The weekend started off well at the fan-favourite track, Spa-Francorchamps, with the Williams and Mercedes-junior driver George Russell putting his car on the front row on Saturday.
But before Russell put in that astounding lap, Lando Norris had a scary crash as he lost control of his McLaren through the high-speed and, deadly, uphill Eau Rouge section at the start of Q3, before spinning and shunting heavily into the barriers.
Both Norris and Vettel called for the session to be red-flagged before the crash happened. This led to Vettel furiously saying over the team radio: “Yeah, well what the f**k did I say?! What did I say?! Red flag! Yeah... f**k! It's unnecessary. Is he okay?”. Before stopping to check if Lando was still conscious.
If you're in trouble, he's got your back 👀
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 28, 2021
We should all try and be a bit more Seb 😇#BelgianGP 🇧🇪 #F1 @LandoNorris pic.twitter.com/md9Lz41iQY
Maybe Vettel was right to suggest the race should be red-flagged. Just two years ago today on 31st August 2019, we saw F2 and Renault Sport racing academy driver Anthoine Hubert lose his life at the same corner Lando crashed at.
As the crash unfolded, Lando's ex-teammate Carlos Sainz was being interviewed by Spanish TV. Sainz looked visibly worried at the images of Lando and fell silent while he waits for Lando to get out of his car.
Vettel wasn't the only driver to have an issue with the race not being red-flagged, Max Verstappen also had a meeting with the race director Michael Masi after Lando's heavy crash.
After such a dramatic qualifying everybody was looking forward to an exciting race; Russell defending from P2 and Lando would have been looking to make up lost places having been handed a 5 place grid penalty due to a gearbox change as a result of his crash.
But, the race never really got underway. Race director Michael Masi kept putting the race start time back by 5 minutes incriminates due to heavy rain. This led to many disappointed fans both at the track and at home. The race technically got underway around 4 hours after the initial start time, the plan was for the safety car to lead the cars around the track which would then dry the track. As the rain became heavier, it became clear that we would never see the race we hoped to see.
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