What the teams said – Race day in Belgium

Mercedes

There were contrasting fortunes for the two Mercedes drivers at Spa. Russell’s race was over after a handful of corners, after he lost some deployment and fell backwards into the clutches of the Ferrari pair. Running side by side with Hamilton, the two collided and Russell was sent spinning into the gravel and out of the race.

That left him with a grand total of zero points, which was far from ideal considering he watched his team mate win once again. Antonelli had to work hard for it, unable to break free in the first stint and then losing track position to Leclerc, who got a cheap pit stop. But the Italian showed plenty of maturity in chasing down his quarry and passing on track to take the lead and then the win, his sixth Grand Prix victory of the season.

Kimi Antonelli, 1st

"It’s good to be back on the top step of the podium after a couple of difficult weekends. It was a hard-fought win and didn’t come easily. We lost the lead on the run to Eau Rouge but got it back on the opening lap. We looked in control but then lost it again when Leclerc was able to pit under the Virtual Safety Car. We kept calm though and slowly closed the gap down. He was very quick and, even after I passed him, it was a struggle to break overtake mode. We eventually did though and could bring the win home.

"We saw how competitive several teams were again today. We need to keep working hard, keep performing, and keep scoring points. It’s going to be a long battle all the way to the end of the season. We will keep taking it one weekend at a time and try to do our best every time we get in the car."

George Russell, DNF

"It’s been another difficult weekend, and I leave Spa disappointed that we’ve had another race where we’ve not scored any points. We’ve had too many of those weekends recently, but we will reset again and see what we can do in Budapest. We want to go into the shutdown with positivity and hopefully we can do that with a better Grand Prix in Hungary.

"The issue we faced with our boost on the opening lap was different to what we’ve been trying to solve earlier in the weekend. I made a good start and was in a decent position to fight for the lead but didn’t have the speed we expected on the run to Turn 5. I was overtaken by several cars behind and the incident with Lewis (Hamilton) followed.

"We are working flat out as a team to improve our reliability. We know it has cost us too many points so far this season and we’re all determined to get on top of it. It’s frustrating for everyone but I know just how hard everyone at Brackley and Brixworth is pushing to improve it."

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

"It’s a bittersweet day here in Spa. Kimi has been strong all weekend and drove a brilliant race to take the win. He kept focused after losing the lead to Leclerc under the Virtual Safety Car and, just like in Silverstone, he chased the Ferrari down. This time he was able to take the victory though, and it was very well deserved.

"George on the other hand was an unfortunate first lap casualty. Both our cars suffered from a lack of boost which affected power on the run out of Turn 1, the reason for which we are investigating, but George was impacted more severely and lost several positions. He was then turned around at Turn Five to end his race. He has had another tough weekend where he has faced several issues outside of his control, and we are working hard to get on top of them.

"As a team, we come away without having maximised our points scoring again. We have a strong package that is clearly capable of fighting for wins and both championships. We are working hard to improve our reliability as that is the clearest area of weakness. With one race left before the summer shutdown, we will be giving it our all to do that and go into the break with as much momentum as possible."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

"Today was one of contrasting fortunes. Kimi took a well-deserved win, having lost the lead through no fault of his own. He showed great pace all weekend and was able to use that to good effect to catch and pass the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. He was robbed of the chance to do that at Silverstone, so this victory was particularly sweet.

"Sadly, George’s weekend has been tougher, and his race came to a premature end. Both cars suffered from a lack of boost which affected power on the opening lap, which put them under pressure. George’s issue was more extreme, and he ended up in a pack of cars at Turn 5 after losing several positions before being contacted by the Ferrari of Lewis (Hamilton). It is another frustrating end to a difficult weekend for him, but we know that he will reset and come back in a positive frame of mind in Hungary.

"Despite winning here, we are still finding issues with these regulations. It is something we are all working as hard as we can to get on top of, but we’ve clearly got more learning ahead of us. We will need to keep improving if we are to maximise our points scoring potential and fight for the championships as the season progresses."

