The 2015 Belgian Grand Prix (formally the 2015 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 23 August 2015 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium. It was the eleventh round of the 2015 Formula One season, and the 71st Belgian Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes entered the event as the overall Drivers' Championship leader, 21 points ahead of his teammate Nico Rosberg and 42 points ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. Mercedes led the Constructors' Championship by 147 points over Ferrari, while Williams entered the event in third, a further 85 points adrift. Having won the 2014 edition, Daniel Ricciardo was the defending race winner.
Lewis Hamilton won the race for Mercedes, extending his championship lead over Rosberg, who finished second, to 28 points. Romain Grosjean and Lotus secured a podium finish for the first time since the 2013 United States Grand Prix, Grosjean's last to date, benefitting from a controversial tyre failure on Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari late in the race.
The race was identified by Scuderia Ferrari as their 900th Grand Prix participation. McLaren was handed a record 105-place grid penalty for a multitude of changes to their Honda power units.
Report
Background Pirelli, Formula One's sole tyre supplier since , supplied the ten teams with four compounds of tyres for the event. The two dry selections were the white-banded medium compound as the "prime" tyre, while the yellow-banded soft compound was provided as the softer "option" choice. The green-banded intermediate weather tyre and the blue-banded full wet compounds were brought to all events. As a consequence of Konstantin Tereshchenko's crash in a GP3 Series race in 2014, new asphalt was laid down on the inside of the final corner, replacing the patch of grass that was there before. In addition, a new kerb was added at the exit of the famous Eau Rouge corner, on the apex of turn four. The kerb was however removed on Saturday after the FIA discussed the matter with the drivers. At turn one, the La Source hairpin, the exit kerb was shortened to make it easier to rejoin the track in the event of a driver running wide.
Scuderia Ferrari identified this race as their 900th Grand Prix participation. Driving for the Scuderia was Kimi Räikkönen, the most successful active driver at Spa, who extended his contract with the team for an additional year in the week prior to the race. Mercedes introduced a new low-downforce rear wing for Spa, featuring a spoon-shaped design, similar to that of the McLaren MP4-21 in . The aim was to find a balance between low-downforce for the long straights on the Spa circuit while at the same time retaining enough downforce for the more twisting second sector of the track. Red Bull on the other hand tested two different rear wings during Friday's free practice sessions. While Daniel Ricciardo ran with a very low-downforce wing, Daniil Kvyat tested a "more Spa-specific set-up", which was ultimately used by both drivers in qualifying and the race to prevent tyre degradation. McLaren came to Spa with a new specification power unit, aiming to reach the level of Ferrari's unit with the introduced changes. However, the team's racing director Éric Boullier warned that it might take until Singapore until the gains could be visible and expected a "difficult" Belgian Grand Prix. In suit with the new power unit the team introduced a new engine cover. Further updates to the McLaren MP4-30 included an "unprecedented" tray design for the front of the floor, as well as lower sidepods and a new position for the radiator that cools the electronic recovery system.
Going into the weekend, Lewis Hamilton led the Drivers' Championship with 202 points, 21 ahead of second placed Nico Rosberg. Sebastian Vettel for Ferrari was a further 21 points behind Rosberg, having closed the gap by winning the previous round in Hungary. In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes with 383 points were leading Ferrari by 147 points, while third placed Williams were a further 85 points behind.
Regulation changes In an attempt to limit the influence of pit walls on their drivers during race starts, new regulations were introduced for the start procedure from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards. Drivers were now only allowed to adjust one clutch level after leaving the pit garage for the starting grid. The response from drivers was mixed, with Nico Rosberg commenting that the new start procedures would be challenging, while Fernando Alonso opined that the changes were not significant, and Daniel Ricciardo hoped the new procedure might help his team.
Lotus legal troubles The Lotus team experienced legal difficulties over the Spa weekend, as a legal battle with former test driver Charles Pic, concerning the time the team had granted Pic at the wheel of their car. With the case in arbitration court, Lotus faced the threat of their cars being impounded and unable to move following the conclusion of the Grand Prix weekend. The bailiffs returned the cars to Lotus and the team was eventually able to travel to Italy, after Bernie Ecclestone, chief executive of the Formula One Group, "stepped in to ensure staff were paid", while their financial problems continued to question the team's future.
