Key events
There is a large amount of sport on today.
Emillia Hawkins has all the buildup to England v Spain in the Women’s Euro 2025 final:
Daniel Harris has England v India in the fourth Test at Old Trafford:
Meanwhile, Mavi García has won stage two of the Tour de France Femmes in Quimper and Michael Butler has the reaction here:
Tour de France stage 21, in the men’s race, will also be coming up soon.
“I just hope we can go soon, for the fans,” says Pierre Gasly of Alpine. “Here [at Spa] we’ve had a few situations where they’ve waited a long time in recent years.
“I’m pretty sure it’s going to start in the next 15, 20 minutes. Once this rain is gone it should be a good race, it should be exciting.
“It’s tricky conditions … I’ll fight as hard as I can. We are three positions away from the top 10 and I really hope we can make it.”
Brundle and Croft discuss Rosberg’s point about having the bravery to stay on the accelerator in bad visibility.
“If you’ve lost the willingness to keep your foot down, you need to get out of the car, and go and do something else with your life,” says Brundle.
An email from Philip entitled: “Wet Tyres?”
“How often do drivers actually use full wets? If races are red-flagged before the drivers even put them on, it begs the question – what’s the point in having them in the first place?”
Good question. They mentioned something about the teams going for intermediates. I don’t know the answer, regarding how often full wet tyres are used.
“I feel honoured to be alongside this legendary lineup,” says Nico Rosberg, with David Croft and Martin Brundle in the commentary box.
“So you should,” quips Brundle.
Croft asks: What was Rosberg’s worse race in the rain?
“There were so many,” says Rosberg. “Here, in Canada … You have to keep pedal to the metal. For 10 seconds, blind. You have to look at the walls to see if there is a braking marker … ‘Maybe the corner is coming up soon, maybe I should brake,’ – but you can’t brake too quickly either because the car behind you might run into you.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is pictured in the pits, headphones on.
“It’s a fine balance. F1 cars are good at clearing the water, but when the water levels are bad, we have to be careful about aquaplaning,” says Andy Cowell of Aston Martin.
“The strategy team are on their toes,” Cowell adds of the midfield battle on the F1 grid. “Let’s see what we can grab hold of.”
“Safe to race?” emails Alex. “No such thing! Spa has got all the required safety certificates. If a driver isn’t happy to race, they can withdraw. In the meantime, conditions won’t improve without cars circulating. This lesson is seemingly never learned.”
It is not safe to race as the conditions are now. Delaying the start, in my opinion, is the right call. As one of the Sky pundits just said, fans may insist they should just get out and race, but the people who actually make the decision have a responsibility to the drivers.
“This circuit is dangerous; there have been two fatal accidents in recent years at the same location (after the Eau Rouge steep slope) due to poor visibility,” emails Claude. “The rain makes this lack of visibility even more dangerous. Spa is one of those circuits from the past where little thought was given to safety, like the Nürburgring. The drivers love it, but can such precarious racing conditions be accepted today? I’m not sure.”
Beyond lap 33, full points would be scored. If fewer than two laps are completed, no points will be scored. Between that, there are few different permutations on scoring.
“I think a delayed start is probably the right thing to do, with the amount of spray form the cars the visibility is low and could result in crashes,” emails Asim. “On the flip side the rain-filled race at Silverstone this year was particularly exciting due to the amount of strategising, with cars changing tyres after the formation lap a first for me. It would be a shame if we didn’t see a full race!”
Apparently Verstappen also said: “We should just run, like, chillax.”
Now, they do play Verstappen Jr. on team radio, never slow to give his opinion.
“Way too cautious,” says the world champion. “Now the rain is coming, the heavy rain.”
The real rain is about to hit, too, that is what the forecast apparently says.
The TV director focuses on some enthusiastic fans in the stands, spirits undampened by the heavy rain.
There is some on-board footage of (I presume) the formation lap. There is no way it’s safe to race in these conditions. Visibility is utterly terrible.
“Having looked at the weather forecast I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this race won’t start,” emails Andy.