Ferrari

There was plenty going on down at Ferrari, who had to make several strategy calls on the fly. Both drivers got off the line well and were fighting at the front, with Leclerc picking off Verstappen on the first lap for P2. He then lost out to the Dutchman, but remained in contact with the front two. He was able to pit under a VSC and come out in the lead, but could not quite hold Antonelli at bay and had to settle for a still impressive second.

Hamilton was right on his team mate’s tail at times, despite first-lap contact with Russell leaving him with a small amount of car damage. That incident earned him a five-second time penalty that dropped him back after his pit stop, but he picked off Piastri to recover back to fourth. His pit stop did include an unsafe release after he tagged a mechanic after erroneously being given a green light, for which the team were fined post-race.

Lewis Hamilton, 4th

"The team did a really good job today, both with the strategy and the execution of the race, and the mechanics were excellent throughout the weekend, including during the pit stops. Given the damage, the five-second penalty and everything that happened yesterday, I'm grateful to have come away with some points. It wasn't the smoothest weekend from my side, but we'll keep building and working hard to put together stronger weekends going forward."

Charles Leclerc, 2nd

"I believed in the possibility of taking the win until the end. I had a good start, passing George (Russell) and Max (Verstappen) out of Eau Rouge with strong deployment. The Virtual Safety Car helped to put us in contention for the win, and it was really enjoyable to lead the race and fight for that position until the closing laps, even if it was down to a bit of luck on our side. Overall, we had good pace, which is something we didn't expect on a track such as Spa-Francorchamps. A big thank you to everyone at the track and back in Maranello for continuing to push so hard."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

"A very good result for the team. We were able to fight at the front with Charles who had a great start and a solid pace for the entire race. As for Lewis' penalty, I feel it was definitely harsh because it was a first-lap incident, but there's no point discussing it any further.

"Kimi (Antonelli) had the quicker car and we were losing to him on the straights, but with a good start and the right strategy we were still able to fight. Honestly, both here and at Silverstone we have done better than expected, which says a lot about the great job the team has done to allow us to perform consistently well. Now we will focus on Budapest, which is a completely different track, where we want to finish on a positive note before the summer break."

Red Bull

Verstappen started well and very, very briefly took the lead on the opening lap. That did not last long, and he soon found himself in a battle with the two Ferraris. Pitting first of the front runners, his out-lap was hampered by a VSC so he could not quite gain enough on the fresh tyres to pressure Antonelli ahead. The Dutchman then lost out to Leclerc – who had a cheap pit stop – and never managed to make that time back up, settling for third place at the flag.

Hadjar had a strong race as well from the back of the grid, pitting early twice to cycle through the tyre compounds whilst under Safety Car conditions. The aim was to get him to the end on one set of hards, but that was a touch ambitious. Nonetheless, the strategy calls helped him recover to the top 10 and run in sequence with the rest, so a third stop did not cost him too many places and he just managed to hold off a charging Norris late on.

Max Verstappen, 3rd

“I think we had a very good race, and hopefully we can have more weekends like this. I had too much deployment from turn one to turn two, and when I looked at my battery, I knew that I was going to have a difficult run. We were then a bit unlucky with the VSC, and it affected the strategy and our ability to fight for P2 in the end. The Medium tyre was pretty decent, but we struggled a bit on the Hard tyres in terms of grip and had few balance limitations, so we just need to analyse why it was a bit trickier than expected. However, we had the car in a good window, and I think we can be happy with the whole weekend and pleased to be on the podium. Overall it was a good result and a pretty solid weekend!”

