebastian Vettel soon suffered a handling problem, probably caused by a collision, which eliminated his Toro Rosso from the race on lap 9.

Massa briefly took the lead on lap 16, but Räikkönen reclaimed it a lap later after his pitstop.

David Coulthard suffered a hydraulic failure in his Red Bull on lap 30. He was quickly followed with a fuel pressure problem for Wurz, who was still last, on lap 35, and the Honda of Jenson Button, which dropped out on lap 37 with another hydraulic failure.

Massa once again led for just one lap during Räikkönen's second stop, but he retook it the following lap.

Räikkönen finally came home to win from Massa, clinching the World Constructors Championship for Ferrari. Alonso, Hamilton, Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber, Nico Rosberg's Williams, Mark Webber in the Red Bull and Heikki Kovalainen's Renault rounded up the top eight. The only changes from the starting top eight were Heidfeld and Rosberg swapping places and Kovalainen passing Jarno Trulli's Toyota to take eighth.

The race was overshadowed by the death of former World Rally Champion Colin McRae in a helicopter crash during Saturday's qualifying.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos. No. Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 Grid
1 6 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:46.242 1:45.070 1:45.994 1
2 5 Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:46.060 1:45.173 1:46.011 2
3 1 Spain Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes 1:46.058 1:45.442 1:46.091 3
4 2 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:46.437 1:45.132 1:46.406 4
5 10 Poland Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1:46.707 1:45.885 1:46.996 141
6 16 Germany Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:46.950 1:46.469 1:47.334 5
7 9 Germany Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:46.923 1:45.994 1:47.409 6
8 15 Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:47.084 1:46.426 1:47.524 7
9 12 Italy Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:47.143 1:46.480 1:47.798 8
10 4 Finland Heikki Kovalainen Renault 1:46.971 1:46.240 1:48.505 9
11 3 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:47.143 1:46.603 PL2,3
12 11 Germany Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:47.300 1:46.618 10
13 14 United Kingdom David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:47.340 1:46.800 11
14 7 United Kingdom Jenson Button Honda 1:47.474 1:46.955 12
15 18 Italy Vitantonio Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:47.576 1:47.115 13
16 17 Austria Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota 1:47.522 1:47.394 15
17 19 Germany Sebastian Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:47.581 16
18 8 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:47.954 17
19 22 Japan Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:47.980 18
20 20 Germany Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari 1:48.044 19
21 23 United Kingdom Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 1:48.199 PL4
22 21 Japan Sakon Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari 1:49.557 21
Source:[5]
Notes
  • ^1 – Robert Kubica dropped ten places for engine change.[6]
  • ^2 – Giancarlo Fisichella started at the back of the grid for an engine change after qualifying.[7]
  • ^3 – Giancarlo Fisichella "...elected to start from the pits with a lower-downforce set-up to try and enhance his chance of making up places."[8]
  • ^4 – Anthony Davidson "...started from the pit lane after experiencing a front-end problem on the grid out-lap."[9]

Race

Pos.No.DriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
1 6Finland Kimi RäikkönenFerrari 44 1:20:39.066 1 10
2 5Brazil Felipe MassaFerrari 44 +4.695 2 8
3 1Spain Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Mercedes 44 +14.343 3 6
4 2United Kingdom Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes 44 +23.615 4 5
5 9Germany Nick HeidfeldBMW Sauber 44 +51.879 6 4
6 16Germany Nico RosbergWilliams-Toyota 44 +1:16.876 5 3
7 15Australia Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault 44 +1:20.639 7 2
8 4Finland Heikki KovalainenRenault 44 +1:25.106 9 1
9 10Poland Robert KubicaBMW Sauber 44 +1:25.661 14
10 11Germany Ralf SchumacherToyota 44 +1:28.574 10
11 12Italy Jarno TrulliToyota 44 +1:43.653 8
12 18Italy Vitantonio LiuzziToro Rosso-Ferrari 43 +1 Lap 13
13 8Brazil Rubens BarrichelloHonda 43 +1 Lap 17
14 20Germany Adrian SutilSpyker-Ferrari 43 +1 Lap 19
15 22Japan Takuma SatoSuper Aguri-Honda 43 +1 Lap 18
16 23United Kingdom Anthony DavidsonSuper Aguri-Honda 43 +1 Lap 20
17 21Japan Sakon YamamotoSpyker-Ferrari 43 +1 Lap 21
Ret 7United Kingdom Jenson ButtonHonda 36 Hydraulics 12
Ret 17Austria Alexander WurzWilliams-Toyota 34 Fuel pressure 15
Ret 14United Kingdom David CoulthardRed Bull-Renault 29 Hydraulics 11
Ret 19Germany Sebastian VettelToro Rosso-Ferrari 8 Steering 16
Ret 3Italy Giancarlo FisichellaRenault 1 Suspension 22
Source:[10]

Championship standings after the race

  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
  • Bold text and an asterisk indicates competitors who still had a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "2007 Belgian GP". ChicaneF1. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  2. ↑ "2007 Belgian Grand Prix". Motor Sport. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  3. ↑ "Belgia". Formula1.com. Archived from the original on 2007-10-31. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  4. ↑ "Ferrari trying out a new light system to let the drivers go from a pit stop". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  5. ↑ "2007 FORMULA 1 ING Belgian Grand Prix - Qualifying". Formula1.com. Formula One Group. 16 September 2007. Archived from the original on 31 October 2013. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  6. ↑ "Kubica to drop 10 grid places". ITV-f1. 2007-09-15. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-15.
  7. ↑ "Engine change puts Fisi to the back". ITV-f1. 2007-09-15. Retrieved 2007-09-15.
  8. ↑ 2007 Autocourse, Belgian race report
  9. ↑ 2007 Autocourse, Belgian race report
  10. ↑ "2007 FORMULA 1 ING Belgian Grand Prix - Race". Formula1.com. Formula One Group. 16 September 2007. Archived from the original on 28 December 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  11. 1 2 "Belgium 2007 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
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