As it happened: Belgium 2017 - The race

• 12:30

  Hello there FBFB friends, how have you been? Back refreshed and raring to go after the summer break? Me too!

• 12:30

  It's the Belgian Grand Prix we're gearing up for today, at the ever-popular Spa-Francorchamps. Already we've seen tyre barrier crashes, epic downpours of rain, and pole position records being broken. What do we have in store for us today?

• 12:32

  Circuit Data

  Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
  Local timezone	+02:00 GMT
  First race	1950
  Number of laps	44
  Circuit length	7.004km
  Race distance	308.052km
  Start offset	0.124km

• 12:33

  Lots of penalties being handed out this weekend. Vandoorne has a heck of a lot of engine related grid drops, whilst he, Wehrlein and Ericsson also have gearbox related penalties as well. Felipe Massa was penalised for failing to slow for yellow flags during practice - but he qualified near the rear of the grid anyway. Oh, and Kvyat also has a 20 place drop for engine reasons as well. Not much for the stewards to keep an eye on, really.

• 12:33

  Starting grid

  1	L Hamilton	Mercedes
  2	S Vettel	Ferrari
  3	V Bottas	Mercedes
  4	K Räikkönen	Ferrari
  5	M Verstappen	Red Bull
  6	D Ricciardo	Red Bull
  7	N Hülkenberg	Renault
  8	S Pérez	Force India
  9	E Ocon	Force India
  10	F Alonso	McLaren

• 12:33

  There was disappointment for Palmer yesterday, as he'd been doing a solid job in practice and was up into the top ten of qualifying with plenty of confidence, but then his car failed and he couldn't take part in the rest of the shoot-out session. And then, a gearbox penalty today dropped him out of the top ten altogether to herald another bad weekend for the Brit.

• 12:33
  Soft

  Supersoft

  Ultrasoft
• 12:34

  The pit lane opened a couple of minutes ago to allow drivers to fire up the engines and head out for an installation lap or two, or to settle straight on the grid ahead of the race.

• 12:34

  Tweet from @andrewbensonf1: On his way to the grid, Raikkonen says he still has the vibration that troubled him in qualifying

• 12:36

  It is, of course, Stoffel Vandoorne's home race but the McLaren driver will struggle to do much from the back of the field thanks to a whopping 60 place grid drop.

• 12:38

  The weather forecasters had suggested there might be rain today, but at the moment it's looking warm and dry over the track. Things can change quite quickly though, as we have seen before!

• 12:39

  Coming into this weekend after a relaxing summer break, Vettel has the lead of the championship over Lewis Hamilton by a slender 14 points, and after some good performances at the last two races, Valtteri Bottas has joined the battle in third place.

• 12:42

  Fastest Session Times

  Free Practice 1	K Räikkönen	1:45.502
  Free Practice 2	L Hamilton	1:44.753
  Free Practice 3	K Räikkönen	1:43.916
  Qualifying	L Hamilton	1:42.553

• 12:45

  Christian Horner, Red Bull: "Our best chance is on or after the first turn, and that first lap. Both drivers are pretty pumped up, hopefully they’ll give each other space… The one that’s going to be really interesting is Mercedes, because they’ve boxed themselves in tyre-wise, it’s going to be interesting how they run their race."

• 12:46

  A quick fly past precedes the national anthem, with all drivers at the front of the grid. The anticipation builds.

• 12:52

  Felipe Massa said yesterday that he was aching a little from his Friday practice crash, but ahead of the race today he's said he's feeling a lot better. Lest we forget, he had to sit out the last race in Hungary due to illness, so he could do with a straightforward weekend, really.

• 12:54

  Tweet from @McLarenF1: Commemorating the 80th birthday of our founder Bruce McLaren with team t-shirts in our iconic orange colour.

• 12:55

  

  22°C
  Track	34°C
  Humidity	58%
  Wind speed	0.9mps

• 12:57

  Risk of rain for this session is 10%.