Isack Hadjar, 6th

"I'm very happy with how today played out. We had a clear plan from the moment we arrived in Spa, so we were able to put everything into getting the most out of the race, and we did exactly that. From P21 to P6 is not easy, but the strategy was perfect and the pace in the car was strong, so it's been an all-round Team effort. With the Safety Car, we pitted early to give us options later on, and it worked out perfectly. Credit to the Team for that call. Going through the pack is always fun, especially with the pace we had, which let me keep the gap to Lando once he started to get closer. The goal yesterday was to get back into the points. We added a few more on top of that to make for a satisfying afternoon."

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal

“A strong weekend for the whole Team. It was good to be in the top three in Qualifying, but it’s even better to be here on race day and have the pace. As we said yesterday, Kimi was probably beyond us today, but behind him Max was right there. He was running well for P2 on merit, then the VSC happened and that cost us. But that’s part of the game. We are happy about our 300th podium, as well as Max’s 130th podium.

“Isack also showed extremely strong pace, coming through from 21st on the grid to take P6 at the flag. It was certainly his best race with us. It seems like every time he takes another step forward. It’s great to have two very strong cars.

“The Team back in Milton Keynes and at the track is working incredibly hard on all fronts to bring and unlock more performance and we were able to fight for the podium in the last three races. We won’t stop until we find those final few tenths needed to get back to winning races.”

McLaren

Norris always looked like he was going to be quick with that fresh PU component on board, and he did quickly make his way forward from P13 on the grid. He caught up to the back of his team mate at one point, Piastri running well near the front. The Australian was hampered at the end of his first stint after contact with Leclerc, Piastri being squeezed down the outside by the Ferrari man and picking up floor damage as a result.

As such Norris went through and wound up in the lead after opting for a very long first stint on the hard tyre. He pitted too late to climb back up on fresh tyres though, and was not helped by a very slow pit stop. Piastri was fifth, losing out to Hamilton late on as he continued to battle with a loss of downforce.

Lando Norris, 7th

“Mixed feelings today. The potential was extremely high this weekend in terms of my feeling for the car and the pace being strong enough to probably challenge for a podium finish. I felt very confident with the balance and knew exactly what the car was going to do, which is a huge positive for us going forward.

“It's a slight shame about the result though everything that could have made our life difficult today, did. We were unlucky with the timing of the VSCs, which helped our rivals, and the unfortunate delay with a technical issue on the pit stop cost a significant amount of time which ultimately translates into track position and points. When you have the pace to achieve a great result but are held back by challenging factors like that, it's frustrating. We will now work to analyse what went wrong and learn from it before hitting track in Hungary.”

Oscar Piastri, 5th

“We had good pace today, especially in the first stint, and the podium wasn't out of the question, which is a positive we can take away. However, it was certainly not a straightforward race for us. The damage we sustained after the contact with Charles Leclerc just made things much more difficult as we were losing a few tenths per lap. I struggled for the rest of that stint, and while we compensated a little for it in the second stint, the race was tougher than it needed to be.

“We definitely need a bit more performance as it feels like we're just that one step behind which isn't the easiest position to be in. We're looking ahead now, and hopefully the new upgrades we plan to bring will help us close that gap and compete more consistently. Let's see what we can do in Hungary.”

Andrea Stella, Team Principal

“We leave this weekend with mixed feelings but are encouraged by the underlying pace shown. It’s clear our package adapted better to this circuit, and our main objective is now to ensure we can keep improving, and we know this will require upgrades to our car. While the PU operated reliably and effectively, opportunities are still clearly possible in terms of PU exploitation, so we will keep on working with our partners at HPP to enable us to extract all of the lap time available. However, we leave Spa-Francorchamps with a smaller points haul than our potential.

“Lando was very solid today, and with a clean race, the car had the pace to contend for a podium. Without the penalty, the time we lost due to a technical issue in the pit stop, and a Safety Car timing that didn’t suit our Hard tyre strategy, he would have been fighting at the front from his natural position of P3 on the grid. Oscar also drove very well and also had the potential to be on the podium, but the floor damage from the contact with Charles Leclerc cost us between two and three tenths of lap time, and forced him to push the tyres, which accelerated degradation in the second half of both stints.

