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Thread: Belgian Grand Prix 2017 - Race Thread

  1. #1
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    Belgian Grand Prix 2017 - Race Thread

    The Belgian Grand Prix – with its famous Eau Rouge, Blanchimont and the Bus Stop – sets the stage for the 12th instalment of the Sebastian Vettel versus Lewis Hamilton title race, with Valtteri Bottas waiting in the wings.

    Last time out in Hungary, Vettel led home a Ferrari 1-2 to extend his all but obliterated lead over Hamilton back up to 14 points. It put a brief halt to cries – mainly from the Italian media – of “crisis”, but could yet prove to be a small plaster on a gaping wound with F1’s next stops being the fast-flowing, power-hungry Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium and the Monza circuit in Italy.

    Although Ferrari have gone a long way towards narrowing the deficit with Mercedes in the engine department, the Scuderia’s power unit/aero combination is no match for the W0s when it comes to high-speed circuits.

    As such, Mercedes have dominated Spa for the past two years, with wins for Hamilton and his former team-mate Nico Rosberg, while Ferrari haven’t managed a single top-three result in that same time.

    But while many pundits are predicting a Mercedes win, and probably a 1-2 for the Brackley squad, Ferrari can draw some encouragement from the fact that they have designed a race-winning car this season – it’s just struggling to maintain that level on the high-speed circuits.

    Ferrari have tried to hedge their bets by adopting different tyres from Mercedes. However, it is Red Bull who have really embraced the ultrasofts this weekend. The Milton Keynes team last won at Spa back in 2014, the first year of the V6 engines, and, with a host of purple Pirellis at their disposal, they’ll be hoping to get the jump on their rivals through a two-stopping strategy bookended by runs on the ultrasofts.

    However, with Renault still lagging behind Mercedes and Ferrari in terms of power, even the Bulls’ tyre gamble may not be enough to put Daniel Ricciardo or Max Verstappen (who considers the Belgian Grand Prix to be his home race) in the mix for a podium finish. They, like many of their rivals, may have to rely on a safety car or the off-chance that current showers may linger through to today.

    One man who will be hoping to beat the odds – and they are firmly stacked against him – is Stoffel Vandoorne. The McLaren driver hails from Belgium and will be looking to become the first of his countrymen since Thierry Boutsen in 1989 to score in his home Grand Prix. But, with a 35-place grid penalty – and perhaps even more – Vandoorne is facing an uphill battle.
    #KeepFightingMichael | #CiaoJules

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    2017 Pirelli Belgian Grand Prix - Race

    Lets spoil the party for the Mercs.

    clean and safe race.

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    Mick Schumacher cruising in his dads B194 down in the pits

    Attachment 7301

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    Air temp 22, no chance of rain

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    Mick Schumacher brings on the goose bumps at Spa!



    Mick Schumacher paid an emotional tribute took to his father at Spa, lapping the track at the wheel of Michael Schumacher's 1994 title winning Benetton-Ford B194.

    The sight of the 18-year-old and the sounds of the vintage racer were more than enough to bring on goose bumps for a cheering and thrilled crowd.

    The demo run celebrated the 25th anniversary of Michael Schumacher's first Grand Prix career win, achieved at Spa in 1992.

    For the occasion, Mick sported a special 50:50 helmet design, with one half painted in his own colors and the other half in his father's colors.

    Mick has actually tested the car two weeks ago at Spa in preparation for today's run. Needless to say, he was swamped by the media and curious members of the F1 community who were also thrilled to witness the young hopefuls honorary run.

    #KeepFightingMichael | #CiaoJules

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    Sergio Perez on Friday joined Nico Hulkenberg in condemning the driving style of Haas racer Kevin Magnussen.

    Hulkenberg and Magnussen famously fell out in Hungary amid the "suck my b-lls" affair, and at Spa-Francorchamps Perez admitted his fury after the Dane apparently swerved into him during practice.

    Mexican Perez said he thinks Magnussen is "dirty" and brought up the issue in the FIA driver briefing.

    "He just said that he didn't do anything," said Perez, "but we've seen Kevin react like this a few times.

    "At the speeds we drive, it's not good as you could cause a big accident," the Force India driver told Ekstra Bladet newspaper.

    "That's why I brought it up with Charlie (Whiting) and hopefully he remembers it because it's too late once there's a big accident," Perez added.
    #KeepFightingMichael | #CiaoJules

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    There's a fair few changes to the grid after six drivers picked up grid penalties for today's race.

    Stoffel Vandoorne starts right at the back as a result of engine penalties resulting in a drop of 65 places.

    Daniil KVyat has a 20-place penalty to take after requiring an engine, turbo and MGU-H change before qualifying.

    Felipe Massa drops five places after ignoring yellow flags in FP3 while Sauber pair Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein were also hit with a five-place penalty for unscheduled gear box changes. Jolyon Palmer also drops five places after a gearbox change.

