Verstappen aims to crash Mercedes' party again
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BRUSSELS • Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton heads to tomorrow's Belgian Grand Prix in the form of his life and favourite to keep the party going for Mercedes.
The Briton, who leads Red Bull's Max Verstappen by 37 points, has won four of six races and is fast approaching a seventh title and Michael Schumacher's record 91 wins. Hamilton has 88 victories and the delay to ban engine power unit "party" modes in qualifying until the next race in Monza, Italy, will be a further boost for his chances at Spa-Francorchamps.
"I'm always talking about perfect races and that was one of them," said Hamilton on winning the previous round in Spain. "I think I'm just in my highest form."
Dutchman Verstappen, who was born in Belgium, will be doing all he can at a race that counts as home territory.
The high-speed track may not play to his car's strengths but, after a surprise win at the 70th Anniversary race in Silverstone, he is not ruling anything out.
"We don't expect this race will be our favourite this year in terms of the layout suiting our package, but we will be pushing hard as we have done at every race," said the only non-Mercedes winner this season.
F1 yesterday said it will hold the second of its two Bahrain races around a shortened, fast layout that will take cars less than 55 seconds to lap in qualifying.
At 3.543km, the 11-corner layout which makes up the "outer circuit" of the Sakhir desert track will be the second-shortest behind Monaco, which has been axed.
The Sakhir Grand Prix will have the highest number of laps at 87 and take place on Dec 6, a week after the Bahrain Grand Prix.
REUTERS
BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
Qualifying: Singtel TV Ch114 & StarHub Ch208, 8.30pm