“We know we must improve our braking and cornering to challenge our main opponents on tracks like Hungary and the Netherlands. We have upgrades coming for the second part of the season, and while not everything will be solved at once, our objective is clear - we want to consistently fight for podiums and, ultimately, victories.”

Audi

Bortoleto had a good getaway and managed to hold onto his top 10 slot. The Brazilian then got a little lucky, jumping the Racing Bulls cars after he got a cheap pit stop under the VSC. But once he came out ahead, he was able to hold off Lindblad for lap after lap to score in back to back races for Audi with another P8 finish. As for Hulkenberg, 13th does not look great on paper but he was just 2.2s off the last point today, as Audi showed some strong form in Belgium.

Gabriel Bortoleto, 8th

"I'm extremely happy with today's result. I think we maximised everything we had this weekend, and that's down to an incredible effort from the whole team. To achieve this in front of our team members from our bases in Hinwil, Bicester and Neuburg makes it even more special: they've worked so hard to get us where we are, and it's great to share this moment with them.

“These consecutive points finishes are a huge boost for all of us. It's a great feeling to know we are in the position to deliver results like this and keep fighting in the top ten now. That's where we want to be, and where we belong, and we'll keep pushing to get more – starting from Budapest in a week's time, to wrap up the first part of the season on a high."

Nico Hulkenberg, 13th

"There was a lot of fighting in the midfield today, but we paid the price for starting too far back and also losing a few positions at the start, which made the race even more difficult. From there, it was always going to be hard to recover.

“The encouraging part is that our race pace was competitive and we were right in the mix throughout. The Virtual Safety Car gained us a few seconds, but it probably needed to last just a little longer. Instead, I came out right behind Pierre [Gasly] and Liam [Lawson], got caught up in that battle and, with our lack of straight-line speed, it was difficult to make any further progress. The pace itself actually felt quite good by our standards, so that's something we'll take away, even if we need to review a few other areas.

“It's great to see Gabriel score points for the team. It's a well-deserved result and another positive outcome for everyone. Hopefully, we can build on that in Budapest, put together a clean weekend on my side of the garage and give ourselves the chance to fight further up the order."

Allan McNish, Racing Director

"To come away from Spa with another points finish is a fantastic result for the team, especially at a circuit we didn't expect to suit our car. Gabriel delivered an excellent drive from start to finish, and everyone executed when it mattered most.

“A special mention has to go to the pit crew. A 2.1-second stop for Gabriel, followed immediately by a 2.7-second double stack for Nico, was a sensational piece of execution under pressure. Those stops put Gabriel ahead of the Racing Bulls at a crucial moment, and from there he managed the race brilliantly to secure another eighth-place finish.

“Nico's afternoon was more challenging. We were able to gain track position through strategy, but we simply didn't have the straight-line performance needed to attack or make further progress. That was frustrating because his pace was comparable to Gabriel's, but he didn't have the tools to fight the cars around him.

"Overall, we'll gladly take the points and the positives from this weekend. Leaving Spa with another top-eight finish and another strong team performance gives us good momentum heading into Budapest next weekend."

Racing Bulls

It was a case of what might have been for Racing Bulls. Lawson had a great start and was running at the head of the midfield early on in sixth, before he started to fight with his team mate. Both were pitted just before a VSC period, which enabled Bortoleto to jump ahead. Lawson then found himself taken slightly unawares when battling Colapinto and lost two places, and could not recover back to the points. Lindblad did score for the team though, meaning Racing Bulls are now tied on 61 points with Alpine.