• 12:57

  The top 14 drivers are all on the purple ultrasofts, with Stroll, Massa and Ericsson on red supersofts. Then Pascal Wehrlein is the only driver starting on the yellow striped softs, with Kvyat and Vandoorne rounding out the order on the supersofts.

• 12:59

  Hamilton has reported that his seat was a little warm when he climbed in the car, but they don't sound particularly worried about that.

• 12:59

  Tweet from @F1: It’s @LewisHamilton's 200th consecutive race start today. Can he convert his pole into a win?

• 13:00

  The grid pulls away for the formation lap, Hamilton leading the field down to the first corner and then round to the sweeping and imposing Eau Rouge.

• 13:01

  Tweet from @pirellisport: As a reminder, a one-stopper is theoretically fastest: ultrasoft for 14 laps then soft to the finish. Depending on weather of course…

• 13:02

  The crowds are huge, every single bit of space available is filled, and many of the fans are sporting lovely orange for their favourite Max Verstappen.

• 13:03

  It's a long out-lap given the 7km track, but Hamilton has rounded the final corner and slows right up to crawl to his front row grid slot.

• 13:03

  Race started.

• 13:04 Lap 1

  Hamilton keeps ahead into the first corner, and it's relatively clean up to the top of Eau Rouge.

• 13:04 Lap 1

  Vettel had a good run up the hill, and pulls alongside the race leader, but Hamilton has the edge at the moment.

• 13:04 Lap 1

  Ricciardo dropped behind Verstappen off the start, which won't have pleased him.

• 13:04 Lap 1

  Brief yellow flags there, but they've cleared already.

• 13:05 Lap 1

  Jolyon Palmer has dropped to the rear of the field so the yellow car may have been the cause of the yellow flags.

• 13:05 Lap 1

  Fernando Alonso made a good start, up three places to sit seventh now.

• 13:05 Lap 1

  That lasted only moments, however, as Nico Hülkenberg winds his way past the McLaren to snatch seventh.

• 13:06 Lap 2

  Palmer has jumped up to 13th place actually, so perhaps that was a timing glitch rather than an incident.

• 13:06 Lap 2

  Three wide as Alonso, Hülkenberg and Ocon battle for seventh place. Alonso has moved back ahead of the Renault.

• 13:07 Lap 3

  Vettel is clinging to the tails of Hamilton, as they cross the line for the third lap. He's keeping within a second of the leader, but the pair are pulling a gap on Bottas in third.

• 13:08 Lap 3

  Hülkenberg ahead of Alonso again, it's topsy turvy between these two.

• 13:08 Lap 3

  Wehrlein is being pushed back into the Sauber garage, and that's an early retirement for him.

• 13:10 Lap 4

  Romain Grosjean passed his Haas teammate Magnussen, whilst Alonso has lost another place with Esteban Ocon moving ahead.

• 13:11 Lap 4

  Replays of the start show the two Force India drivers coming together on the first lap. Ocon was moving up the inside, whilst Pérez was distracted by a Renault on the outside and drifted his teammate into the wall.

• 13:12 Lap 5

  Fernando Alonso is getting multiple warnings for missing the apex of turn 4, he better be careful.

• 13:13 Lap 5

  Team radio from Kevin Magnussen: "We need to do something different. I've got no pace. Guys, we need to get off this tyre."

• 13:14 Lap 6

  Team radio from Alonso: "I really don't care too much about the gaps."

• 13:15 Lap 7

  Gap Analysis

  Pos	Driver	Gap
  1st	HAM	1:49.990
  2nd	VET	+1.722
  3rd	BOT	+4.983
  4th	RAI	+7.272
  5th	VER	+9.030

• 13:16 Lap 7

  Felipe Massa is making progress after starting in 16th place, he's moved up three places and is chasing after Magnussen for 12th position.

• 13:17 Lap 8

  Max Verstappen has slowed right down, complaining of a loss of power. The pit wall tries to give him some instructions but it's not working.

• 13:18 Lap 8

  Yellow flags and DRS disabled as the Red Bull stops just off track.

