Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was declared the winner of a Belgian Grand Prix that lasted for only two laps on Sunday.
Heavy rain prevented any competitive racing at the Spa-Francorchamps track, with the safety car introduced early on.
The organizers tried to make the race happen first postponing the start for half an hour and later making two attempts with a gap of nearly three hours between them.
The race lasted only two and a half laps when the conditions were deemed too dangerous and the red flag was flown.
Therefore the result was declared from the grid order, with Verstappen getting the win ahead of Williams’ George Russell and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
According to the regulations two laps are enough to award half points, so Verstappen has cut Hamilton’s lead to three points.
Russell made his first podium appearance thankfully to a qualifying lap on Saturday.
“We don’t often get rewarded for great qualifyings, but we absolutely did today.”
“It was a shame we did not get the race under way but, from my side, and the team’s side it’s an amazing result.”
“The whole team deserves it because there has been so much hard work going into work over the last few years and there has been nothing to show for it, but we absolutely nailed it yesterday,” said Russell.
The years’ Belgian Grand Prix will have its own place in history as the only F1 grand prix to involve no racing.
Verstappen was aware how important having the pole position was.
“Now, in hindsight, it was very important to get that pole position. It’s a shame to not get proper laps, but the conditions were very tricky.”
“At 3.30pm the conditions were decent but the visibility was very low. I think if we’d started at 3pm we would have had a decent chance.”
“Big credit to the fans for staying here all day,” said Verstappen.