Arvid Lindblad, 9th

"Bringing home points today is a great way to wrap up the weekend here in Belgium, especially after showing strong pace from the start. It was a lot of fun out there, and Gabi and I were really pushing each other throughout the race. I felt that we had the potential to finish P8 today, but credit to Gabi and Audi as they successfully took advantage of the Virtual Safety Car. Every weekend I'm feeling more comfortable in the car. As a team we're working very collaboratively; understanding each other better all the time and continuing to develop the car. It's great to see all of this hard work translate into results on track. I'm feeling confident ahead of racing in Hungary next week. I love the corners and fewer straights, so I'm looking forward to racing at one of my favourite tracks on the calendar."

Liam Lawson, 12th

"It wasn’t the easiest race today. We had a really strong start; probably our best of the season, but unfortunately we just didn’t have enough pace throughout the race. We started the weekend in a decent position, but as other teams found more performance through the race, we weren’t able to make the same step forward. We tried a few different modes to improve things, but unfortunately nothing made the difference we were hoping for. Despite that, there are still positives to take away. It’s been another encouraging weekend with regards to the car's development and I’m looking forward to having the full upgrade package on my car next week. Hungary is a very different track to Spa, so we hope to put ourselves back in the fight for more points."

Alan Permane, Team Principal

"We had a decent race here in Spa, but certainly not without learnings to take forward. We were unlucky with the Virtual Safety Car which allowed Audi to pit stop and subsequently come out in front of Arvid. Without that, Arvid had the pace to finish in P8. Unfortunately, Liam experienced deployment issues throughout the race which impacted his pace. Additionally, there will be more pace to extract in Hungary when he receives the full upgrade package on his car. The upgrades are looking very strong, so the team back at both our bases have done a fantastic job. We look forward to racing in Hungary ahead of the well-deserved summer break."

Alpine

Alpine were flirting with the points throughout the Grand Prix, with both drivers having stints in the top 10. Colapinto’s strong start meant he was the lead driver for Alpine today, but both lost out by pitting before the VSC period. As such, the Argentine had to fight it out on track, picking off two cars at one point to climb back into the top 10. Gasly followed him through and provided a buffer late on to ensure the team scored one point out there.

Pierre Gasly, 11th

“It was a frustrating race for me, where we finished just outside the points. I had a tough start, not fast enough in the opening phase for some reason and lost some positions on the opening lap. After that, we had to try and recover some positions with the fight for the points amongst a number of teams and cars. We tried the undercut to get ahead of Racing Bulls but we had a relatively slow stop, which meant our out lap was in traffic and that impacted our chances of making it work. From my view, it felt like that might have changed our race had we had track position and been ahead of the Racing Bulls in that moment, so there are a few things for us to review and for me to understand. After that, lap after lap, there were so many energy deployment tactics and overtakes down the Kemmel Straight. Today, it did not go my way, but the bigger picture is the fact we are not quick enough. Gabriel [Bortoleto] and Arvid [Lindblad] were too far ahead and that has been a bit of a trend in recent weeks which we need to reverse soon. I'll have a few days to recover before full focus goes onto Budapest, the final race before the summer break.”

Franco Colapinto, 10th

“I'm happy to score a point this afternoon in Belgium after finishing in P10. It was a long and eventful race, but also quite fun at the wheel with a lot of action happening. It was a good race for us, a good start to gain some places, which put ourselves up there and in reach of scoring points. I quite enjoyed the double overtake, which secured P10! That was down to a good run and slipstream and then I just had to try and go on the inside of Liam [Lawson] and then just ahead of Pierre to make the move. In general, we know where our fight is and we know where we are lacking pace. We were definitely a bit stronger here compared to some recent tracks. More progress will be made soon on our side but I am just glad, for now, we maximised what we could today. Next is Budapest, which is a very different kind of circuit compared to here.”

Flavio Briatore, Executive Advisor

“We leave Belgium with one point after Franco's P10 finish meaning we remain in P5 in the Championship but level on points with Racing Bulls. They have done a much better job than us in recent weeks to add performance to their car and that trend has continued, and probably extended, here in Spa. We saw some good, fair, wheel to wheel racing throughout, especially from Pierre and Franco who also kept it clean and entertaining between themselves; this time the result fell Franco's way so well done to him. We know Hungary won't see a complete turnaround in results or competitive order but we must continue our efforts off-track to find more performance post-summer break and give both drivers more tools to fight much higher up the grid than what we are currently.”

