F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Spa Speed Trap: who is the fastest of them all?

Spa-Francorchamps is the longest track on the F1 schedule and also, along with Monza, one of the sport's most power hungry venues where top speeds reach their highest levels of the season.

It's perhaps more relevant to focus on the third 'Intermediate 1' column here as it relates to readings taken on the long Kemmel straight, the portion that leads from the top of Raidillon to Les Combes.

Once again, Force India demonstrated the low drag of its car with Sergio Perez clocking in at 335.7 km/h, the Mexican helped also by the traditional muscle of his Mercedes engine.

Both Mercedes and Ferrari works drivers enjoyed new spec-3 engines from their manufacturers, and Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton put the additional boost to good use, the German edging his arch-rival in tersm of top speed by just 1 km/h.

Obviously, other criteria such as downforce also come into play so it's hard to deduct anything significant from the relative compare.

At the bottom of the readings, Hulkenberg was the day's laggard, but that was a function of his limited running due to the Renault driver's grid penalty.

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Michael Delaney

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