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Max Verstappen won a heavily rain-shortened 2021 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix that finished late into the evening amid torrential conditions at Spa-Francorchamps. Half points were awarded as more than two laps – but less than 75% of the race – were completed.
The 1500 scheduled start time came 30 minutes after Sergio Perez crashed on the way to his grid spot in the wet weather, with the rain showing no signs of relenting. After a 25 minute delay, a brace of formation laps behind the Safety Car followed, before Race Director Michael Masi threw the red flag.
After many more delays, the race finally resumed at 1817 local time – more than three hours after it was set to start – with the clock to tick down from one hour as Masi did everything in his control to try to get a race up and running.
But only a handful of laps behind the Safety Car followed before another red flag, and Verstappen pulled back into the pits ahead of second-place Williams qualifier George Russell and third-place Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.
Most of the field would thus finish where they had qualified, with half points their consolation on a gloomy day at Spa, as it was finally announced the race would not resume, at 1845 local time.
Mario Isola – Head of F1 and car racing at Pirelli commented:
With the rain not improving, it, unfortunately, wasn’t possible to have a green flag race. The main problem was the lack of visibility. With the full wet tyres evacuating around 85 litres of water per second at 300kph, all that water has to go somewhere. The result is the spray that everyone watching could see behind the safety car, making it impossible for the drivers to see – which is obviously a dangerous situation. On a track with plenty of elevation like this one, there is also a risk of pools of water forming in certain places, which adds to the risk of aquaplaning. We’ll be back racing in less than a week’s time at the Dutch Grand Prix, hopefully with better weather.
2021 Formula 1 Belgian GP Race Results
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| Pos | No | Driver | Country | Team | Time | Points | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 33 | Max Verstappen | Netherlands | Red Bull Racing | 0:03:27.071 | 12.5 | 199.5 |
| 2. | 63 | George Russell | Great Britain | Williams Racing | +1.995s | 9 | 13 |
| 3. | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Great Britain | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | +2.601s | 7.5 | 202.5 |
| 4. | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Australia | McLaren Racing | +4.496s | 6 | 56 |
| 5. | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Germany | Aston Martin F1 Team | +7.479s | 5 | 35 |
| 6. | 10 | Pierre Gasly | France | Scuderia AlphaTauri | +10.177s | 4 | 54 |
| 7. | 31 | Esteban Ocon | France | Alpine F1 Team | +11.579s | 3 | 42 |
| 8. | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Monaco | Scuderia Ferrari | +12.608s | 2 | 82 |
| 9. | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Canada | Williams Racing | +15.484s | 1 | 7 |
| 10. | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Spain | Scuderia Ferrari | +16.166s | 0.5 | 83.5 |
| 11. | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Spain | Alpine F1 Team | +20.590s | 0 | 38 |
| 12. | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Finland | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | +22.414s | 0 | 108 |
| 13. | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Italy | Alfa Romeo F1 Team | +24.163s | 0 | 1 |
| 14. | 4 | Lando Norris | Great Britain | Mclaren Racing | +27.109s | 0 | 113 |
| 15. | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Japan | Scuderia AlphaTauri | +28.329s | 0 | 18 |
| 16. | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Germany | Haas F1 Team | +29.507s | 0 | 0 |
| 17. | 9 | Nikita Mazepin | Russia | Haas F1 Team | +31.993s | 0 | 0 |
| 18. | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Finland | Alfa Romeo F1 Team | +36.054s | 0 | 2 |
| 19. | 11 | Sergio Perez | Mexico | Red Bull Racing Honda | +38.205s | 0 | 104 |
| 20. | 18 | Lance Stroll | Canada | Aston Martin F1 Team | +44.108s | 0 | 18 |
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Here are the team-by-team highlights:
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