Time On Track, Ep 13: Round 13 – Spa

Time On Track returns to examine the final race before the summer break, and it’s one our favorite tracks on the calendar. This is round 13, the Belgian GP at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. This was an action packed weekend that featured a sprint shootout and race, a whole lotta rain, and one inevitable winner. Max Verstappen took his 9th win of the season with a phenomenal performance starting from 6th on the grid (thanks to a new gearbox taken prior to the race). Sergio Perez got the performance he was looking for, finishing a somewhat distant second, followed closely by Charles Leclerc, and Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren team continued to look strong throughout the weekend, with some masterful driving from both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, and were it not for a lap 1, turn 1 incident, might have seen one of them on the podium.

The best action came from the spring shootout and spring race on Saturday, which were run in rapidly changing weather that saw bouts of rain turn to sunshine in moments. This led to some on track drama and even saw Piastri lead his first racing laps in the sprint race itself after starting P2. Contact between Hamilton and Perez netted the Mercedes driver a painful 5 second penalty, and the Red Bull and even worse DNF. We discuss all this and more in the full episode below.

Time On Track will return to cover the second half of the season after the Dutch Grand Prix in the Netherlands, Max’s home track, taking place on August 27th. A lot of great tracks will make appearances later in the season, from Japan to Brazil, and of course, the newest track on the calendar in Las Vegas. We’ll be here for all of it.