Start, Spa-Francorchamps, 2019

Rate the race: 2019 Belgian Grand Prix

2019 Belgian Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Belgian Grand Prix.

RaceFans has held polls on every F1 race since 2008 to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix out of 10

  • 10 (5%)
  • 9 (8%)
  • 8 (37%)
  • 7 (36%)
  • 6 (10%)
  • 5 (3%)
  • 4 (0%)
  • 3 (0%)
  • 2 (0%)
  • 1 (1%)

Total Voters: 239

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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62 comments on “Rate the race: 2019 Belgian Grand Prix”

  1. Yet another decently exciting race.

  2. 6 or 7 not more.

    1. agreed, if only Ferrari had even a worse strategy today. sc saved ferrari. as per 2019 vettel super slow on c2 or c1 tyres.

    2. Why not?
      I give it strong 9

  3. Solid 8. Wasn’t as good as some of the races we have been treated to recently, but very watchable indeed. Congratulations to Leclerc for his first win. I’d bet quite a lot of money for him to win two on the bounce now!

    1. him to win two on the bounce now!

      Wouldn’t the Tifosi love that :)

      1. @phylyp Yeah they would. I can’t say for certain, but I get the feeling Leclerc is the more popular driver of the two for the Tifosi, so he will probably get an overwhelming reception if he wins there. Could be one of the critical points in the legend of Leclerc if he goes on to be a multiple world-champion. I’m almost certain he will go down as the 2nd most successful driver in Ferrari history at the very least.

        1. Calm down! It’s win No 1.
          That’s no dig at LEC as he is a great driver but the hyperbole is a bit much at this stage.

    2. @mashiat It would be cool to see him win in Monza, and that circuit will only favour the Ferrari package. Vettel doesn’t seem comfortable in the SF90, and with Mercedes completely flipping their car design with the W10, Leclerc has to be the favourite…..It could be an epic Italian GP.

      1. @ju88sy I agree. The Ferrari will be mighty in qualifying, so I can see another Leclerc-Vettel front row, which will only help Leclerc again, as Vettel will be able to do a job as a “wingman”. And after what happened last season, I think Ferrari will make their drivers be more considerate of the Mercedes cars on lap one.

  4. Good race, was nice to see Hamilton chasing down the Ferraris, and beating one of them. This, despite any concerns they might have had about the PU.

    Very pleased to see Leclerc get his first victory, and he earned it on Saturday and today.

    Decent RBR debut by Albon as well, coming in P5.

    Big shame to see Norris retire on the last lap, that must sting.

    1. @phylyp Great race to sainz then, as nobody seems to realise that Norris woes are sainz only reason for a great championship.

      1. @peartree That makes no sense. Sainz retired on lap one and had no chance to demonstrate his race craft today. Norris did and kept it in fifth all day, quite a fair distance away from the next car. And it was particularly heart breaking for him because the thing that gives him power stopped giving him power one lap before the finish.

        What point are you even trying to make?

    2. I’d add to that how much of a shame it was Verstappen wasn’t in it, that could have made for some fights right behind the podium too.

      But yeah the race was quite good. Solid racing at the front, all over the midfield etc.

      Huge shame for Norris, and I’d like to see what happened with Giovanazzi, because he had been a solid second half of the race too until that moment.

      Perez also has a way of really rising to the occasion.
      Albon really got going too. Might be good for him that he was able to finish that a bit lucky 5thm especially not having the pressure there since he started way back and there was no VErstappen magic to “compete” with for him today either.

      1. @bascb – yeah, if Max was in the race, that might have been quite the wildcard in the pack :)

        There’s so many things I want to see replays of – Giovinazzi’s crash, Norris halting, the Albon/Perez overtake!

  5. A solid 7/10. Beautiful driving by Charles and Vettel who held off Lewis. Great midfield battles overall. Bittersweet day but I am happy Charles took his first win.

    1. Vettel didn’t hold off Hamilton. Or Bottas.

      1. Hamilton Locked up in Bus stop under pressure to catch Vettel. So Seb caused a little mistake which allowed Lewis to stay behind for one more lap. Given Hamilton finished 0.7s behind Charles, that might have given Leclerc the win.

        Seb didn’t give the win to Charles but he sure helped in that.

      2. then you didn’t see the race.

        1. how did Vettel hold them off when they both finished in front of him @naylamp … Did you watch a different race where Vettel didn’t finish 4th ?

