2019 Belgian GP - Remembering Anthoine Hubert

On Saturday afternoon, after Formula 1 qualifying, Anthoine Hubert lost his life in an F2 race at the same venue. Giuliano Alesi was having his own accident, I think I read somewhere due to a puncture, which Hubert had to avoid and having a massive crash at Radillion. With a short run off and the barriers angled in such a way that it sent Hubert's car back towards the middle of the track (though not on it) and Correa's car, which had run wide, collided with the stricken car, breaking both his legs, but Hubert succumbed to his injuries. It's not an incident that I've seen and it is certainly not a clip I will be searching out. Hubert has already won two races in F2 this season and was a Renault Young Driver who looked on course to join F1 in the future to join childhood friends and rivals Gasly, Leclerc and Ocon. My thoughts and prayers go to his family and friends during this difficult time, and also to Juan Manuel for some long recovery days ahead.

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If this was an ordinary weekend, I would probably say Hamilton had a more impressive weekend having put his car in contention for victory, but sadly this was no ordinary weekend. Leclerc has known so much loss as a young man, to witness the fatal crash of a childhood friend and to have the mental fortitude to get in the car and deliver the goods was extraordinary. The most fitting gesture of the weekend in memory of Hubert was that Leclerc would lead from lights to flag and dedicate it to his friend, an opinion the whole paddock seemed to be united over, and that's exactly what he did. Faster than Vettel all weekend, some 7 tenths faster in qualifying (Vettel's traffic problems mitigating) and Vettel ended up being needed to hold up Hamilton so that Leclerc could win unchallenged. Ferrari's struggles with tyre degradation was evident as Vettel, who normally excels in tyre management, had to pit early for his first stop and needed to pit a second time before the end. Leclerc managed that, his emotions, and held off a closing Hamilton to earn his first victory in F1. Congratulations Charles!

Lando Norris had a fantastic race, with Sainz out of contention, he made a brilliant start, avoided the collisions and made up 6 places, something he'd been working on over the break, and he was set to finish in a comfortable 5th place. I'd normally use the words 'heartbreak' and 'cruel luck', but in the context of the weekend, things can always be worse. The McLaren didn't have that kind of pace to be there, so Lando is due credit for that drive.

AsteriskAsteriskAsteriskAsterisk! pic.twitter.com/nu1QKaPdcA

— Lando Norris (@LandoNorris) September 2, 2019

Albon inherited fifth place, probably the best you could expect from him in his first race, in the middle of a season, and starting from the back. It allowed the pressure to be taken off him, especially with Verstappen out on lap 1, and with no direct comparison, he drove superbly, made some great overtakes along the way (Ricciardo and Perez on the last lap in particular), and came away with a good haul of points. It's worth noting that Kvyat and Gasly both had solid weekends, all of them presumably in contention for the 2nd Red Bull seat in 2020. It was good to see Gasly competitive again, and also confident enough to make some good overtaking moves.

Other solid drives come from Perez and Hulkenberg. The Racing Points have struggled all year, but are still relatively competitive in the midfield on these low-downforce type tracks, and Perez did well not to tangle with Albon on an exciting last lap. Hulkenberg seemed relaxed on the week he found out he would be losing his Renault drive at the end of the year.

Usually I'd dedicate a part of my review to strugglers, but it doesn't feel appropriate to label any criticism on such a difficult weekend.

The Belgian Grand Prix wasn't the best race we've had all year, but it was still entertaining with battles all down the field, crashes, exciting battles and overtakes, and a more emotional than usual first victory for Leclerc.