Sebastian Vettel gives his rivals the Belgian blues as midfield left to provide Spa spark

It's a long, hard 19 race F1 season, not least for the remaining global schedule of events, but in under 84 minutes of high-speed action through the Belgian Ardennes Sebastian Vettel dampened the spirit of many great champions, and a good few F1 fans too I suspect.

With the absence of rain we experienced a race which was less than thrilling. It was left to the midfield to liven up the action, mostly through contact and aggressive driving. I still feel that Sergio Perez was unlucky to get a drive-through although it was marginal. Yes, it was questionable how he squeezed Romain Grosjean while completing his pass (not defence), but as long as I've been a driver the tactic of 'squeezing' your rival after passing has been part and parcel of racing at top level. Not running him out of road, more simply persuading him not to try to repass and most likely forcing him to lift off or brake earlier. The danger is that he runs into the back of you while his vision of the racing line and braking point is compromised. What happened between Grosjean and Jenson Button in Hungary was totally different, he didn't squeeze Jenson's space, he clean ran into him having not completed the pass. I'm pretty convinced that Nico Hulkenberg's squeeze on Jean-Eric Vergne at exactly the same place in Spa was illegal but JEV responded not by crying over the radio but by manhandling the Toro Rosso off the kerb and around the outside, and then returning the compliment by running Hulkenberg out of road and completing the pass. Well worth buying a ticket for or switching on the TV on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The above adventure was never mentioned with regard to the Stewards, but let's not get too PC about driving standards, although they must be consistently tough on drivers ignoring the confines of the race track. Pastor Maldonado was naughty heading directly for the pits without a basic 'mirror- signal - manoeuvre' after contact with Adrian Sutil and therefore wiping out Paul Di Resta, but four cars in that final chicane is a touch busy to be fair. Let's hope for the traditional surge in Ferrari performance in Monza to keep this championship alive. MB