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Talking points from 2019 Belgian Grand Prix

Writer's picture: Andrew ZarbAndrew Zarb

Charles Leclerc celebrates his maiden Formula 1 win and is seen here giving thanks.

The Formula 1 action returned after the summer break with the Belgian Grand Prix, and it was certainly a race which delivered talking points. Leclerc finally breaks duck in subdued race atmosphere thanks to Vettel role Charles Leclerc started on pole position for the race, for the third time this season, and finally converted it into a race win. He crucially got a good start and was performing brilliantly in the first part of the race, and built up a healthy lead to Vettel. Then, after Vettel pitted early and gained the lead of the race but was on older tyres, and then Ferrari ordered Vettel to let the Monegasque back past. In fact, Vettel's role in Leclerc's victory must not be understated, as despite struggling massively with his tyres having pitted earlier, he managed to keep Lewis Hamilton behind him for a few laps which enabled Leclerc to build up a lead, and it proved crucial as towards the end Hamilton was closing up massively towards him but ultimately ran out of time, and thus Leclerc held on for his first win - making him the third youngest ever driver to win a Formula 1 race behind Verstappen and Vettel. Although he grabbed his first win of the season, celebrations were somewhat limited given the fact that Anthoine Hubert tragically passed away during yesterday's FIA Formula 2 race and Leclerc in fact did dedicate the win to him.

Decent result for Mercedes overall The two races after the summer break, Belgium and Italy, were expected to favour Ferrari due to the fact that they have a massive straight line speed advantage and such tracks do not require too much downforce on the car, which is admittedly something that Ferrari lack. Therefore, a second and third place finish for Mercedes, which could even perhaps have been a victory for Lewis Hamilton had he managed to get past Sebastian Vettel earlier, would be considered a relative success. Hamilton particularly would be very satisfied, as he further extended his World Championship lead over team-mate Bottas, whilst Red Bull's Max Verstappen retired on the opening lap which meant he did not score any points and thus Hamilton extended his very healthy lead by a substantial margin over Verstappen. As long as Hamilton finishes all the races remaining, it will remain a question of when rather than if he seals his sixth World Championship.

Albon shows promise on Red Bull debut During the summer break Red Bull Racing decided to replace Pierre Gasly with Anglo-Thai driver Alexander Albon from Toro Rosso in a swap deal. As Albon took engine penalties which meant he started at the back of the grid, the team were obviously not expecting him to win today's race, but a fifth place finish will no doubt constitute an impressive achievement. It is worth noting that during his 12 races with the team, Gasly often struggled to clear the midfield cars, and after being relatively conservative in the opening part of the race, Albon was brilliant in overtaking the midfield cars - his overtake on Renault's Daniel Ricciardo was superb - in the second part of the race and earned himself a career best fifth place finish in the process, and at least rescued some points for Red Bull as star man Max Verstappen retired on the opening lap following a collision with Kimi Raikkonen.

Disastrous race for McLaren sees both drivers fail to finish After they had a very respectable first part of the season during which they scored a total of 82 points which left them in fourth place, this was a disastrous way for McLaren to return to Formula 1 after the summer break. Spanish driver Carlos Sainz stalled on the grid during the start, and had so many issues with his car that he retired after just four laps of the race. It seemed like it would be a good race for British driver Lando Norris, however, as he lay in fifth place for most of the race, but with just one lap of the race remaining his car stopped with an issue which meant he ultimately retired and finished just one position outside of the points. It has been a relatively good season so far for McLaren, but today's race was a wake-up call for the team that reliability must improve further - fortunately for them, however, they do have a relatively sizeable gap to their nearest rivals for fourth in the Constructors' Championship which meant that their eventual double retirement was not too costly.

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