Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel Suffered A Tire Failure At Spa-Francorchamps

Lewis Hamilton driving the AMG Mercedes won the Belgian Grand Prix to extend his F1 Championship lead

Mr. Hamilton extended his advantage at the top of Formula One with 277 pts, as he drove to an easy win at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg followed his teammate home in second to maintain his chance of catching Mr. Hamilton in the overall standings

Ferrari team driver Sebastian Vettel launched a attack against Pirelli after he suffered a tire failure on the 2nd to last lap of Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps

Mr. Vettel, the 4X World Champion, was among several drivers to express their concerns with the Italian manufacturer after Nico Rosberg was fortunate to emerge unscathed from his 190 mph tire blowout Friday in practice.

The Ferrari driver was on the 28th lap of a surprising 1-pit stop strategy when he suffered the puncture.

“Things like that are not allowed to happen, full stop,” said Mr. Vettel. “If it happens 200 metres earlier, I am not standing here now. I don’t know what else needs to happen.”

Mr. Vettel added: “I think it is a sort of thing that keeps going around and no-one mentions. It it is unacceptable. If Nico tells us he did not go off the track, he did not go off the track, why should he lie to us?

“It is the same with me, I did not go off the track – it is out of the blue the tire exploded, and as I said if this happens earlier than I am fucked. It is not acceptable.”

Mr. Vettel started in 9th place on Sunday but after switching to the 1-pit stop strategy, was battling for the 3rd spot on the podium with the Lotus of Romain Grosjean when he suffered his tire failure.

Following Nico Rosberg’s high-profile blowout in practice Friday, Pirelli suggested the damage to the German’s tire was caused by debris or a knock at the kerb and insisted they were happy with their product.

Pirelli’s Boss Paul Hembery said: “I am not going to criticise Sebastian. It is a hot moment and I do not want to enter into a war of words over that, it is pointless for everybody.”

In reference to Mr. Vettel’s strategy, Mr. Hembery added: “We were concerned when we saw the number of laps that were going to be done. Nobody really suggested they were going to do a 1-stop race and it was a bit of a surprise, if anything people were talking about doing 3 stops rather than 2. They were following a different approach, if the race was one lap less everyone would have said what a genius approach because they would have been on the podium.”

Ferrari Team principal Maurizio Arrivabene has suggested the one-stop plan, with Vettel switching from soft to medium compound tires on lap 14 of 43, “was right.”

Below are the full result from Spa, as follows:

Belgian F1 Grand Prix: Final Race Standings
Position	Driver	Team	Race Time
1	HAM	Mercedes	1:23:40.387
2	ROS	Mercedes	1:23:42.445
3	GRO	Lotus	1:24:18.375
4	KVY	Red Bull	1:24:26.079
5	PER	Force India	1:24:34.384
6	MAS	Williams	1:24:35.670
7	RAI	Ferrari	1:24:36.090
8	VPN	Toro Rosso	1:24:36.463
9	BOT	Williams	1:24:41.427
10	ERI	Sauber	1:25:11.621
11	NAS	Sauber	1:25:22.698
12	VET	Ferrari	Lapped
13	ALO	McLaren	Lapped
14	BUT	McLaren	Lapped
15	MER	Manor	Lapped
16	STE	Manor	Lapped
R	SAI	Toro Rosso	Retired (32)
R	RIC	Red Bull	Retired (19)
R	MAL	Lotus	Retired (2)
R	HUL	Force India	Retired (0)