Belgian Grand Prix: Race Recap

Bearman and Ocon took the start from 14th and 16th positions respectively, due to grid penalties for other drivers, and both ran Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires. Unfortunately, the pair made light contact halfway around the opening lap, and each gained punctures, with Bearman and Ocon coming into the pits at the end of the lap, taking on White hard tires. The Safety Car was deployed due to an incident elsewhere that accounted for George Russell.

Bearman took the restart in P15, with Ocon holding P21, though the Frenchman swiftly dispatched the Cadillac and Aston Martin drivers to move into P17. Ocon pitted again on lap 16, for another set of hard tires, while Bearman came in on lap 20, also for hard tires, just as a brief virtual safety car period due to on-track debris came to an end. Bearman resumed in P15 but worked his way past Williams’ Alex Albon to move into P14, while Ocon maintained P17 through to the checkered flag.

TGR Haas F1 Team holds seventh position in the Constructors’ Championship on 21 points.

Up front, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli claimed victory, his sixth of the season, ahead of Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.

Ollie Bearman:

“Unfortunately, I got stuck in fourth gear before the incident and lost a lot of ground. Regarding the incident itself, I picked up a puncture, which is very unfortunate. I don’t know exactly what happened, but it’s disappointing, to be honest, because the car was quite fast. We were much closer to the Audis, which is a step ahead for this weekend. I think there are a lot of positives to take, mainly that the car feels good and it's much more fun to drive. The balance is much more connected, which means you can push it to its limits, and make fewer mistakes doing so. I think I’ve had a very clean weekend in terms of performance, and the race pace was consistent as well, which is good. So, we'll regroup for the next one.”

Esteban Ocon:

“It was the wrong place and wrong time for both Ollie and me on lap 1, there's not much we could've done. We were three wide, and I think Ollie had an issue, so everyone tried to avoid him. I went on the inside of Nico, let him past, and once Nico cleared, I was still on the inside and we touched. It was unfortunate, but it didn't impede either of our races. We struggled with the pace, and on my side we were still struggling with straight-line speed, lacking rear grip, and we were not quick at all. We need to do a better job in Budapest, and I hope we can have a similar car to what we had at Silverstone, or earlier in the year in Japan.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“Today was a bit of a messy day, so that’s a shame. The lap 1 incident between teammates shouldn’t happen, so we just need to make sure that doesn’t happen again. At times where Ollie could show the pace, it was strong, better than qualifying, so that’s a positive and a result of the ongoing work everyone is doing to improve the car's characteristics. We had some operational errors today, which we’ll look into and improve upon. In Budapest, it’s going to be a very different challenge, but this weekend we made progress and next week we’ll have very different conditions. I think we’ll learn even more, and I want to go into the summer shutdown making another step forward.”