SPA is probably the most exciting and challenging circuit in the world. It is certainly one of the fastest and is remembered particularly for the notorious Eau Rogue.
This is a blind left-right flick taken flat out by only the bravest – which is in fact most of the top-line grand prix drivers. It is absolutely awesome to behold!
There are other examples, such as Pouhon Corner, which is another one where you get goosebumps watching.
Even the ultra-slow La Sauce hairpin is something special, as you see grand prix cars approach it at over 300km/h and brake in a matter of 50m down to the required 40km/h to the take the ultra-tight corner.
It’s even more of a spectacle in the wet – and boy does it rain at Spa, with the Ardennes forest ever present, creating a humidity all of its own!
All in all, we have the perfect pageant for an epic grand prix race.
So who can do it this Sunday?
Lewis Hamilton should go like a scolded cat, despite being told off by his Mercedes superiors at the last race in Hungary for disobeying orders.
He is very good and wants to show everyone that he is the best.
He loves Spa but has a very quick teammate in Nico Rosberg and we should see a brilliant battle for the title of Racing Prince of Belgium.
The other Mercedes engined cars, Williams (Felipe Massa and Valterri Bottas), McLaren (Jenson Button and Kevin Magnusson) and Force India (Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez) should all be very quick here.
On past form we should expect Williams to lead the challenge and I expect Ferrari to come back strongly in this second part of the season, with Fernando Alonso in particular pushing very hard.
Word has come out that Kimi Raikkonen has found it very difficult to adapt to the characteristics of the car, which they are trying to match to his aggressive type driving style.
World champion, Sebastian Vettel, who won here last year expects to have a much better second half of the year and could be the surprise joker in the pack as the season reopens.
He and his Australian teammate Daniel Ricciardo should be neck-and-neck. trying to outdo Mercedes engined cars.
If Renault comes back much stronger in the engine department for this second half then we can expect Lotus to also pick up the pieces and in particular give Romain Grosjean a chance to challenge, maybe even Pastor Maldonado.
I remind you that the Mercedes engine has had a leap ahead in performance this year which is mainly attributable to its novel turbo design where the inlet and exhaust impellors are separated by plus minus 30cm at either side of the engine.
This enables them to run a cooler and denser charge on the inlet side giving more power. We will probably see this being copied by the beginning of next year by the other engine manufacturers
La Premier Spa!
Qualifying is on Saturday at 2pm and the race on Sunday is also at 2pm.
