By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
Before we recap NASCAR’s final race of the regular season and list the ten drivers who have made the playoffs we have to tell you about a Formula One race that lasted less than a lap.
The Belgian Grand Prix never saw a green flag. No driver earned points for fastest lap because every lap was run behind the pace car, or as they call it in F1, the safety car. A relentless downpour was the culprit, but so was the series’ policy of running a race on the day it was scheduled to be run.
Even if it never was a race. Even if the finishing positions were the starting positions.
Here’s how it all came down:
First, torrential rain came down. Then the scheduled start time came down. No go. After a three-hour wait, the safety car led the field out of the pits. The competitors did the ceremonial formation lap but did not halt for the usual standing start. Instead, they kept circulating for two more laps and returned to the pits, never to turn go out again.
The official time of the race was three minutes, 27.01 seconds.
Formula 1 rules say a race is official after completion of just two laps. The rules say the final finishing order is determined by positions on the lap before the suspension of the race. Thus, the Grand Prix of Belgium, 2021, goes into the history books as lasting one lap, with pole-sitter Max Verstappen the winner with George Russell, who qualified second giving the Williams team its first podium finish since 2017, and giving defending F1 champion Lewis Hamilton third, his starting position.
Points are usually awarded to the driver who achieves the fastest lap. There was no such lap in this, uh, event.
Racefans.net says the race actually lasted less than one lap because there is a 124-meter offset between the start line and the finish line. Therefore, says the site, the race did not lost 7.004 kilometers, the length of one lap, but only 6.88 kilometers.
All three of the podium drivers apologized to fans who waited throughout the rain but only got to see an almost-race that has been described with various derogatory words in the European media.
Because the race fell 32 laps short of reaching 76% of its distance, the points were reduced by half. Verstappen, by “finishing first” received 12.5 points. Hamilton’s third was worth 7.5 points. He now leads Verstappen in the standings by three.
Hamilton called the event a “farce” said he hopes the fans get their money back. There’s been no comment from F1.
However, Motorsport.com is reporting that Formula One CEO Stefano Domenicali “is eager for discussions with the sports stakeholders,” and F1 Race Director agrees. “We’ll look at a whole lot of things that we can all look at, to see what everyone wants,” he says.
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Now, to a race that was a race.
(NASCAR)—The last race of NASCAR’s regular season was a must-win situation for most of te field, a contest between teammates for the last playoff spot, and a second straight win for Ryan Blaney. The race went an extra five laps because a scramble for positions with thirteen laps to go saw eight cars get tangled up, leading to a stoppage of the race. Eleven cars got together in the first overtime attempt for a finish and nine cars got wadded behind Blaney on the last lap. The race finished under the yellow flag with Chris Buescher trailing Blaney to the finish. However, Buescher’s car failed a post-race inspection and was disqualified, leaving him last in the final standings and Bubba Wallace second.
The last playoff spot had been in contention between Childress Racing teammates Tyler Reddick and Austin Dillon. Dillon was caught up in the crash on the last lap. Reddick, whose car was damaged in the wreck 13 laps from the end, was able to keep going after some quick repairs in the pits, and finished fifth.
Reddick was 16th in the standings after the first 12 races with only one top-ten finish. He had climbed to 11th going into the Daytona races, posting nine top tens in the last fourteen races. His fifth on Saturday night is his best finish of the year.
Blaney heads into the playoffs with two straight wins, three for the year, and second-seeded behind regular-season points champion Kyle Larson.
The first of ten playoff races will be at Darlington next Sunday. The drivers who will run for the championship are Larson, Blaney, Martin Truex, Jr., Kyle Busch, defending champion Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Christopher Bell, Michael McDowell, Aric Almirola, Reddick, and Kevin Harvick. Only Hamlin, Reddick, and Harvick have yet to win this year.
(Photo Credits: Formula 1, Bob Priddy)