Max Verstappen inherits victory at the Belgian Grand Prix as a four-hour downpour forces the shortest race in F1 history

After four hours of non-stop rain, race director Michael Masi had no choice but to end the Belgian Grand Prix. The race counts for half points as they did complete two laps under the safety car during the four-hour period. This means the qualifying result is used as the race result, with Max Verstappen winning for Red Bull, George Russell coming in second and Lewis Hamilton in third.

In what is officially the shortest Grand Prix in F1 history, no laps of green flag racing actually took place. Heavy rain had hit the Ardennes Forrest overnight and stayed all day. The formation lap happened behind the safety car and the start was aborted.

There had appeared to be almost a desperation to try and conclude some form of result. The FIA regulations state that the maximum time within which the race can take place is three hours. The clock began counting down when the race was scheduled to start at 3pm (local time).

However, at 5pm the FIA announced that they had stopped the clock citing ‘Force Majeure’. Twenty minutes later the cars were out on track, again behind the safety car. With drivers still reporting that the visibility is horrendous, after the second lap, a red flag was called.

George Russell delighted with second place

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Russell said after the race when asked about the way he grabbed second spot. ‘I mean we don’t often get rewarded for great qualifyings and we absolutely did today.

‘But first I just want to say, so sorry to all the fans and it was amazing their support to stay out here throughout. We were all in the same boat.

‘It was a shame we couldn’t get this race underway, but from our side and the team side it is such an amazing result.’

Lewis Hamilton hopes fans are reimbursed

Hamilton was dismissive of what had taken place saying: ‘I really hope the fans get their money back today.’

No F1 race has been abandoned before the start in the 71-year history of the championship and F1 did just enough to avoid that. The Malaysian GP in 2009 was called off after 31 of the 56 laps because of torrential rain and the Australian GP in 1991 in Adelaide was stopped, again because of rain, after just 16 of the planned 81 laps.

By Charlie Parker