[mgh]

Many brilliant overtaking manoeuvres, making the race thrilling to watch.

Force India has done well at Belgium, ever since Fisichella took pole for them in 2009 and finished 2nd in the race. Sutil did well again finishing 7th, and di Resta just missed points, finishing eleventh. If they hadn't spun in qualifying, di Resta would have been in points

Stranglehold of Red Bulls increased, with Vettel and Webber finishing first and second.

Hamilton was literally kayoed by Kobayashi, as his race ended early. Kobayashi is as much of a maniac as Hamilton, so it was a case of one maniac vs the other!

[julupani]

All in all, just one thing to take back from this magnificent race.

All hail the great Schumacher. 20 years into his career and he can pick up 19 places in a race, actually overtaking his own team-mate in the final stages.

If Ross Brawn and his team can come up with a car even close to what the Red Bulls have, we can almost be sure that Schumi still has it in him to be champion in 2012.

I think, Schumi is still the best driver on the grid on pure talent basis.

[mayankk]

Too bad for Hamilton.
It could have so easily been a win.
So,vettel again?
No problem.
This season is over and done with as far as who will be champions.

I stopped watching after Louis retired.
Real glad to see buttons resurgence,though,from soooooo far down.

[ganeshtvpm]

One of the best races of this calendar year. Even though Mercedes is a second or so slower than the front runners it was the best result for Shumi after his comeback.

[myavu]

WOW! What a race from Shumi. It remembered me of 2006 Sao Paulo. If he would have qualified 7th or 8th, 4th would have been possible. Hope Merc will build a pace-setter as early as possible.

Cheers!

Vinu

[sajands]

Eau rouge lives up to its name again, webber on alonso is something to remember, Schumi showed that he still has the michale magic in him, good race for force india and Kobayashi reminded me of takumo sato's driving style. Awesome Belgian GP and FIA wants to make this a alternative track with French GP, my advice keep the Belgian GP

[ganesh_evo75]

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[scuderiamania]

How many are of the opinion that DRS overtakings yesterday spoiled the fun to an extent. It seemed way to easy!

[VictorSinha]

The best race of the season so far.

What a race....We have now entered the Vettel Era. This guy is simple awesome.

And all bow to Shumi...the oldest guy with a F1 car and still he overtook 19 racers much younger than him. His team mate Rosberg can only hopelessly watch as Shumi overtook him. From 24th to 5th. As mentioned earlier, if Mecedes could have a better car (like Mclearn n Red Bulls) then we could again see Shumi leading the tables no doubt.

Hamilton got what he deserves. He used to do the same with other drivers and other drivers used to spin or leave him space. Kobayashi was absolutely correct to not give him any space at all. Hamilton got his dues. Hamilton is such a loser, he do not even spare his own team mate.

Feeling sorry for Alonso, Good drive, but ferrari reliability bogged him down. If there were 4-5 more laps then Shumi might have overtook Alonso as well.

Button, what was this guy doing till 35th Lap ? Was he asleep, and suddenly he realized that he is in a race and started charging. Last 4-5 laps he was lapping 2-3 seconds faster than anyone else on the track. Superb drive to third. Totally deserves it.

Funny incident with Petrov. His car ran out of fuel as soon as he crossed the chequered flag. I guess he had just 1 litre fuel when he stopped as per regulations.

In all, fantastic race. The real hero will be Shumi comeback from 24th to 5th.

[Newpunter]

Originally Posted by mgh

Hamilton was literally kayoed by Kobayashi, as his race ended early. Kobayashi is as much of a maniac as Hamilton, so it was a case of one maniac vs the other!

Originally Posted by mayankk

Too bad for Hamilton.
It could have so easily been a win.

I'm surprised people are blaming Kobayashi for the crash. Koba just stuck to his line. It was Hamilton who moved across. Koba had no where to go.
Even Lewis admitted his fault and said it was 100% his fault and apologized to Koba and his team.

Schumi did a great drive, but he also had a lot of luck going for him. His early departure from quali meant he had 3 sets of fresh soft tyres available. Also, Bruno Senna, Perez and Glock's stupid crashes meant he didn't have to overtake atleast 10 cars coz they were out by the first or 2nd laps. Then Lewis crashed with Koba and he gained another 2 places. And Rosberg saving fuel and also being on the harder tyres meant Schumi had it easy when overtaking him.
This doesn't take away from the fact that he did a great race in a car that is not on the pace of the front runners. If anything, Schumi showed to all his doubters that if he has the car, he is still good enough to give the younger drivers a run for their money.

[Zed]

What an entertaining race. With regards to the incident between lewis and kobayashi - if hamilton had checked his mirrors after getting past he would have know that Kobayashi was attempting to make a pass. In that sense it was an oversight from Lewis, which he has acknowledged. However it must be noted that the accident may have have averted if Kobayashi had lifted off from the throttle momentarily. Braking or even putting his left front front wheel on the grass would not have been necessary - just easing off would have been sufficient. That said the whole things happened so fast that he may not have had time to react.

[Rocky_Balboa]

Awesome drive by Schumi and an equally amassing one by Button.

