Belgian Grand Prix 2020
The 2020 Formula 1 season is once again looking like a procession for Mercedes. After his comfortable victory at Catalunya, Lewis Hamilton once again dominated the Belgian Grand Prix as he picked up his fifth win in seven races.
Team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen once again accompanied Hamilton on the podium in what was a relatively straightforward race at the top.
Meanwhile, Ferrari’s struggles this season continued. The Scuderia were well off the pace all weekend long at Spa as Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc finished a humiliating 13th and 14th, respectively.
Highlights of the game
Lewis Hamilton hadn’t won at Spa since 2017, but he remained the clear favourite according to the Belgian Grand Prix 2020 betting odds. And the Briton was looking good for that first win in three years as he claimed pole over team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
Max Verstappen was once again just behind the two Mercedes, while Daniel Ricciardo had a surprisingly strong qualifying and started behind his former Red Bull team-mate in fourth.
But the big Belgian Grand Prix 2020 news coming out of qualifying was Ferrari’s utter failure. The Prancing Horse performed terribly in practice and that led to a disastrous qualifying session where they finished in the seventh row — just one year after locking out the front row at Spa.
When the lights went out, Hamilton maintained his lead over Bottas and Verstappen. Meanwhile, Leclerc — the reigning Belgian GP champion — quickly leapt four places to ninth, and Vettel gained a place within the first few laps.
However, Leclerc would quickly lose his gains — likely due to his soft tyres — as he posted the slowest lap times in the field.
The safety car came out on lap 11 after Antonio Giovinazzi and George Russell collided, which allowed all of the top three to make their stops and change to hard tyres. Bottas was able to come out just ahead of Verstappen to hold on to second.
The safety car was Bottas and Verstappen’s chance to put pressure on Hamilton, but once the race restarted, the Briton quickly reestablished his lead.
Meanwhile, the two Ferraris were busy battling in the middle of the pack — and losing to the likes of Racing Point and AlphaTauri.
That was where much of the action was in this race because the outcomes of the podium places were never really in doubt.
Bottas tried his best, but he couldn’t close the gap on Hamilton, and Verstappen similarly wasn’t able to mount a legitimate challenge on Bottas for second. The reigning champion cruised to another easy victory, over eight seconds ahead of his team-mate.
Before Hamilton took the chequered flag, a frantic three-way battle emerged for fifth place in the last few laps, with Esteban Ocon, Alex Albon, and Lando Norris all fighting it out. In the end, though, Ocon overcame Albon’s late challenge to take fifth, which ties his highest career F1 finish.
Key statistics
Hamilton has won the Belgian Grand Prix for the fourth time. He is now up to 89 career Grand Prix wins, which is two shy of Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 victories.
Bottas’ second-place finish is his best performance at Spa, beating out his third-place finishes in 2014 and 2019. He and Hamilton secured Mercedes’ third-ever 1-2 finish at Spa.
Max Verstappen has tied his best career run of consecutive podium finishes with six. Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo recorded Renault’s fastest lap in a Grand Prix for the first time since Robert Kubica in 2010.
What’s next?
The 2020 Formula 1 season moves on to its eighth stop next weekend at Monza with the Italian Grand Prix. Ferrari will be desperate to put on a much better performance at their home Grand Prix after their disastrous showing at Spa.
Charles Leclerc is the reigning champion at Monza as he claimed pole and the chequered flag. It was Ferrari’s first win at home since Fernando Alonso in 2010.
However, the SBOTOP odds won’t have the Scuderia as one of the favourites given how disappointing they’ve looked this season. Instead, Hamilton and Mercedes will head to Italy confident that they can resume their winning run at Monza. They’d won in Italy five years in a row from 2014-2018.
Hamilton has five career Italian GP wins, which is tied with Michael Schumacher for the most all-time. And in the form he’s currently in this season, it will be hard to bet against him getting another win.
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