Haas

Haas had a difficult first lap at Spa. Bearman found himself skating through the gravel, while Ocon was punted by Sainz from behind. They had intra-team contact as well. Both pitted with punctures, dropping them down the field. Those early stops meant both then had to pit a second time, and as such could not get involved in the fight for the final few points.

Oliver Bearman, 14th

“Unfortunately, I got stuck in fourth gear before the incident and lost a lot of ground. Regarding the incident itself, I picked up a puncture, which is very unfortunate. I don’t know exactly what happened, but it’s disappointing, to be honest, because the car was quite fast. We were much closer to the Audis, which is a step ahead for this weekend. I think there are a lot of positives to take, mainly that the car feels good and it's much more fun to drive. The balance is much more connected, which means you can push it to its limits, and make fewer mistakes doing so. I think I’ve had a very clean weekend in terms of performance, and the race pace was consistent as well, which is good. So, we'll regroup for the next one.”

Esteban Ocon, 17th

“It was the wrong place and wrong time for both Ollie and me on Lap 1, there's not much we could've done. We were three wide, and I think Ollie had an issue, so everyone tried to avoid him. I went on the inside of Nico, let him past, and once Nico cleared, I was still on the inside and we touched. It was unfortunate, but it didn't impede either of our races. We struggled with the pace, and on my side we were still struggling with straight-line speed, lacking rear grip, and we were not quick at all. We need to do a better job in Budapest, and I hope we can have a similar car to what we had at Silverstone, or earlier in the year in Japan.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“Today was a bit of a messy day, so that’s a shame. The lap 1 incident between team-mates shouldn’t happen, so we just need to make sure that doesn’t happen again. At times where Ollie could show the pace, it was strong, better than qualifying, so that’s a positive and a result of the ongoing work everyone is doing to improve the car's characteristics. We had some operational errors today, which we’ll look into and improve upon. In Budapest, it’s going to be a very different challenge, but this weekend we made progress and next week we’ll have very different conditions. I think we’ll learn even more, and I want to go into the summer shutdown making another step forward.”

Williams

Another tricky race for Williams, who saw opening lap contact for Sainz. The Spaniard tagged Ocon’s Haas, and needed a new front wing for his troubles. The team managed to get away with a one-stop strategy for both drivers, expected for Albon on the mediums but somewhat of a surprise for Sainz who began the race on the softs. But in the end, not enough cars retired to promote either car towards the points.

Carlos Sainz, 16th

“It was a race of two halves today. We had to start P19 after a penalty due to changing the ESME and got some damage to the front wing in the first lap when everyone bunched up into turn 1. Changing the front wing cost us additional time, but with the new wing, the car was in a much better place, and I had good pace until the end of the race, overtaking some rivals and closing the gap to the cars ahead.

"Ultimately, we extracted everything we could from the car. While we know the gap is increasing to the midfield and our upgrades coming won’t completely fill this, we’ve got some good learnings we can take forward. On to Hungary.”

Alex Albon, 15th

“It was a frustrating day today. We had a good start, and you begin to think you can keep up with the midfield, but our pace just dropped away. We've had a super clean weekend and had stronger pace up until qualifying, where we made some changes that impacted our race pace today, leaving us with quite a slow car. We know other teams are progressing much faster than us and our Baku upgrade likely won't close this gap, but we'll do what we can to find more performance.”

James Vowles, Team Principal

“We got the most out of the car that we could today. Carlos got caught up in a lap 1 incident, which unfortunately cost quite a bit in terms of performance. We were able to rectify that with a front wing change at the stop, which proved to be the right decision, enabling him to come back and fight in the second half of the race.