• 13:18 Lap 9

  Another retirement for Verstappen, and bitterly disappointing in front of the many, many fans that have turned out for him.

  "Unbelievable, I can't believe this," he says.

• 13:19 Lap 9

  Tweet from @MercedesAMGF1: LAP 8: No way... VER's Bull pulls up sick on the run to Les Combes! Gutted for all the fans who've packed Spa to see him!

• 13:20 Lap 9

  Jolyon Palmer and Marcus Ericsson have both taken the opportunity to make a pit stop, and it's yellow soft tyres going on both cars.

• 13:21 Lap 10

  Team radio from Kevin Magnussen: "Guys, listen to me now, we need to get off this tyre. We can get both cars in the points if we get off this tyre."

  Still trying.

• 13:21 Lap 10

  Track is clear and DRS enabled.

• 13:22 Lap 11

  Bottas is reporting blistering on the front left, and we are starting to see that on several of the cars. The pit stop window must be very close.

• 13:23 Lap 11

  Ocon, Grosjean and Alonso all come into the pit lane. Ocon takes on the red supersofts, as compared to Grosjean and Alonso on the yellow softs.

• 13:24 Lap 12

  Tweet from @alanbaldwinf1: The traffic gridlock leaving Spa has probably been brought forward by about an hour...

• 13:25 Lap 12

  Felipe Massa and Nico Hülkenberg are next in line for the pits.

• 13:25 Lap 12

  Guy Martin was part of the crew changing the tyres on Massa's car. Random.

• 13:26 Lap 13

  And in comes Lewis Hamilton from the lead of the race, soft tyres going on the Mercedes.

• 13:26 Lap 13

  Pit Stop Analysis

  Driver	L Hamilton
  Team	Mercedes
  Pit lane	22.037s
  Stopped	2.3s

• 13:27 Lap 13

  Incident involving Kimi Räikkönen under investigation - failing to slow under yellow flags.

• 13:27 Lap 14

  Ricciardo gets the message that his degradation is looking pretty good so far, so maybe not a pit stop yet for him.

• 13:28 Lap 14

  Vettel stays out as Bottas comes in for his stop.

• 13:28 Lap 14

  Pit Stop Analysis

  Driver	V Bottas
  Team	Mercedes
  Pit lane	22.963s
  Stopped	3.3s

• 13:29 Lap 14

  Pérez looks for a line around the Haas of Romain Grosjean in front of him. They're squabbling for the final points position at the moment.

• 13:30 Lap 15

  Both of them manage to sweep past Kvyat in the Toro Rosso after Eau Rouge, but Grosjean does lose out to Pérez.

• 13:30 Lap 15

  Vettel takes his stop and rejoins behind the battle between Räikkönen and Hamilton, the Mercedes closing right up behind the Ferrari to retake the lead of his race.

• 13:30 Lap 15

  Pit Stop Analysis

  Driver	S Vettel
  Team	Ferrari
  Pit lane	22.443s
  Stopped	2.6s

• 13:31 Lap 15

  Räikkönen still has to stop, running in second place at the moment. Sainz also has yet to stop in seventh, with Kvyat and Vandoorne also yet to come in.

• 13:31 Lap 16

  Just as Vettel was closing up on his teammate, Räikkönen peels off to take his own pit stop.

• 13:32 Lap 16

  Turn 5 incident involving Sergio Pérez under investigation - leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

  That was during the overtake with Grosjean.

• 13:33 Lap 17

  10 second stop/go penalty for Kimi Räikkönen - failing to slow for double yellow flags.

• 13:33 Lap 17

  Team radio from Fernando Alonso: "No more radio, the rest of the race!"

• 13:34 Lap 17

  Vettel has closed the gap to race leader Lewis Hamilton, now sitting just about seven tenths behind him.

• 13:35 Lap 18

  "What do you mean? He was on the side of the road!" Kimi responds to the news of his hefty penalty.

• 13:37 Lap 18

  Räikkönen takes the penalty, and that's dropped him down to seventh place.

