It was to no great surprise that Valtteri Bottas gained the most places in the Belgian Grand Prix, having started an out-of-position 17th due to an engine change penalty.
He was fortunate to keep his final position, the fourth place he took from Sergio Perez, as he was given a five-second time penalty after the race. Bottas only pulled five seconds clear of Perez as the penultimate lap began.The next highest climbed was Carlos Sainz Jnr, who made up eight places yet finished outside the points in 11th. However most of the places gained by Sainz and other drivers in the race came about due to the first-lap crash which eliminated three cars on the spot and led to two more dropping out later in the race.
Sebastian Vettel controlled proceedings. He didn’t have to push at the end of the race, which allowed Bottas to set the fastest lap. But the Ferrari driver pulled away from Lewis Hamilton as he pleased and finished 11 seconds to the good. Had Kimi Raikkonen survived the first lap unscathed, this could well have been a Ferrari one-two.
Vettel also enjoyed the fastest complete pit stop of the race. In fact he was so quick he admitted he almost wasn’t ready to pull away when the car was lowered back onto the road.
2018 Belgian Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
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2018 Belgian Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
Position change
| Driver | Start position | Lap one position change | Race position change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | 1 | -1 | -1 |
| Valtteri Bottas | 17 | 2 | 13 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 6 | -11 | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 8 | -4 | |
| Max Verstappen | 7 | 2 | 4 |
| Sergio Perez | 4 | 1 | -1 |
| Esteban Ocon | 3 | -1 | -3 |
| Lance Stroll | 16 | 5 | 3 |
| Sergey Sirotkin | 15 | 5 | 3 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | 18 | ||
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | 19 | 5 | 8 |
| Pierre Gasly | 10 | 2 | 1 |
| Brendon Hartley | 11 | -2 | -3 |
| Romain Grosjean | 5 | -1 | -2 |
| Kevin Magnussen | 9 | 2 | 1 |
| Fernando Alonso | 14 | ||
| Stoffel Vandoorne | 20 | 4 | 5 |
| Marcus Ericsson | 13 | 4 | 3 |
| Charles Leclerc | 12 |
2018 Belgian Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
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2018 Belgian Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
| Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’46.286 | 32 | |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’46.644 | 0.358 | 25 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’46.721 | 0.435 | 23 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’46.946 | 0.660 | 36 |
| 5 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’47.937 | 1.651 | 36 |
| 6 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’48.078 | 1.792 | 35 |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’48.080 | 1.794 | 38 |
| 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’48.283 | 1.997 | 35 |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’48.588 | 2.302 | 36 |
| 10 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’48.670 | 2.384 | 32 |
| 11 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’48.694 | 2.408 | 35 |
| 12 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’48.756 | 2.470 | 33 |
| 13 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 1’48.956 | 2.670 | 38 |
| 14 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’49.113 | 2.827 | 42 |
| 15 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’49.242 | 2.956 | 27 |
| 16 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’49.287 | 3.001 | 39 |
| 17 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’54.320 | 8.034 | 6 |
2018 Belgian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sebastian Vettel | Super soft (22) | Soft (22) | |
| Lewis Hamilton | Super soft (21) | Soft (23) | |
| Max Verstappen | Super soft (26) | Soft (18) | |
| Valtteri Bottas | Soft (2) | Super soft (27) | Soft (15) |
| Sergio Perez | Super soft (25) | Soft (19) | |
| Esteban Ocon | Super soft (24) | Soft (20) | |
| Romain Grosjean | Super soft (23) | Soft (21) | |
| Kevin Magnussen | Super soft (26) | Soft (18) | |
| Pierre Gasly | Super soft (25) | Soft (19) | |
| Marcus Ericsson | Soft (26) | Super soft (17) | |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Medium (22) | Super soft (21) | |
| Sergey Sirotkin | Soft (24) | Super soft (19) | |
| Lance Stroll | Soft (23) | Super soft (20) | |
| Brendon Hartley | Soft (31) | Super soft (12) | |
| Stoffel Vandoorne | Soft (2) | Medium (26) | Super soft (15) |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Super soft (1) | Soft (27) | |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Super soft (1) | Medium (6) | |
| Nico Hulkenberg | |||
| Fernando Alonso | |||
| Charles Leclerc |
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2018 Belgian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 22.253 | 22 | |
| 2 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 22.339 | 0.086 | 24 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 22.341 | 0.088 | 26 |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 22.375 | 0.122 | 21 |
| 5 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 22.399 | 0.146 | 29 |
| 6 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 22.558 | 0.305 | 26 |
| 7 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 22.706 | 0.453 | 2 |
| 8 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 22.901 | 0.648 | 23 |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 22.953 | 0.700 | 25 |
| 10 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 23.157 | 0.904 | 25 |
| 11 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 23.225 | 0.972 | 24 |
| 12 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 23.248 | 0.995 | 23 |
| 13 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 23.389 | 1.136 | 28 |
| 14 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 23.857 | 1.604 | 22 |
| 15 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 24.304 | 2.051 | 26 |
| 16 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 26.367 | 4.114 | 1 |
| 17 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 29.316 | 7.063 | 31 |
| 18 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 30.519 | 8.266 | 2 |
| 19 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 35.451 | 13.198 | 7 |
| 20 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 395.824 | 373.571 | 1 |
sumedh
26th August 2018, 18:39
Look at that lap time gain after pitstop. almost every driver went 2 seconds faster after pitstop. Not seen such strong undercut pace in a long time.
Captain Pie (@captainpie)
26th August 2018, 19:01
If there is a prize for longest lap then Ricciardo has it. Way to go skewing the charts like that.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
27th August 2018, 4:07
Agreed, @captainpie
I don’t know why Ricciardo’s time was kept in that chart to begin with, when the caption above it states “Very large gaps omitted”. If that wasn’t a large gap, then I don’t know what is.
faulty (@faulty)
26th August 2018, 19:01
Great second stint by Perez, it’s almost a flat line! The team should have instructed him to stay on it and not ease off, Bottas gained a lot in the last two laps.
dutchtreat (@dutchtreat)
26th August 2018, 19:09
Gasly was about 1.6 seconds slower (fastest laps) than Verstappen. Maybe Honda has improved a little bit. I think it bodes well for RB-Honda comes 2020 after they have a year to sort things out with RB. Hoping for a bit more competition.
Nick (@specialist)
30th August 2018, 16:28
Was Bottas out of supersofts at the end? I thought that he was going to go s/ss/ss once he ditched the softs after the early crash?