Last time out in Hungary, Mercedes failed for the first time in 28 races to get either car on the podium. What makes that more alarming is the fact they had locked out the front row of the grid. Overtaken from the start by both Ferraris, Hamilton had an incident packed race, whilst Rosberg drove too conservative, and ended up losing more ground to his British team-mate in the championship battle.
After the four week summer break, Spa is up next. This was the scene last year of a major flashpoint between the pair, in when Rosberg tried an audacious move on Hamilton at and ended up puncturing the Brits tyres. It led to a massive fallout between the pair, in which saw Rosberg reprimanded by the Mercedes bosses.
2015 Belgian Grand Prix Mercedes Preview
No. 6 Nico Rosberg (DEU)
2015 Form: 8,2,1,2,1,1,3,2,3,2
2014 Belgian Grand Prix: Grid P1, Race P2
Last year’s meeting was the only time that Rosberg had got pole position here in eight outings, and his first podium placing. He has good form around Spa, with only twice not scoring points, in 2008 and 2012. He has finished in sixth place on three occasions, in 2007, 2010 and 2011. His best result before last year was fourth place in 2013.
No. 44 Lewis Hamilton (GBR)
2015 Form: 6,1,2,1,3,2,1,1,2,1
2014 Hungarian Grand Prix: Grid P2, Race DNF (Collision damage)
Last year’s race was one of Hamilton’s darkest hours. A puncture, due to his team-mate’s move, led to his third retirement of the season, and fall behind in the championship by 29 points. That was his fourth retirement at Spa in eight outings, with all of them due to crashes. In 2009, a pile up at Les Combes saw Hamilton taken out by Jaime Alguersuari. In 2011, whilst overtaking Kobayashi, the Brit misjudged the distance between himself and the Sauber, and clipped the Japanese driver, ending up in the barriers. The next year, at the start, Romain Grosjean collected Hamilton going down to La Source, and they piled into Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso, narrowly missing the Spaniard’s head.
He does have some great results here when he does finish. In his rookie season, he scored a fourth place, his lowest classification here. The next year, his first pole position in Spa, he came home in first place, but got demoted to third after a timed penalty was applied due to gaining an unfair advantage whilst overtaking Kimi Raikkonen for the victory. He did get an outright win in 2010. He got another pole in 2013, but a poor start saw him come home third.
With the second half of the championship about to start, and 147 points ahead in the standings, the view is that Mercedes will go on and take their second constructors title, and that the drivers’ one will come down to their pairing. A closer look though suggests that might not be the case, as Ferrari were impressive last time out in Hungary, and the next three races will judge to see if Mercedes have a fight on their hands.
Main Image
