Spa-Francorchamps is renowned for its unexpected results. It introduces new drivers to the three steps of the podium. Although there were some surprises during the race, one thing remained the same, Mercedes finished in first and second, as has become the usual. However, in third place was the very talented Romain Grosjean, this was the podium surprise presented to us by Belgium.
Romain’s story of ninth to third is one full of flying rubber and overtaking as obstacle after obstacle stacked against him before he managed to cross the line in third place. For this reason, he is my star driver of the Belgian Grand Prix.
Throughout the entirety of this season, Romain Grosjean has out-performed his Venezuelan teammate, Pastor Maldonado, consistently. The fact he out qualified him wasn’t a surprise, however, the fact he did so by pushing his car to fourth place on the grid was. This is the Frenchman’s best qualifying this year. However, the talent received a five-place grid penalty for a change in gearbox. Although this may have set him back to ninth place (meaning Grosjean would now start behind his teammate, Maldonado) his determination was not dashed as he spent every lap of the Grand Prix with one goal in mind: overtaking the car in front of him.
As soon as the lights were out, Romain slipped forward from ninth and found himself battling with his teammate for sixth place. Within a few laps, the Frenchman had begun his mission to fight his way back to the top. The rate at which Grosjean was overtaking turned heads and before long he found his name mixed in with Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel in relation to who would take the third and final step on the podium.
In the last few laps of the race Romain Grosjean was still behind Vettel who had only completed one pit stop. When Grosjean was less than a second behind, Vettel’s tyre exploded with the tread tearing itself away from the rest of the tyre before it deflated. Although various bits of rubber were flying toward Grosjean, he saw his opportunity and passed Vettel, now finding himself in third place.
Grosjean crossed the line in third place and smiling, took his tenth ever podium finish as he accepted his trophy. As always, it was incredibly refreshing to see a new face on the podium for this season, the whole performance put together by Grosjean was almost identical to the podium finishes brought to Lotus by him at the end of the 2013 season. Romain Grosjean should continue to complete his races with such incredible determination.
