Force Motor: One of the Strangest Grand Prix in History

The Belgian Grand Prix was the shortest race in Formula 1 history. The pilots spent only three laps behind the safety car due to heavy rain. The racers covered 52.92 km. The winner of the stage in Belgium was Red Bull pilot Max Verstappen. George Russell has finished second for his first career podium and Williams has won first prize money since 2017. Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes closed the top three. Read below for more details about the strangest race.

End of Romance

There has never been such a mess in Formula 1, and this is not a figure of speech but a fact. On Sunday, August 29, Belgium hosted the shortest race in the entire 71-year history of the “royal series”. It was pouring rain all day over the Ardennes, and the organizers simply sent the pilots for two laps behind the safety car to consider the race formally held – and the event was stopped there. The winner was Max Verstappen, who won the qualification, the second place for Williams (one of the outsiders of the last five years) was sensationally taken by George Russell, the top 3 was closed by Lewis Hamilton, a driver who has the most Grand Prix wins in history. By the way, after the arrival, Lewis noted that the organizers are obliged to return the money to the fans. Probably, they would better spend it on free pokies nz sites.

Prior to this, the record was Australia-1991, but even then, in the pouring rain in Adelaide, the riders were allowed to drive 14 laps. This is an eternal debate between safety and spectacle – on the one hand, everything is on an equal footing. Who prevented you from driving 50 km/h in such extreme conditions? They did it 30 years ago – and indeed, those 25 minutes were crazy, but Nigel Mansell, for example, could not appear on the podium, because he went to the hospital. What a romantic time! This is unthinkable now.

Bad Weather

The event was supposed to start at 2 p.m., but it started to rain, and after the warm-up lap, all the participants were driven into the pits. Every 20-30 minutes the International Automobile Federation (FIA) announced the postponement of the start until it announced an indefinite postponement. The pilots walked around the pit lane, slept, and the Alpine team arranged a concert at the request of fans on social networks. The main intrigue seemed to be that Sergio Perez from Red Bull was allowed to return to the race – he crashed the car, but he was allowed to start anyway.

Then it seemed that 75 thousand fans who came from all over the world would see at least an attempt to chase. But not so long ago in the “Formula-1” they introduced a limit on the total length of the race, and secondly, the sunset was about to begin, and no one could influence this in any way. At about 4 p.m. heavy equipment entered the track and tried to “wipe” it. After 5 p.m., the pilots complained about zero visibility. Two laps later, red flags were hung over the track again.

Common sense

No more attempts were made to resume the race. The teams did not even think about the possibility of postponing the race on Monday or other options for getting out of the situation. Considering that most of the fans came from the Netherlands, many could have stayed. On social networks, they complained about how it was possible to distribute points for the absence of a race. “No race, no points” – is one of the popular expressions. “You have turned the race into a farce,” fans write on the official Twitter of Formula 1.