F1 Belgian GP digest: Hamilton on Ferrari’s pace and Alonso praises the halo

Hamilton: no more bluffing

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton admits Ferrari have the upper hand in the Formula 1 title race after he finished second behind Sebastian Vettel in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Ferrari ace Vettel claimed victory by more than ten seconds at Spa-Francorchamps to cut Hamilton’s championship lead to 17 points. Eight races remain in the season.

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Before F1 took its summer break, Hamilton won in Germany and Hungary but Vettel’s win in Belgium has given Mercedes some concerns.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Hamilton said: “Everyone asks at press conferences, ‘who do you think is faster, you or Ferrari?’. They’ve had the pace, the upper hand on us, for some time.

“Those last two races, before here, we just did a better job... even though they had better cars. But if you’re playing with a deck of cards, and you’re bluffing, there’s only a certain amount of time you can do that before your opponent realises.”

Alonso: no more proof needed for the halo

Fernando Alonso has praised the halo device after his huge crash on the first corner in Belgium.

The BBC reports that after being “launched into the air by Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg”, Alonso’s McLaren landed on top of Charles Leclerc’s Sauber. TV replays showed the impact marks on the device afterwards.

Speaking after the race Alonso said: “I saw the replay and how good was the proof for the halo. We didn’t need any proof but it is a good thing.”

Vandoorne: McLaren have made no progress

McLaren driver Stoffel Vandoorne has hit out at his team after a disappointing weekend in Belgium, Autosport reports.

In his home grand prix, Vandoorne finished last out of the 15 drivers who completed the race at Spa. He said: “It’s difficult to get a worse weekend. We’ve seen the performance we have is very far away from being good. There’s not really an explanation.

“The reality is we haven’t progressed since the start of the year, we haven’t progressed at all compared to the others.”

‘Almost perfect’ weekend for Force India

After being saved from administration and starting afresh with zero championship points Force India performed miracles on Sunday.

Now named “Racing Point Force India F1”, the team secured 18 points – their biggest haul this year – as Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon finished fifth and sixth respectively at Spa-Francorchamps.

Perez told F1.com: “It’s a great performance by the team and I think we executed an almost perfect weekend. It is a great start, especially given all the troubles we have had in the past few months. A really fresh start and I want everyone involved in the team to feel very proud of what we have achieved – I think there are great things coming to this team.”

Ricciardo to get Monza penalty

Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull will have a new power unit for Sunday’s Italian GP and because of F1 rules he will start from the back of the grid at Monza.

“Daniel is going to be taking an engine penalty for sure next weekend,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told F1.com.

“Max [Verstappen] will be taking his third unit as well there, hopefully without penalty. So we’re going to try and get ourselves into the best situation we can going to Singapore, which is probably our next chance of being able to give Ferrari and Mercedes a harder time.”