The 2013 Belgian Grand Prix (formally known as the 2013 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race on 25 August 2013 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, near the village of Francorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium. It was the eleventh round of the 2013 season, and the 69th running of the Belgian Grand Prix.
The race was won by Sebastian Vettel in a Red Bull-Renault in a time of 1:23:42, registering an average speed of 220.80 km/h, thus extending his championship lead to 46 points. Second was Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari, and third was Lewis Hamilton (who had started from pole) in a Mercedes. This was the first of 9 straight victories for Vettel, a Formula One record.
Report
Background
Like the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix, tyre supplier Pirelli brought its orange-banded hard compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the white-banded medium compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre.
Qualifying
Mercedes had taken 7 of the last 8 poles, but in practice, Red Bull had appeared to be the fastest team. A rain shower hit the track right before qualifying got underway, dropping the air temperature to only 22 °C and mixing things up even further.
All the drivers started the session with intermediates, Lewis Hamilton set the first benchmark of 2:07.008. As the track continued drying, Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber, and Sebastian Vettel all hit the front briefly. After the midpoint, most drivers pitted for a new set of intermediate tyres while Giedo van der Garde took a gamble to switch onto the slicks. As times passing by, lap times improved rapidly, nearly pushing both Ferraris out of Q2. But Fernando Alonso managed to set the fastest time at the last moment, and his team-mate Felipe Massa also made it into the next session. Van der Garde's decision proved a big success, for he impressively finished 3rd. In fact, three of the four drivers from Caterham and Marussia squeezed into Q2, the only one that failed to do so was Charles Pic, who started the race from the last place on the grid. Also eliminated were the Williams duo, the two Toro Rossos, and the Sauber of Esteban Gutiérrez.
At the beginning of the 15-minute period, drivers were divided into 2 groups, most of them used mediums, while several others, including Webber and Alonso, chose the hards. In the opening phase, Webber and Alonso were fighting for the top spot, their gap being merely two-thousandths of a second. At the same time, Vettel and Hamilton stayed in the pits until there were about 7 minutes left on the board. After that it was time for mediums, first the two Lotuses, then Sebastian Vettel, all challenging for the first place. But finally, Kimi Räikkönen put the fight to an end with a 1:48.296. Eliminated in Q2 were Sauber's Nico Hülkenberg, Force India's Adrian Sutil, McLaren's Sergio Pérez, Caterham's Giedo van der Garde who achieved the team's best qualifying result ever, and both the Marussias.
In fear of the incoming shower, all bar Paul di Resta queued at the pit exit with medium tyres. However, just moments later, the Force India driver opted to use the inters. It soon turned out that the latter was right, as the other 9 drivers didn't even start a flying lap as the track was too wet for slicks and they had to pit immediately. Di Resta then set the fastest lap time, with Felipe Massa in second. Just when it looked like he was going to take his maiden pole position, the track started to dry out. As there were 3 minutes left, Räikkönen gave the first shot to come to 3rd, ahead of Alonso. And Rosberg behind them posted a 2:02.251 to take the provisional pole. But none of them could cross the line before the chequered flag. With the ever-improving track, polesitter would be decided among three that still had one timed lap to go—Webber, Vettel, and Hamilton. Webber finished first to reduce the quickest time by almost a second. Then Vettel beat his teammate by a further one tenth of a second, Lewis Hamilton subsequently secured his fourth successive pole. The Lotuses and the Ferraris had to settle in rows 4 and 5.