Free practice Per the regulations for the season, three practice sessions were held, two 90-minute sessions on Friday and another one-hour session before qualifying on Saturday. In the first practice session on Friday morning, Nico Rosberg was fastest after initial trouble with his power unit, a quarter of a second ahead of his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) was third, just five hundredths of a second slower than Hamilton, with Kimi Räikkönen another tenth down in fourth. Fifty minutes into the session, a red flag came out when Pastor Maldonado lost traction at the rear end of his Lotus E23 Hybrid at the exit of Les Combes corner and crashed into the tyre barriers, damaging the front-right of his car. The session was stopped for ten minutes for the track marshals to repair the barriers. Speaking about his accident, Maldonado said: "It was very unlucky because I nearly saved the car. But anyway, it happened. This track is always very difficult when you have a moment or whatever, especially at that point where the second sector is quite narrow. But this can happen. Now we can't change that. We need to look forward." In the second Lotus, Romain Grosjean was again replaced by Jolyon Palmer, who finished practice 17th.
Another accident marred the second practice session on Friday afternoon, when a rear tyre on Nico Rosberg's Mercedes blew, causing him to spin in the run-up to Blanchimont corner. Rosberg was able to avoid hitting the tyre barriers, but the session was nevertheless red-flagged in order to clear the track of the car. Prior to this incident, Rosberg had set the fastest time of the session with 1:49.687, three-tenths of a second faster than teammate Hamilton, in second. Ricciardo was again third, a further 0.4 seconds adrift, ahead of fellow Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat, one second behind Rosberg. The Williams cars of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were 14th and 16th respectively, ahead of the two McLaren drivers, who were faster only than the two Manor Marussia cars. Rosberg's tyre failure was later deemed the result of an "external cut", excluding the possibility of "any structural integrity issues". Rosberg however remained worried about the reliability of the tyres for Sunday's race, saying: "The problem is that we don't really understand it. There are theories but there is no real evidence, so that's a bit worrying for sure."
World champion Lewis Hamilton bounced back in the third session on Saturday morning, being quickest, almost half a second faster than Rosberg. In "an uneventful session", the two Ferrari drivers were third and fourth, with Vettel leading Räikkönen. Meanwhile, the Force India drivers Sergio Pérez and Nico Hülkenberg ended the session in fifth and eighth respectively, separated by the Red Bull drivers. The only nuisance in third practice occurred when Romain Grosjean almost spun having to go around Kimi Räikkönen in turn 16, complaining to his team about a "very, very dangerous" manoeuvre.
Qualifying Qualifying consisted of three parts, 18, 15 and 12 minutes in length respectively, with five drivers eliminated from competing after each of the first two sessions. Valtteri Bottas was first and last out on track during the first part of qualifying (Q1), starting the lap that saved him from elimination in the very last moments of the session. Excluded from further participation were both Manor Marussia cars, both McLaren drivers and Sauber's Felipe Nasr. Max Verstappen succeeded in progressing into Q2 despite complaining about a loss of power on his car.
The second part of qualifying saw Kimi Räikkönen come to a halt on track due to a loss of oil pressure. The session was briefly red-flagged to clear the track and when it resumed, both Mercedes drivers decided not to head out again, since their first times where sufficient to advance to Q3. Max Verstappen did not compete in Q2 at all due to the problems on his car, leaving him in provisional 14th (bar his penalty) and Räikkönen in 15th on the grid. The other three drivers to be eliminated were Marcus Ericsson for Sauber, Daniil Kvyat and Nico Hülkenberg. Hülkenberg's time was just three-tenths of a second slower than that of Sebastian Vettel in tenth and he became the only driver of a Mercedes-powered car not to compete for pole position.
Lewis Hamilton was the first Mercedes driver to set a timed lap in Q3, being almost half a second faster than Rosberg in Q2. While Rosberg succeeded in bettering his times as well, he nevertheless ended up 0.458 seconds behind his teammate and second on the grid. This handed Lewis Hamilton his tenth pole position in eleven races, meaning that he secured the FIA Pole Position Trophy at this early stage of the season. The next fastest car, Valtteri Bottas for Williams was 1.3 seconds off Hamilton's time of 1:47.197. Fourth fastest was Grosjean, who delivered what the BBC called a "stunningly impressive" lap. Sergio Pérez put in a surprising effort as well, finishing fifth for Force India. Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel, who had won the previous race in Hungary, managed only ninth fastest after a mistake at the final chicane.
After qualifying, Hamilton stated his performance was mainly due to improvements he made in the middle sector of the lap, saying: "Sector two has been probably in the past a bit of a weak point. I knew the lines but could never really put the corners together. Definitely on those last two laps that was a very, very strong area for me." Indeed, he gained most of his time on Rosberg in this sector, containing the majority of the circuit's corners. He became the first driver since Michael Schumacher – who achieved the feat in – – to secure six consecutive pole positions, while the last driver to score six consecutive poles in one season was Mika Häkkinen in . Following their poor qualifying performance and grid penalties, Jenson Button expected a "lonely race" for McLaren, saying: "I actually enjoyed driving the car, and when you cross the finishing line and you see the time you think 'That's not bad'. But then when you see where you are, a second off the guy in front of you, it's a massive margin, it hurts."
Penalties