"With Alex, it was a solid performance all weekend and he didn't put a foot wrong. We know we've fallen back relative to the field. There's a long way to go in the season, and the key is to make sure that we rectify the mistakes we suffered across the winter, so that we can continue to add performance to the car.”

Cadillac

Perez was unable to finish the race at Spa, initially pitting with a suspected puncture. That was not the answer to his problems, so he came back in just two laps later to retire with a possible rear spring/damper issue. Bottas did complete the race at the end of a strong weekend for the Finn, with no real incidents to report as he continued to gather vital data for the team.

Sergio Perez, DNF

“It was an unfortunate end to the race. I had a rear inboard suspension failure and we had to retire the car. We are still investigating the reasons why. It was a tricky weekend as we struggled a lot with straightline speed – even in the race I was missing a couple of tenths and we couldn’t fight for longer with the Haas of Esteban [Ocon], but hopefully we are able to sort it out for Hungary. I’m looking forward to it, coming back stronger there.”

Valtteri Bottas, 18th

“It was another challenging race for us, but we managed to finish with one car, which gives us valuable data to learn from. We still have work to do, particularly on reliability and tyre degradation, but everyone in the team is giving everything to improve. We just need to keep pushing, because when the results eventually come, they’ll be even more rewarding. Hopefully Hungary will suit us a bit better, and if we can put everything together in qualifying, you never know what might be possible.”

Graeme Lowdon, Team Principal

“Valtteri put in a strong performance to record another finish today, again comfortably ahead of the Astons. It is disappointing not to finish with both cars and we will look at the reasons for Checo’s retirement to get back to the reliability we saw earlier in the year. Budapest is a very different track to the fast, flowing Spa but we know that, as a team, we have the strength and resilience to take on the challenge.”

Aston Martin

With both cars starting down the back, it looked set to be a tricky race for Aston Martin. It was made harder when Stroll was called into the pits, the Canadian retiring with a suspected gearbox issue. Alonso did see the chequered flag for the team, coming home two laps down. The team are expected to bolt on a big package of upgrades next weekend, so this could be the last race where they are so far off the pace.

Fernando Alonso, 19th

“We did our best today, but we knew our limitations this weekend. We collected some valuable data for the team and are now focussed on Budapest. We will need to maximise all of our practice sessions next weekend and learn as much as we can about the new package.”

Lance Stroll, DNF

“Our pace was pretty much where we expected it to be today. We knew this track was always going to be difficult for us and it was a tough race from the start. Towards the end I started to feel something with the gearbox, so we retired the car to investigate it. Hopefully we can be a bit more competitive in Hungary and have a stronger weekend there.”

Mike Krack, Chief Trackside Officer

“It was not an easy afternoon and we did not have the pace to compete. So we simply tried to maximise those things in our control - being strong operationally and delivering the best strategy. Fernando completed the race in P19, while Lance reported a car issue on lap 25 and retired. The focus now shifts to Budapest and introducing a new package for the AMR26.”

Pirelli

Dario Marrafuschi, Pirelli Motorsport Director

“All three compounds played a role in the Belgian Grand Prix strategies, with few variations between the teams and all broadly within the scenarios already anticipated yesterday.

“Tyre degradation was lower than in previous days because track temperatures, partly due to a few drops of rain, were cooler than those recorded earlier in the weekend. This allowed drivers to extend their stints.

“Only Ferrari opted to deviate slightly from the strategies of its direct rivals, extending the opening stint on Mediums while waiting for a neutralisation, which ultimately came. This enabled the team to save time during the pit stop and fit the Hard tyres to both drivers on the same lap.

“No one, with the exception of Sainz and Bottas, chose to start on Softs, a strategy which, in our view, could have offered some benefit to cars in the second half of the grid if combined with a slightly earlier stop to exploit the undercut. From a strategic standpoint, despite the presence of a Safety Car and a VSC, the race proved fairly straightforward.”