On one of the most demanding circuits for tyres that Formula 1 visits all year, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won the Belgian Grand Prix ahead of Sebastian Vettel after what was effectively a sprint race in the final laps. The race was turned on its head by a safety car on lap 30, which gave drivers the opportunity for a ‘free’ pit stop. Hamilton, in the lead, ran the soft tyre for his final stint, while Vettel went for the ultrasoft: theoretically more than one second per lap faster. Up until the safety car, both were using an identical ultrasoft-soft strategy in a closely-fought battle, with Vettel making his first pit stop two laps later than Hamilton.

A different strategy was adopted by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who swapped from ultrasoft to supersoft in his first stop, then changed again to ultrasoft under the safety car to finish on the podium. Both Force India's also ran the supersoft in the second stint. Vettel set the fastest lap of the race – an astonishing 1m46.577s – on the ultrasoft tyres: nearly five seconds faster than the fastest race lap one year ago, set on medium tyres. After some uncertain weather earlier in the weekend, the race started with 27 degrees ambient and 34 degrees of track temperature, remaining dry throughout the 44-lap distance.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“The safety car obviously transformed the race strategy by eliminating any questions of wear and degradation in the closing stages, as drivers took advantage of the neutralisation to change tyres. However, the strategic decision then remained as to which compound to choose. As has been the case all weekend, the frontrunners were very closely matched on pace. Before the safety car, it seemed that the leaders were set for a one-stop strategy on one of the toughest circuits of the year, having started the race on the ultrasoft, which made a successful debut at Spa.”

TRUTHOMETER
Lewis Hamilton won the race using two pit stops, having taken advantage of the safety car on lap 30 like all his key rivals. His first pit stop from ultrasoft to soft came on lap 12: he then selected softs again for his second stop, holding off Sebastian Vettel on the ultrasoft to the finish after a tight battle.