• 13:38 Lap 19

  Driver Positions

  Pos		Driver	Stops
  1	0	L Hamilton	1
  2	0	S Vettel	1
  3	0	V Bottas	1
  4	2	D Ricciardo	1
  5	2	N Hülkenberg	1
  6	3	E Ocon	1
  7	-3	K Räikkönen	2
  8	0	S Pérez	1
  9	4	C Sainz	0
  10	1	R Grosjean	1

• 13:38 Lap 19

  5 second time penalty for Sergio Pérez - leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

• 13:42 Lap 21

  Team radio to Fernando Alonso: "Stoffel is pitting."

  "Why?? He's the only ****ing car I will overtake."

• 13:43 Lap 22

  The gap at the front between Hamilton and Vettel is remaining stable now at about 1.2 seconds, ebbing and flowing but not really changing as each lap goes by.

• 13:43 Lap 22

  Tweet from @RenaultSportF1: Lap 21, Jolyon is up to P13 and getting ready to play with Fernando. Jo won't radio him though, we promise. He might wave nicely?

• 13:44 Lap 22

  One to Watch

  K Magnussen	vs.	F Massa
  10th	+0.836s	11th

• 13:46 Lap 24

  Tweet from @Jamesallenonf1: If the leaders need to stop again before the end due to blistering etc, VET has a new set of U/Softs and HAM does not

• 13:47 Lap 24

  Valtteri Bottas sets the fastest lap of the race so far with a 1:48.616.

• 13:48 Lap 25

  Marcus Ericsson has taken another pit stop, he's currently running last.

• 13:50 Lap 26

  Kimi Räikkönen overtakes Nico Hülkenberg to move into fifth place. Still some work to do to limit the damage of that penalty, but it's Ricciardo next in line - and that's a 28 second gap to overhaul.

• 13:51 Lap 26

  Sergio Pérez takes his second stop of the day - five seconds to go on his time there as well.

• 13:52 Lap 27

  And Fernando Alonso starts to cruise, pulling into the pitlane and retiring from the race.

• 13:53 Lap 28

  Alonso reported an engine problem before he came in, and Vandoorne has been instructed that the problem won't affect.

• 13:54 Lap 28

  It's a long lap so it's taken a while for us to get our first lapped car - Marcus Ericsson drops one lap down of the race leaders.

• 13:55 Lap 28

  Esteban Ocon has comes in for his second pit stop of the afternoon.

• 13:55 Lap 29

  The pit stops have put the two Force India drivers back on track together again. Pérez has just set the fastest lap of the race so far, but Ocon is looking feisty behind him.

• 13:57 Lap 30

  Another really dodgy teammate move there, Ocon looking for a way past, Pérez actively defended against him and pushed Esteban into the wall. Ocon damaged the front wing and Pérez picked up a puncture.

• 13:58 Lap 30

  Safety car deployed.

• 13:58 Lap 30

  There's a big chunk of Force India front wing lying on track.

• 13:58 Lap 30

  Räikkönen has taken a free pit stop, Hülkenberg and Grosjean also taking the opportunity for a stop.

• 13:59 Lap 30

  Esteban Ocon has made it back to the pit lane, some damage to be patched up on that car. New front wing goes on, tyre change, and he's off again.

• 14:00 Lap 31

  Pérez has also come in, ditched the puncture tyre and taken on fresh rubber.

• 14:01 Lap 31

  A handful more drivers have taken the opportunity for a pit stop here, we've got plenty running on the ultrasoft rubber again, with just 13 laps to go - and some of those behind the safety car.

• 14:02 Lap 32

  Crucially, Hamilton is in the lead on the yellow softs, and Vettel is directly behind him on the ultrasofts. Both fresh rubber but totally different compound strengths.

• 14:03 Lap 32

  Lapped cars may not overtake.

• 14:04 Lap 32

  Toro Rosso report that Carlos Sainz had picked up a puncture so came in for a pit stop under the safety car - he's running in 11th now.