    The revised grid

    1 Lewis Hamilton

    2 Sebastian Vettel

    3 Valtteri Bottas

    4 Kimi Räikkönen

    5 Max Verstappen

    6 Daniel Ricciardo

    7 Nico Hulkenberg

    8 Sergio Perez

    9 Esteban Ocon

    10 Fernando Alonso

    11 Romain Grosjean

    12 Kevin Magnussen

    13 Carlos Sainz

    14 Lance Stroll

    15 Jolyon Palmer

    16 Felipe Massa

    17 Marcus Ericsson

    18 Pascal Wehrlein

    19 Daniil Kvyat

    20 Stoffel Vandoorne
    #KeepFightingMichael | #CiaoJules

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    Have a gut feeling it's going to be one of those "to forget" races

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    SPA SPEED TRAP:

    #KeepFightingMichael | #CiaoJules

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    TYRES AVAILABLE FOR THE RACE:

    #KeepFightingMichael | #CiaoJules

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    Quote Originally Posted by jgonzalesm6 View Post
    What are the best free live streaming links these days, I lost my direct tv hack,

    this one does not work for me in USA

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    Quote Originally Posted by ALO View Post
    What are the best free live streaming links these days, I lost my direct tv hack,

    this one does not work for me in USA
    http://www.eplsite.info/f1/

    working

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    Verstappen is the home favourite this weekend, but has his work cut out from fifth behind both Mercedes and both Ferraris.

    But he has earned quite the praise from Sky F1's Damon Hill, who claims he is a legend in the making.

    "He's like a Michael Schumacher," said the Champ. "He's confident in himself without being arrogant.

    "He's thinking - I need to get in a top car quick becaause I need to start winning now."

    So can Red Bull keep hold of him?
    #KeepFightingMichael | #CiaoJules

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    And a number of the drivers have been recalling their memories of Schumacher this weekend.

    Lewis Hamilton said: “I remember coming here in 1996, my first grand prix, and watching Michael come by out of Turn 1 and the engine just shook my rib cage – it was incredible. And that was when my love for the sport took another step.

    "I grew up watching him and I would play him, I would always be… particularly when he was in a Ferrari, when I was racing in computer games I was Michael a lot, the majority of the time.

    "Having the privilege, I raced with him in Kerpen many, many years ago and yeah, just trying to think of the best moment. I’ve always had good, fond memories of him. Another really good one was Abu Dhabi, just before he left. I plucked up the courage to go ask if he would swap helmets with me. He was welcoming and did, so yeah, that’s definitely one of the coolest things in my house."

    Sebastian Vettel said: "I've known him for a very, very long time, the age of six or seven I met him for the very first time, he was handing over the trophies to the kids at the go-kart track in Kerpen, his home track, not far away from here. Yeah, it was massive. We were more than a hundred kids and he took the time to shake all our hands, hand over the trophies, so as a child I think that was indescribable.

    "Obviously he was my hero. I had his posters everywhere in my room and he was pretty much the only guy I followed when I was young. So, yeah, big inspiration and we then I think we had a lot of good moments, a lot of fun moments. He’s a great guy, good fun and I think the admiration for his skills is the same as day one.

    "We shared a lot of good moments at the Race of Champions together and even if you can argue about the format and so on, still you have to drive different cars, adapt and the way he drives a go-kart is… I don’t know… it’s just so different to everybody else I’ve ever seen."

    Daniel Ricciardo said: "In Suzuka 2012, I was defending him for the last point and a point for us was like a podium. I feel I learnt a lot that day watching Michael in my mirrors. I could kind of feel what he was doing and it felt like we were on the same page which was encouraging for my career and really cool. At the next race on the Drivers’ Parade, he gave me a little pat on the back and said I defended really well."
    #KeepFightingMichael | #CiaoJules

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    Vibrations for kimi

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    Hope for a clean start for our boys. Double podium well on the cards here and an outside shot at a win

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    Damon Hill tweeted " Is that the same car that hit me?" ....referring to Mick driving the B194.

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    Kimi Raikkonen was complaining from vibrations during Q3 yesterday and the Finn has said on his lap to the grid that his car is still suffering from them.
    #KeepFightingMichael | #CiaoJules

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    Quote Originally Posted by Christopher View Post
    Vibrations for kimi
    Again? How are they not able to fix this, they are world class staff

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    Plenty of talk about 'wobbling' tyres overnight thanks to some slow-mo replays of cars in qualifying yesterday, but Pirelli's Mario Isola insists it is no concern for the race:

    "We spoke to the teams and they have no concern about that," said the Pirelli engineer.

    "It is the first time we see that, it's probably because they have a very high grip with the traction."
    #KeepFightingMichael | #CiaoJules

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    Quote Originally Posted by IulianFerrari View Post
    Again? How are they not able to fix this, they are world class staff
    Maybe fixing it would break parc ferme

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    40,000+ strong of Max fans!!!!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Christopher View Post
    Maybe fixing it would break parc ferme
    yeah, maybe it's a transmission issue adn tehy cannot replace it as it would give grid penalties....as it would have to last 6 consecutive races i think....
    so they're prolly trying to get through this 12th race of the season and come Monza he'll be able to switch to an new one without penalties

    anyone think the same as me????
    So 2023 started off bad, but managed to claw back some lap time come end of the year. Lets hope SF24 will give us tifosi something to smile about.

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    damnit poor kimi, theres always issues for ferrari, why cant we just have luck on our side for once. Mercs must have a great voodoo doctor

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    Quote Originally Posted by jgonzalesm6 View Post
    40,000+ strong of Max fans!!!!
    He was born in belgium, nederlands are a rock throw away, the dutch are passionate people. 3 reasons out the top of my head

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    Quote Originally Posted by mwk360 View Post
    damnit poor kimi, theres always issues for ferrari, why cant we just have luck on our side for once. Mercs must have a great voodoo doctor
    We still have Seb in a strong position and lets not count Kimi out yet...

  29. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by IulianFerrari View Post
    He was born in belgium, nederlands are a rock throw away, the dutch are passionate people. 3 reasons out the top of my head
    yup....

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    Niki said long runs mercs are matched to ferrari, toto said they are strong on the straights.

    s1 and s3, those are the overtaking sections...

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