          1. You don’t understand the sport, do you.

      3. Vettel couldn’t hold them off, however he did give Leclerc 4 seconds extra for Lewis to try to reel in. Without defending for those laps, Ferrari would have lost the race. Not entirely sure what was going on with the Vettel strategy, but it worked for Leclerc.

  6. 6/10.

    Primarily because DRS was far too powerful down the Kemmel straight. I just get no enjoyment whatsoever when DRS makes passing that easy, Especially since it’s been the same story every year down Kemmel yet they continue to keep putting DRS there when it’s really not needed at that spot & always just ends up making passing way too easy.

    1. @stefmeister – agree re. DRS. It should only put cars in closer contention, it shouldn’t guarantee a pass.

      1. @stefmeister @phylyp

        That’s why I think DRS should remain to help the driver behind win back the time lost in the corner due to dirty air, but then close it halfway through a straight so the drivers can duke it out themselves as they go into the braking zone/corner.

        1. @jeffreyj – agreed, that would be ideal.

  7. Decent-good race

    1. Could have been better if Kimi was in the mix at the front of the midfield.

  8. 8/10. Had a bit of everything, strategy, performance differences. Unusual running order. First lap drama. Last lap drama. Was missing a rain shower and more non-DRS passes.

  9. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
    1st September 2019, 15:57

    Gave it a 9. Slower car on the day by a hair won it by virtue of good teamwork. Doesn’t happen often

  10. Not quite up there with the last four, but still a very good race. The midfield battle is so entertaining, just wish the race for the lead wasn’t just tactics.
    Also, the midfield battle this time around was mad. All tactics and tyres, I had no idea what was happening.

    1. I wished the race director would have focused a bit more on the midfield. no max that’s a downer, typical max over optimistic moves. bad strategy from ferrari but early sc shortened the race.

  11. Fantastic race. With excitement till the end for who will win the race.
    Solid 8/10

  12. Yep +1 an 8, ..as Lewis said ‘a couple more laps’ ?

    1. Another lap I think, maybe the last lap without the traffic they had. Mercedes has the best race pace most places still.

  13. 7.

    This race really showed the significant loss of speed in race trim of the Ferraris over a full race. No wonder they didn’t win any race until today. More than sure almost everybody would have thought this would be an easy win, yet this could have been very well just another HAM win on pure car pace. Without VET getting back 2nd from HAM in the 1st lap OR the gap he created between him (and HAM) and LEC after the pit-stop, almost sure HAM would have won.

  14. It was nice to see leclerc win but the race wasn’t too good. The drs was really horrible making all passes totally overpowered and taking all excitement out of the fights. There were some decent moves outside but it was drs spectacle. Vettel bottled it again. Probably ruined his tires and was forced to pit early. If hamilton had won it this way I feel a lot of people had given the race quite lower rating. It is not bad. Worth a 6 or 7.

    1. We don’t know if VET bottled it… again. It’s obvious now that Ferrari is not good in race trim, at least on these tyres. Also, VET seems to have problems getting the best out of this car. Probably they used him as a dummy. The way Ferrari told LEC not to worry about VET being ahead tells me LEC had full back-up for the win from the start. So, probably they pitted VET earlier in order to fool Mercedes into pitting their cars early too, knowing that their car is not very good anyway, even less good on harder compounds, and protect themselves in the last part of the race from a HAM with Mediums in good shape.

      1. @mg1982 It’s deeper than the SF90 being inferior to the W10 in race trim, the low-drag design that Ferrari pursued with this years car is proving less competitive than their 17-18 cars.

        Mercedes have moved to a higher downforce car that is effective on a wider range of circuits and co-operates well with this seasons tyres, even if they have conceded straight line speed to Ferrari they have been close enough to capitalise on misfortune or mistakes. Ferrari must already be revisiting the overarching philosophy for 2020’s car.

  15. Gave it a 5 because it was nothing but a DRS-fest.

    Watching drivers very easily just push of a button highway pass cruising past other drivers who are defenceless to even think about defending where they may as well just be waving the car behind past should be seen an embarrassment to the sporting integrity of F1.

    After 15-20 laps i pretty much zoned out and was playing Astral Chain Switch (Real good action game BTW) because the DRS-fest on the TV wasn’t offering anything that i would class as exciting racing, battling or overtaking. DRS-fest’s have always been & will always be devoid of any interest as far as i am concerned!

