Belgian Grand Prix: Race Recap

Both Ocon and Bearman started the race on Pirelli Cinturato Green intermediate tires, following an 80-minute delay to the scheduled start due to torrential rain, rolling off from 11th and 12th respectively. Ocon and Bearman retained their positions through the opening phase of the race before swapping places on lap 11, with Bearman slotting into 11th, and Ocon 12th.

Bearman came into the pits on lap 12 for Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires, with the circuit having dried sufficiently for slick tires to be fitted to the VF-25. Bearman cycled out in 14th position, before making gains through the second half of the race, putting moves on Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda, and profiting from Nico Hulkenberg pitting twice, to slot into 11th place. Bearman chased Pierre Gasly to the checkered flag and fell just four-tenths of a second shy of a points-paying position.

Ocon ducked into the pits on lap 13, also for medium tires, but relinquished time and emerged at the rear of the 20-car train. Ocon worked his way through into 15th place, which he retained through to the end of the 44-lap race.  

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team holds ninth position in the Constructors’ Championship, on 35 points.

Up front, Oscar Piastri led McLaren team-mate Lando Norris to take his sixth victory of the season, with Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc third.

Ollie Bearman:

“I think we were a little bit late in the first stop going onto medium tires, which put me just out of the points in P11. Unfortunately, I had an engine issue and lost three positions from it, as I was actually ahead of Gasly before that and with Hulkenberg boxing twice, I would’ve been net P10, and I was managing that for the whole race. The car felt fantastic, I was just unable to overtake, it really sucked as the car was good. I think we can still be positive looking ahead to Hungary, we’ve been strong, we’ve been fast this weekend, and I think the Hungaroring is a track that will suit us quite well.”

Esteban Ocon:

“I think we got today completely wrong, sadly. We need to put everything together as a team, as we had decent pace in the car, especially later on when it was dry. We stayed two laps too long on the inters and then I went on to used mediums, so I did 85 per cent of the race on old tires, which we need to review as it was obviously a performance loss.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

"Today has been frustrating, as especially with Ollie we should’ve scored points. He had lots of pace with the downforce level he had, he was really happy with the car, and he had so much confidence. We knew however if you have that set-up and you’re in traffic, you’re not going to overtake, which is unfortunately exactly what happened. On top of that, we had an issue with the car so we couldn’t optimize it, as with his starting position we could’ve scored points.

“On Esteban’s side, we had an operational error and the pit stop timing wasn’t right. The speed is there though, I think we may have the fifth fastest car out there – which is amazing and hats off to the team who delivered it – but we just failed to execute. We have one more race before the shutdown, so we need to focus on the basics, and if we do that extremely well, I honestly have no doubt that we can score with both cars.”