THE REPLY!!!

 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX 2025

photo credit: morungexpress.com

Oscar came with a reply!!
He showed that even though Lando might be making inroads into the championship lead he is still the one leading it 

He broke Lando's run of form with an incredible drive!

After a terrible start by Lando, Oscar seized the opportunity after Lando had a terrible exit from turn 1 and overtook him at turn 5, after which he was comfortable in the lead from start to end and won. Oscar had also qualified on pole for the sprint race and finished P2 ahead of Lando. On the contrary, Lando had a terrible weekend. He finished behind Oscar in the sprint race and even though he got pole in the race Oscar took the lead from him like a candy and easily won. Lando in the round of pitstops had been given a tire offset with Oscar on the mediums and Lando on the hards which put Lando at a tire advantage to close the gap and pass Oscar, but Lando bottled his opportunities and made 3 major mistakes which made him lose 3 seconds. Lando finished 3.4 seconds behind Oscar in the end. As everyone might have added it up, Lando if he had not taken the pressure and made those mistakes would have easily been in DRS range of Oscar which would have given him a chance to win and if not so pressurized Oscar a bit more, but these mistakes gave Oscar the breathing space to maintain tires till the end which was not the goal for Lando. But in the end, it was a maybe. Lando lost his win at the start. This was not the first time... he has done it many times before to against Max Verstappen.                        End of the day a big result for McLaren to get a 1-2. Maximum points for the team, hence the team will not have a problem with both of their drivers fighting for the championship. The McLaren is a true rocketship in terms of every aspect dominating almost every race and are miles ahead compared of their competition. They had truly one of a kind turn over in the past few years.

Heading on to Ferrari, they a great race. They started P3 and from the pitlane, yet ended up in P3 and P7 for Charles and Lewis respectively. Charles drove a brilliant race from start to the end, holding off the attack of the reigning world champion from start to end. Just a pinpoint perfect drive. On the other hand, Lewis was the first driver to switch to slick tires which gave him a huge benefit due to which he made up multiple places. He made some brilliant overtakes, it was like he was back in his Mercedes, dominating the rest of the field, with so much more grip than the rest, making overtakes on everyone. Just a pure masterclass and perfect execution of strategy by Ferrari.                                                             Now, Ferrari are ahead of Mercedes and Red Bull in the Constructor's championship and have a healthy lead over them, so they will look forward to carry this momentum and if possible challenge McLaren for race wins. A good result for Ferrari overall, which they will cherish but will look to now gain on this momentum in the next race. 

Let's talk about Mercedes now... they scored the least points of all the top 4 teams. If it had not been for George's superb driving skills, he would not have finished in P5 such was the pace of that Mercedes. They just lacked speed throughout the race and were no way as fast as they wished to be. On the other hand, Kimi finished in P16, way outside the points. At the moment, he looks to be in a slump and needs to regain confidence fast considering how brutal F1 is. Overall, a dreadful race for Mercedes, they have just not seemed as fast as they were in the start of the season. They will look to rectify their mistakes before next race or they will lose further ground to the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and Max Verstappen. 

Next up we have Red Bull (basically Max Verstappen). Max won the sprint race due to the lower downforce rear wing but just did not have pace for the actual race due to the change of the rear wing to a higher downforce spec which was specifically done for the rain. But the FIA just red flagged the race when it was raining which hindered Red Bull as the setup change was made to race in the rain due to the prediction. Due to this most of the race was in the dry, hence Max was not able to overtake Charles for the whole race. On the other hand, Yuki who had somehow qualified well this race his highest starting position for Red Bull in P7 did terribly in the race as always completing the race in P13 way outside the points considering the Red Bull had some decent pace this race. Overall, it is just going terribly for Red Bull in all ways possible and now they have even sacked Christian Horner who had literally built the team and got it its success. This season is just not what Red Bull wanted.

Williams after a bad run of form these past few races made a well deserved comeback with Carlos Sainz performing brilliantly in the sprint finishing P6 and Albon did well in the race to finish also in P6. Both the drivers contributed quite a lot and have put themselves quite ahead of their competition. Albon did very well to hold off Hamilton throughout the race and in the end finish P6. This season Albon has scored more points than Williams had last couple of seasons combined. They are on a rampage and after McLaren have had the biggest leap in performance under the leadership of James Vowles. Just a superb race for them. They will hope to carry this momentum forward and cement P5 in the constructors.

Next on to VCaRB who have had a very good season so far and now both of their drivers look to be in sync, scoring points. In the sprint race Isack scored a point for the team finishing in P8 and in the actual race Liam scored the points for the team finishing in P8 too. Overall, a very good result for them, especially for Liam as he was demoted from Red Bull for Yuki Tsunoda and now has more points than Yuki Tsunoda and is looking to be consistently faster in a worse car.

Haas had a mixed weekend honestly with them performing well in the sprint, finishing in P5 and P7 but in the race, they made a terrible strategic call to leave their drivers out when everyone was pitting for slicks. Due to this they finished in P11 and P15 in the race, not the result they wanted ideally. 

Kick Sauber are another team which seemed to have gained momentum mid season and are consistently scoring points now. This weekend Gabriel Bortoleto scored the points for them finishing in P9 and Hulk in P12. They seem to know how to extract pace from their car finally and seem to be on a good run of form with all members of the team and drivers working in harmony. 

Alpine... well they are just darn slow. They are last in the constructors and barely able to be fast. Pierre Gasly somehow still managed to get a point for them in P10 this race but pace wise they are just slow. Franco finished in P19 which is just terrible for him as now there are rumors that he too will be replaced due to his terrible run of form he is having with Alpine.

Lastly, Aston Martin also seem to lacking pace with both their drivers finishing well outside the points in the sprint and the actual race. It is just a hard time for Aston Martin who are looking out for next season and mainly investing in the new regulations. They are just having a terrible season and might fall to the bottom of the constructor's table if this form continues. 

Overall, a good race with changing conditions where strategy played a key role rather than the drivers and their skill. Spa has always produced good races like it did so this week too and will do so further on.

Next week we head to Hungoraring in Budapest which is medium speed track where speed is less important and downforce more. It will put the cars which are faster in a straight line at level playing field with the cars which are not. It is a narrow track with barely any places to pass, hence qualifying is key there. We will wait to see will Lando win and get redemption for the win he gave up last year or whether Oscar can carry forth the positives of Spa and win at the track he got his maiden win in Formula 1 last year. Only time will tell.....