Bad Belgium

Trying to rebound from the misery that is Austria, the Manor Mercedes team traveled to the forest track of Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix. Alas, it was not meant to be.

Pastor Maldonado qualified a solid 7th, but Felipe Massa struggled throughout the session, qualifying 19th. Massa was able to move up quickly, including making quality passes on drivers like Romain Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton, but finished a distant 11th. Meanwhile, Maldonado ran a solid race within the top ten, but on lap 23, he lost the rear of the car at Blanchimont and slammed into the tyre barrier and ending his race.

Team principal macus16 commented on the situation, believing Constructors Championship rival Lotus may have pulled away by too much of a gap to catch up; as it stands, Manor is 10 points behind Lotus in the battle for 5th.

Next week, the Model F1 World Championship heads down Europe to Monza for a Ferrari “home race”.

Soccer Shenanigans

Soccer, football, futbol, whatever. They’re all different names for the same sport. Speaking of it, during the week, the Manor trio of Maldonado, Massa and test driver Sergey Sirotkin were invited to the Belgian national team’s practice. After spending some time around, an agitated Sirotkin, presumably still unhappy about the Montreal Canadiens not taking up his challenge from the Canada race weekend, decided to take on the Belgians in a game of 4-on-4. Since there was no fourth player, he decided to invite former Manor driver and current Haas driver Max Chilton to fill the gap.

We’d rather not talk about the final score, but Maldonado was able to score a wicked goal after taking advantage of a corner kick from Massa to head the ball in.