Why Spa failed to deliver a thriller

Lewis Hamilton took his fifth victory of the season, but it was a race that is unlikely to be remembered fondly among his 89 career wins. All the ingredients were there: a semi-competitive Red Bull, a circuit where overtaking is possible and the potential for Hamilton to lose the lead on the long run to Les Combes on the first lap. Yet the race never really came alive...

Spa fails to deliver

There's no way of dressing it up, Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix did not make for great viewing. Spa-Francorchamps remains one of the most spectacular settings to watch an F1 car, but even with corners like Eau Rouge and Pouhon, 44 laps of tyre management gets pretty dull.

Part of the reason for that was the timing of the Safety Car on lap 10. Antonio Giovinazzi's mistake on the exit of the Fagnes chicane was a reminder of how challenging a circuit Spa is, but for the engineers on the pit wall it was simply an opportunity to pit their cars for fresh tyres.

In doing that, the drivers were tasked with making a single set of tyres last 34 laps when in normal circumstances they would have only asked 26 or 27 laps from them. That required some cautious driving, especially with the memory of the tyre failures at the British Grand Prix still fresh in their minds.

Both Verstappen and Bottas reported vibrations - as Bottas had done at Silverstone - and as a result they both settled for a podium. It wasn't exciting to watch and, it seems, it wasn't that exciting to drive.

"It was pretty boring, to be honest," Verstappen said after the race. "Not really interesting; not much to do. I couldn't really keep up with them when they were pushing and from my side I ran out of tyres at the end.

"The last eight laps I was just backing it out, saving the front tyres. It was not really enjoyable out there today.

"On the medium I didn't really have a lot of grip and on the hard tyre, initially I was trying to put a bit of pressure on Valtteri, but then they told him to speed up and I couldn't keep up. Yeah, a bit lonely."

Not a race worthy of the great Spa-Francorchamps circuit, but then again, they can't all be thrillers.

Ricciardo shows his class

Daniel Ricciardo is one of the standout performers of the season so far. He drove a magnificent race to fourth position, matching his qualifying effort of Saturday afternoon. In the closing laps he was slashing away at the gap to Max Verstappen and finished just three seconds behind his former Red Bull teammate.

He left with an extra point, too, claiming the fastest lap of the race on the last time around the circuit. There hasn't been much hype around the Renault this year but it looks very competitive in a low-drag set-up.

Asked if he could have "pulled the pin out" earlier in terms of his late pace and taken the fight to Verstappen, he said: "I honestly felt like the 'pin was out' as soon as I passed Gasly really, the pin was out. It just came to me.

"I think fighting with Perez and Gasly, the tyres overheat so it takes a few laps for them to come back and once it did, it crept up and crept up. I wasn't really leaving anything on the table and then the last lap I put everything into it but that wasn't sustainable to hit those laps for much longer. I feel like I used everything."

Ricciardo is one of the best racers on the grid and it was great to see him go wheel to wheel with Verstappen on two different occasions in the opening laps. F1 has missed having the Australian driver in a position to fight for competitive positions.

With the long straights of Monza awaiting next week, Ricciardo is traveling to Italy in good spirits.

"It's been very good, it's been a strong weekend," he said. "The car's been quick.

"We're turning a very difficult weekend like Barcelona to a very, very positive one here. Massive improvement. Very happy and pleased with that.

"It smells good as well because next week, I think the track will have the same characteristic, even more extreme so we should be at ease as well. We're going to try and do the same, or even better."

Perez confused by strategy

If there was an award for strangest strategy award of the race, Racing Point would have been comfortable winners for their thinking around Sergio Perez's race. Bizarrely, the Mexican driver was kept out when the Safety Car was deployed on the 11th lap, despite running the soft and least durable tyre.

The Safety Car period obviously bunched the field up so when Perez did make a stop shortly later he was relegated to the back of the pack. Perez was able to carve back through to 10th position, showing the pace of the Racing Point, leaving him frustrated at the situation he had been left in.

After the race, Perez tweeted: "I didn't understand the strategy either. I had to come back from last place! We rescued a point for the championship.

"In a week we will be back fighting again and with great enthusiasm."

Gasly on form again<.h2>

Speaking of that Safety Car period, Pierre Gasly rose to fourth at its deployment when Alpha Tauri kept him out. This made more sense as he had started on the hard tyre -- if anything, the timing of the Safety Car was terrible for Gasly's race, as stopping for mediums would have forced him into a two-stop race, given that the medium compound would not have done 30-plus laps to the finish.

Gasly eventually rose back to eighth postion in what was another impressive performance from the Frenchman. It's 12 months since his demotion from Red Bull ahead of last year's Belgian Grand Prix but Gasly looks like a completely different driver. He's a candidate for the driver of the year so far and his performances are surely going to give Red Bull plenty of food for thought about its 2021 driver line-up.

Alexander Albon dropped behind both Renault drivers at the end of the race to finish sixth, but Red Bull boss Christian Horner insisted the Thai driver is still the senior team's pick for the foreseeable future.

When asked about Gasly's form, Horner said: "I think he's performing well in the environment that AlphaTauri I think the car is a good car this year. I think it's an easier car perhaps to drive than our car has been at times.

"Alex... the performances on Sundays have been very strong. He drove another good race today, his defending his overtaking, his attacking is always strong and I think we're going in the right direction so I think it's good to see you know Pierre getting back up to speed, which is why he's still on the programme. But we're happy with the way things are."