”This really doesn’t help Spa’s case of remaining on the calendar either.”
In fact, Brundle isn’t sure about the three-hour window for the race, and another commentator (Kravitz I think) now says the timer has stopped under the red flag.
Lando Norris is asked if the problem is visibility, or standing water on the track.
“Visibility. The standing water is not too bad.”
“I possibly would have given it a couple of laps … to see if these tyres could wash away some rain,” says Kravitz on commentary.
Brundle suggests that Max Verstappen has called the decision “silly and way too cautious,” although I didn’t hear that on the radio or anything.
In my opinion, in view of the standing water on the track and the copious spray being thrown up by the tyres, delaying the start is the right decision.
Red flag – race start delayed
Visibility is deemed to be too poor, and the start will be delayed.
Up front, Lando Norris says he can’t see much “and I don’t know what it must be like for the guys behind.”
Brundle, on commentary for Sky Sports F1, points out that the three-hour window for the completion of the race is now open.
The formation lap has begun. It is extremely wet on track. Visibility will be terrible at full race speed. Ted Kravitz points out that the rain has stopped, for now, but there is more coming.
There are 16 cars on the grid and four starting from the pits. Sainz, Hamilton, Antonelli and Alonso all have new power units, I think they just said on the telly …
Belgian Grand Prix grid positions after qualifying
1 Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren 1min 40.562secs
2 Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 1:40.647
3 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1:40.900
4 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:40.903
5 Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams 1:41.201
6 George Russell (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:41.260
7 Yuki Tsunoda (Jpn) Red Bull 1:41.284
8 Isack Hadjar (Fra) RB 1:41.310
9 Liam Lawson (Nzl) RB 1:41.328
10 Gabriel Bortoleto (Bra) Kick Sauber 1:42.387
11 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Haas F1 1:41.525
12 Oliver Bearman (Gbr) Haas F1 1:41.617
13 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Alpine 1:41.633
14 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Kick Sauber 1:41.707
15 Franco Colapinto (Arg) Alpine 1:42.022
16 Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:42.502
17 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Williams 1:41.758
18 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Ferrari 1:41.939
19 Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Ita) Mercedes GP 1:42.139
20 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Aston Martin 1:42.385
We’ll have 44 laps. The drivers will cover 191.398 miles.
Are you happy to see a torrential downpour at Spa, with a view to racing excitement?
Do you think they should delay the start?
You can email me.
“Visibility is going to be a bit tricky,” says Yuki Tsunoda of Red Bull.
He suggests the start may be delayed.
“It’s a horrible situation to be in,” Rosberg says of the lack of visibility in the rain. “It’s a dangerous circuit.”
It’s absolutely pelting it down, by the way. Time for the Belgian national anthem, a few pyrotechnics and some sort of military fly-past.
Can Hulkenberg get on the podium again, Rosberg asks?
“It’s going to be hard to repeat that, but never say never.”
Rosberg asks Valtteri Bottas about a link with Cadillac for next year.
“I can’t hear you,” Bottas quips, avoiding the question.
Under 20 minutes to lights out.
Is Jos Verstappen pleased that Horner is gone from Red Bull?
“They decided to change. I’m fine with everything, as long as it works.”
Rosberg asks: “You said Horner has to go?”
“That was a year ago,” says Verstappen Sr. “It’s different. I have nothing to say.
Rosberg: “You’re quiet, now?”
“I’m always quiet.”
That was awkward.
“I loved days like this,” Brundle tells Jenson Button when asked if he would like to be out there racing in the rain. “It was a chance of nicking a few points.”
Giles Richards
Lando Norris has always maintained confidence in his abilities even as the season has ebbed and flowed, a point he felt he made definitively in claiming pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix. While Norris soared Lewis Hamilton was left bereft, offering only apologies to his team for an “unacceptable” error that left him languishing in 16th place here.
Martin Brundle has recruited his colleague Nico Rosberg for his grid walk. Is nothing sacred? Meanwhile, it’s raining, and raining hard.
“It’s chucking it down now,” says Rosberg. “The teams will need to decide on tyres. At the moment, the decision will be towards the wets.
