Belgium – Race: Charles Leclerc claims his first victory ahead of Lewis Hamilton

It is a somber Belgian Grand Prix taking place this Sunday at Spa-Francorchamps. Multiple tributes have been paid over the past almost twenty-four hours following the death of French driver Anthoine Hubert during the main Formula 2 race yesterday afternoon. On the cars and helmets, the drivers are paying tribute to Anthoine with a sticker in his honor “19 Racing for Anthoine.”

At the lights out, Charles Leclerc manages to maintain his lead, but Vettel is overtaken by Hamilton. Behind, Sainz stays while Verstappen has a poor start but remains on the inside to dive. The Dutchman clips Kimi Räikkönen and breaks his front-left suspension, except the Red Bull driver doesn’t realize it and continues on. In Eau Rouge, his car refuses to turn and he crashes into the tire wall. Naturally, the safety car is deployed.

In the chaos of the first corner, Ricciardo is caught by Räikkönen at the exit of the hairpin; the Finn was returning to the track slightly out of control and inadvertently collided with the Australian.

After two laps behind the safety car, the race was about to resume, but Carlos Sainz was seen in the run-off area of the bus stop chicane. He rejoined for a lap, giving time to clear the McLaren from the track.

On the restart, Vettel locks the brakes but manages to make his turn. The German seems to be in slight difficulty. Note the fifth place of Lando Norris and the sixth of Romain Grosjean in the 6th lap of the race. Pierre Gasly is ninth, sandwiched between the Racing Point cars of Pérez (8) and Stroll (10).

In the lead, Leclerc manages to create a two-second gap with Vettel, but the Monegasque makes a small mistake at the entrance of Les Combes, without consequence for his race. A bit further back, Magnussen and Pérez battle for seventh place and after several attempts up the Kemmel climb, the Mexican takes the advantage over the Dane on the tenth lap.

One lap later, it’s Pierre Gasly who takes the advantage over Kévin Magnussen, then in the twelfth lap, it’s Lance Stroll who completes the same maneuver. Further back, Alexander Albon was stuck in fourteenth place since the end of the first lap, and after Nico Hülkenberg’s pit stop, he gets past the other Renault driven by Daniel Ricciardo.

On the sixteenth lap, Vettel dives into the pits to switch to medium tires. He comes out in fifth, ahead of Romain Grosjean. The Franco-Swiss stops on the next lap and manages to emerge ahead of the three-way battle raging between Räikkönen, Perez, and Gasly for twelfth place.

Wearing medium tires, Vettel manages to close the gap with Bottas and the race leader, and on the 22nd lap when Leclerc pits, he comes out behind his German teammate. On the 23rd lap, it’s Hamilton’s turn to stop to put on medium tires, followed by Bottas on lap 24.

Angry for losing in the pit stop game, Leclerc closes in on Vettel at a rate of one second per lap and flirts with a one-second gap by the 26th lap. Unfortunately, there’s no on-track battle because Ferrari intervenes over the radio for Vettel to let Leclerc pass, and the German complies on the start-finish line.

Standings at the 29th lap: Leclerc, Vettel, Hamilton, Bottas, Norris, Giovinazzi, Pérez, Ricciardo, Grosjean, Gasly, Hülkenberg, Kvyat, Stroll, Albon, Räikkönen, Russell, Magnussen, Kubica.

An open battle is now underway between Vettel and Hamilton. The Briton gains the advantage with DRS on the Kemmel straight in the 32nd lap. Soon it’s Valtteri Bottas who catches up with the Scuderia driver, powerless with his old tires. Eventually, he returns to the pits for a second time to fit new soft tires and emerges in fourth place.

From seventh to twelfth place, the gap has significantly narrowed because Kvyat, Albon, Gasly, Grosjean, and even Giovinazzi are attacking a struggling Ricciardo with tires 33 laps old. On the 35th lap, Kvyat and Albon pass Ricciardo.

Very efficient during the first stint, Romain Grosjean finds himself powerless against his opponents at the end of the race. On the 40th lap, the Frenchman is overtaken by Hülkenberg and Stroll on the Kemmel straight. Pierre Gasly manages to secure the 10th place in his first race with Toro Rosso.

The intrigue of these final laps centers around the grand return of Lewis Hamilton on Charles Leclerc. In the last lap, Giovinazzi goes off at Pouhon, causing a yellow flag in the second sector, and Lando Norris, who was fifth the entire race, stops on the start-finish line at the beginning of the last lap.

Charles Leclerc therefore wins his first Formula 1 victory and his first words go to his friend Anthoine Hubert. The joy of his first victory is tempered by the tragic event of this weekend, but the emotion is very great. Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas complete this podium at Spa. The point for the fastest lap is awarded to Sebastian Vettel who finishes just off the podium.

In the last lap mishap for Norris and Giovinazzi, Pierre Gasly was able to reclaim ninth place for his return to Toro Rosso. Romain Grosjean, on the other hand, finished his race in 13th place.

The final ranking at the end of the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix:

From our correspondent at Spa-Francorchamps