    1. Sky just showed a replay of Albon & Perez on the last lap & both of them were effectively trying to come to a stop coming out of la source to try & not be ahead at the DRS detection line.

      Such an embarrassing gimmick!

      1. @roger-ayles – ha ha ha, I need to go see that :)

          1. @roger-ayles – thank you so much!

          2. @roger-ayles – that part of the clip is amusing, especially with Albon’s interview going on the same time. That squeeze from Perez was not, that could end dangerously.

          3. Thank you very much, Roger Ayles! This is a ridiculous aspect of F1.

          4. @phylyp Perez’s little push of Albon onto the grass, that was bad given this weekend. Totally unnecessary.

          5. That was so amusing! I hate less DRS watching that.

      2. @roger-ayles Thanks! Had already left for the pub at that point. Chuckling and simultaneously ‘rolling my eyes’ at that clip, with this seasons cars DRS is unnecessary, especially at a circuit like Spa where drafting is so integral.

  16. Solid 7. Worth to watch. I hoped for a little bit more action between midfield teams. Shame that Max had to retire. He could surely add at least 1 or even 2 points to my race evaluation. Congrats to Charles with his 1st win!

    1. I might be wrong in willing more action between midfield teams. Maybe there was enough of it, but it was just not showed on TV. But I also understand Ferrari fans who want to see on their TV how Leclerc is leading.

  17. 9 from me.

    A pity Lewis didn’t have another 1-2 laps, but still I am not trying to take anything from Charles – deserved win!

  18. It wasn’t a particularly good one, not a bad one either. Leclerc looked like he was going to win this race during practice, but seems the Ferrari can’t seem to last – one more lap and Hamilton would have had him.

    Heartbroken for Norris who did brilliantly. Gasly & Kvyat actually did pretty good and Albon finishing 5th was as good as he could hope for. Not bad. Not sure what Renault were thinking with Ricciardo.

  19. Unfortunate that Verstappen went all in for another lost fight in La Source. The race could potentially have been a lot more entertaining if he had learned his lesson after what happened the previous time he did that.

    Still, quite a decent race with some excitement til the end for who was going to win the race. Behind the mid field there were some nice battles too. Although too many seemed to be solved by DRS rather than proper battles.

    Especially Albo showed a couple fo nice fights though. Impressie how he is new in this car and already has the confidence to race hard like that. A big change from Gasly. Who actually was racing a lot more confident in his Torro Rosso than he was in the RB.

  20. I gave 10/10. There have been to much DRS overtakes yeah but DRS is not Spa’s fault, and we had too many real fights at some different corners. This year we are seeing more frequently chase and attacks for the podium positions and so Spa has been like the others. We had podium positions fights and winner is guaranteed at the very end corner of the race.
    C’mon, just be gentle with Spa. After what we had yesterday, today has been as great as it supposed to be.

  21. Objectively race was somewhat decent. I just couldn’t get in to it somehow. I watched the accident from yesterday before the race, all the minutes of silence, sad people everywhere. Hard to find a race entertaining when more serious matters turned up this weekend.

  22. A good race for me but Verstappen annoyed me, not for the initial impact that was just one of those things but heading into eau rouge at a pretty fast pace knowing his steering was messed up. He clipped Russell during that and it could have been well nasty.

  23. For the first time, I failed to avoid hearing the result before seeing C4’s highlights, and yet I still thoroughly enjoyed it. That has to say something, right?

  24. 8/10 – pity about the early SC or it would have maybe been better as we’d have seen a proper fight for the win at the end.

  25. good race. 7/10. good strategy by ferrari to use vettel to hold up hamilton which did help leclerc move away by about 4 seconds from ham during the time ham was behind vet. good on ham to chase down the ferraris. some good hard racing between some guys. ver should have known that the door would be closing at that corner. ruined his own race. hard luck for norris well done to albon!!! i hope he gives vers a run for his money.

  26. A good race, an 8, like often happens at spa, we’re on a very good streak of 5 races, where imo there’s 3 8s, a 9 and a 10, 9 is austria, 10 germany, while this, hungary and silverstone are 8, lots of midfield battles here, a bit of action for the lead, not only fights on track but also on the pits, so strategy-wise, ferrari got the deserved first win of the year, though I don’t recommend a car that only goes on straights for 2020!

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