“It’s horrible, you won’t be able to see anything, unless you’re in P1,” Rosberg adds when Brundle mentions the spray in the air when it rains at this circuit.
Plenty of time before lights out to read this superb piece by Nasra Abdi, regarding the threat of the iconic Spa-Francorchamps disappearing from the F1 calendar:
“At 7km long with 19 corners, Spa is the longest track on the calendar and home to some of F1’s most distinguished features. Nowhere is this clearer than at Eau Rouge and Raidillon, a sweeping blind uphill left-right kink that rewards precision and bravery in equal measure.
“Its difficulty is part of its charm – the unpredictable weather, the margin for error, the rawness that feels increasingly rare. As the sport moves further into new markets, the question is no longer just whether Spa should stay. It is whether Formula One can afford to lose what it represents.”
It’s raining at Spa right now. The fans are reaching for the rain jackets. And the forecast is for a big storm to hit later.
Giles Richards
Max Verstappen has insisted that the dismissal of Christian Horner as team principal would not be a factor in deciding whether he remains at Red Bull.
The world champion also revealed that the shock move after the British Grand Prix was led by the team’s parent company Red Bull GmbH, which had been embroiled in a power struggle with Horner for a year and a half.
Nico Hülkenberg finished third for Sauber at Silverstone earlier this month, remarkably achieving a first podium in 239 grand prix starts. Sky Sports F1 have interviewed him.
“It was great. Opportunities came … we executed perfectly,” Hülkenberg tells Ted Kravitz.
“It’s been so positive, the aftermath, the amount of love, feedback from around the world, from fans, from colleagues, from ex-colleagues. It’s been pretty incredible, and really special.
“The aftermath was pretty overwhelming … by Tuesday, I had more than 700 messages. It took me the whole week to work through it and reply. It was quite a bit of work, actually.
“I’ve got a lot of those [strategy] calls wrong in the past. To get it all right is nearly impossible. It just played out beautifully … I had the right nose, the right feeling, and followed my instincts.”
Giles Richards
Amid a turbulent period for Red Bull, their new team principal, Laurent Mekies, is bearing the responsibility and the scrutiny, for the moment at least, with a smile.
After two weeks in charge since the dismissal of Christian Horner, Mekies and Red Bull are adjusting to a new era with a business as usual attitude even as the circumstances suggest it can be anything but, before this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
“The timing is bloody bizarre,” the pundit Martin Brundle says on Sky Sports of Horner’s departure. “You might have thought it was something to do in the close season. But it is what it is.”
“He was losing internal support,” claims Nico Rosberg. “Key people were leaving … so they decided to pull the trigger.”
“Verstappen will definitely stay next year,” says Naomi Schiff. “While Red Bull racing is a successful team, Red Bull [the drink] is at the core of it. This is their biggest marketing activity … they have clearly gone backwards, they need to go forwards, the whole team needs to rebuild, and rebuild their image.”
Preamble
The buildup to the Belgian grand prix has been dominated by Christian Horner’s recent departure from Red Bull, and that hasn’t changed this weekend: although an actual grand prix will shift collective focus to the sport rather than off-track politics.
Lando Norris – having a mixed season to say the least – grabbed pole position for McLaren yesterday while Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who has won five times at Spa in his illustrious career, could only manage 16th on the grid after what he termed an “unacceptable” error. “Definitely a weekend to forget,” said the seven-times world champion. “I’ve got to look internally and apologise to the team.” Norris’s pole followed up victory at the British grand prix earlier this month when his teammate, Oscar Piastri, claimed he was unfairly denied by a penalty for braking erratically during a safety-car restart.
Max Verstappen of Red Bull, having won the earlier sprint race, took fourth on the grid while Piastri is second in a McLaren one-two. Charles Leclerc, Hamilton’s Ferrari teammate, starts third. There should be plenty of intrigue, not least in judging how Laurent Mekies, Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda’s new team principal, begins his quest to fill Horner’s shoes.
Lights out: 2pm UK time