I didnt see Lewis crash-out of the race, but his Q2 performance in qualifying indicated he may have won the race otherwise. Lewis set the 2nd fastest time (technically first before being overshadowed by Alonso), when he was behind three cars on their flying-lap (Rubens, Maldonado and Petrov/ Perez). I was thinking Lewis was gonna be impeded but the way he overtook Maldonado and set the fastest-time; was just out-of-the-world.

[GTO]

I'm not a Fonso fan, but must admit, he put in one heck of a drive yesterday. His pace & overtaking manouveurs were incredibly well calculated. Truly a champion of a driver. Schumy, well...it was one of the few good races he's had in recent time, and what a drive! Seemed to be one with the car and the right strategy too.

F1 2011 has surely been the most eventful season, with every race packed in drama. There's only two things missing:

- Two tyre manufacturers
- Fuel stops

Get these on, and the excitement will shoot through the roof.

[asr245]

IMO, best overtake = Webber on Alonso (as he came out of the pits) at Eau Rouge. Total guts. Even I was scared.

Someone asked here - Button was on the harder tyre for 30 laps - pitted 1st time on 5th lap and then 35th - which is why he appeared slow. Great drive from him. He's making Lewis appear stupid. Or maybe Lewis is under pressure because of him - he hasn't had a team-mate till date who could threaten him. I am not counting Alonso as Lewis was the under-dog then.

Originally Posted by scuderiamania

How many are of the opinion that DRS overtakings yesterday spoiled the fun to an extent. It seemed way to easy!

Yeah. The "opening gap" of the DRS wing should also depend on the track. On such long straights that wing gives just too much advantage to them following car.

Originally Posted by GTO

F1 2011 has surely been the most eventful season, with every race packed in drama. There's only two things missing:

- Two tyre manufacturers
- Fuel stops

Get these on, and the excitement will shoot through the roof.

You get tyre manufacturers competing against each other, what you get would be longer lasting tyres apart from rising costs which would take us back to 2006-2007 seasons (boring) - overtaking being decided in the pits rather than on track. The fast wear rate of the Pirellis have had a massive impact in making the race more interesting - even ones like Monaco which has usually been such a borefest - shame the safety car spoiled it in the end.

What I would like is no tyre changes (translates to putting on a hard tyre) and no fuel stops (as it is today) like it's in MotoGP. Over enthusiastic driver will be fast in the beginning and struggle later.

[julupani]

Originally Posted by asr245

IMO, best overtake = Webber on Alonso (as he came out of the pits) at Eau Rouge. Total guts. Even I was scared.

Someone asked here - Button was on the harder tyre for 30 laps - pitted 1st time on 5th lap and then 35th - which is why he appeared slow. Great drive from him. He's making Lewis appear stupid. Or maybe Lewis is under pressure because of him - he hasn't had a team-mate till date who could threaten him. I am not counting Alonso as Lewis was the under-dog then.

Yeah. The "opening gap" of the DRS wing should also depend on the track. On such long straights that wing gives just too much advantage to them following car.

You get tyre manufacturers competing against each other, what you get would be longer lasting tyres apart from rising costs which would take us back to 2006-2007 seasons (boring) - overtaking being decided in the pits rather than on track. The fast wear rate of the Pirellis have had a massive impact in making the race more interesting - even ones like Monaco which has usually been such a borefest - shame the safety car spoiled it in the end.

What I would like is no tyre changes (translates to putting on a hard tyre) and no fuel stops (as it is today) like it's in MotoGP. Over enthusiastic driver will be fast in the beginning and struggle later.

I dont think no tyre changes along with no fuel stops would make for interesting racing.

If both are there together, everybody would be pretty much stuck to a limited number of strategies. And everybody's pace along the race will change in a similar way with decreasing fuel loads and worsening tyre grip.

Today, everybody's fuel load decreases and with tyre change ability many people opt for very varied strategies. And when you have varied strategies all over the field, this puts pressure on drivers who are on their fast stints to overtake lots of other drivers like we see today. Ability to manage tyre wear and pace on different kinds of tyres makes this very very interesting today.

But if you remove both tyre stops and fuel stops, strategies will get limited heavily, and thus overall overtaking will decrease.

As for DRS, there is one factor specific to Spa which made overtaking look too easy.

In Spa you have the very technical Eau Rouge corner, followed by the Kemmel straight where DRS was active. Spa is mostly a low downforce circuit with 2 very long straights. But you need good down force in Eau Rouge, if you want to stay close to the guy in front and then overtake down the Kemmel Straight or braking into Les Combes.

But this year, the DRS system allowed everybody to carry more downforce. This made it a lot easier to stick onto the car in front right through Eau Rouge. And then once the DRS zone started everybody overtook the car in front at the beginning of the Kemmel Straight itself. And now, down the whole straight you have overtaken already, but continue to have DRS open, while the guy you already overtook has to make do with DRS closed.

Earlier, without the DRS, you had to be brave and really get as close as possible through Eau Rouge. But if you got too close you would lose downforce, and spin out. And if you were brave enough and kept it close enough through Eau Rouge, you would get enough tow from the car in front to just about overtake it by the end of the straight or have to outbrake him into Les Combes.

The combination of a difficult corner needing downforce in Eau Rouge, feeding into a very long straight, made DRS extremely helpful in Spa.