• 14:05 Lap 32

  Tweet from @ChrisMedlandF1: Hamilton unhappy about Safety Car deployment. "That's a BS call from the stewards". Was a big bit of wing out of La Source

• 14:07 Lap 33

  Hamilton complaining there was no debris anywhere, but the marshals had quite the job to collect it all so there was definitely something to be picked up.

• 14:07 Lap 33

  Safety car in this lap.

• 14:07 Lap 33

  Incident involving Sergio Pérez and Esteban Ocon noted - causing a collision.

• 14:08 Lap 33

  Small palpitations as we have a situation where Hamilton is prepping for a re-start and Vettel is cloooose behind him. We have been here before.

• 14:09 Lap 34

  Track is clear.

• 14:09 Lap 34

  Hamilton went but Vettel stuck with him, so no major issue there. One car ran massively wide before they'd even got going again.

• 14:09 Lap 34

  Vettel is tucked up behind the Mercedes as they fly up Eau Rouge, side by side down the following straight, but the Ferrari doesn't have the grunt to take the lead.

• 14:10 Lap 34

  Bottas got swamped by two cars, Ricciardo and Räikkönen both went around him and he's dropped down to fifth.

• 14:10 Lap 35

  Incident involving Sergio Pérez and Esteban Ocon - no further action.

• 14:12 Lap 36

  DRS enabled.

• 14:13 Lap 36

  Hamilton sets the fastest lap so far - 1:46.603. Vettel dropping back a little now.

• 14:13 Lap 36

  Replays show it was Kevin Magnussen who zipped off track at the restart, he was just running out of space and chose the run off rather than a collision.

• 14:14 Lap 37

  Tweet from @HaasF1Team: .@KevinMagnussen ran off at the chicane on the restart. Did well not to ram the rear of @RGrosjean. Can you say 'close'?

• 14:15 Lap 37

  In amongst all the chaos, a couple of drivers have benefitted. Grosjean is running seventh, whilst Massa is up eight positions to sit in eighth place.

• 14:17 Lap 38

  Hamilton reports his rear tyre temperatures are starting to climb. Vettel closes the gap a little but no major threat yet. Ricciardo running well in third.

• 14:19 Lap 40

  Five laps to go now. Everything holding station.

• 14:23 Lap 42

  Hamilton gets some information from the pit wall, but asks "leave me to it," so he can concentrate on being flat out to the end.

• 14:23 Lap 42

  Three laps to go. Can't see much changing now.

• 14:24 Lap 42

  Tweet from @thebuxtonblog: 10 second stop go for ignoring yellows but no further action for repeated contact and debris almost going into the crowd

• 14:25 Lap 42

  Pérez gets the call to box, they're retiring the car with just a couple of laps to go.

• 14:27 Lap 44

  Hamilton rounds the last corner and begins the final lap of the race.

• 14:28

  Lewis Hamilton wins the Belgian Grand Prix!

• 14:29

  Vettel second and Ricciardo clings on to third place, another great and probably unexpected result for Red Bull there.

• 14:29

  Race Winner

  Driver	L Hamilton
  Team	Mercedes
  Race time	1:24:42.820
  Race distance	308.052km
  Average speed	218.183km/h

• 14:30

  Gap Analysis

  Pos	Driver	Gap
  1st	HAM	1:46.617
  2nd	VET	+2.358
  3rd	RIC	+10.791
  4th	RAI	+14.471
  5th	BOT	+16.456

• 14:30

  Hülkenberg, Grosjean, Massa, Ocon and Sainz round out the top ten, all of them picking up very handy points.

• 14:31

  Hamilton has closed the gap once again then, although Ferrari and Vettel still keep hold of their championship leads at the moment. It's a great title fight, but unfortunately the race today wasn't one of the best.

• 14:31

  Apart from some individual talking points that are going to take some unravelling (Force India crashing into each other, Alonso's continuing meltdown, and just what is going on with Verstappen's engines), it really wasn't a weekend to remember.

• 14:32

  We've got back to back racing, though, with the super speedy, fast and furious Monza hosting Formula One in just seven days time. Join me then!