2015 Belgian Grand Prix

Championship standings

Hamilton leads with 202 points, 21 ahead of Rosberg. Vettel has closed to within 21 points of Rosberg in third after winning Hungary.

Previous race

Vettel won in Hungary — Ferrari’s first victory at the circuit since Michael Schumacher in 2004, and Vettel’s 41st win overall. An eventful race saw a safety car period and mistakes from both Mercedes drivers; Hamilton and Rosberg finished sixth and eighth respectively, while Kvyat and Ricciardo secured Red Bull’s first podium positions of the season. Vettel dedicated the win to Jules Bianchi, saying over team radio: “Merci Jules, you will always be in our hearts and we know that sooner or later you would have been part of this team!”

Between-race developments

Lotus face a legal dispute at the Spa weekend stemming from arbitration proceedings initiated by former test driver Charles Pic over seat time promised in their 2014 car. With the case in arbitration court, there is a threat that bailiffs could impound the Lotus cars at the end of the grand prix weekend.

Regulation changes

Beginning with this race, drivers are restricted to adjusting only one clutch lever after leaving the pit garage for the starting grid. The change is intended to limit the influence of pit-wall coaching on race starts.

Car upgrades

Mercedes introduce a new low-downforce rear wing for Spa, featuring a spoon-shaped design to balance straight-line speed with downforce in the circuit’s twisting second sector. Red Bull test two different rear wing specifications during Friday’s practice sessions. McLaren bring a new power unit specification, a new floor design with a revised front tray, lower sidepods, and a relocated radiator for the energy recovery system.

Penalties

McLaren receive a combined 105-place grid penalty — a new Formula One record — following multiple power unit changes on both cars: Alonso 55 places and Button 50. Verstappen receives a ten-place penalty for introducing his sixth internal combustion engine of the season. Grosjean and Räikkönen each carry five-place penalties for gearbox changes.

Tyres

Pirelli supplies the medium compound as the prime tyre and the soft compound as the option.

Practice

Rosberg sets the fastest time in the first session, a quarter of a second ahead of Hamilton, with Ricciardo third. About fifty minutes in, Maldonado loses the rear of his Lotus at the exit of Les Combes and crashes into the tyre barriers. Jolyon Palmer replaces Grosjean at Lotus for the first session.

The second session ends prematurely when the right-rear tyre on Rosberg’s Mercedes blows near Blanchimont, sending him into a spin. Rosberg avoids the barriers but the session is red-flagged. Pirelli’s subsequent investigation attributes the failure to an external cut rather than any structural issue with the tyre. Rosberg calls the result “a bit worrying” given the team’s uncertainty about the cause.

Hamilton is fastest in the third session on Saturday morning, almost half a second ahead of Rosberg. The two Ferraris fill third and fourth. In what is described as “an uneventful session,” the only notable incident comes when Grosjean nearly spins avoiding Räikkönen in turn sixteen.