The biggest losers from F1’s Belgian GP non-race
OPINION: Formula 1's controversial decision to call a result after the Belgian GP that never got going due to persistently poor weather was good news for George Russell, as he scored a shock maiden podium. But the Williams driver aside, there were plenty who lost out as a result of Spa's washout - not least F1 itself
While a number of drivers and fans have been upset about the way three laps behind the safety car was enough for the Belgian Grand Prix to be declared, unhappiness about what happened wasn't universal.
Max Verstappen and Red Bull came away with a victory that helps close up the F1 championship battle by a few points, and the most joyous man of all was George Russell, who took his maiden podium finish.
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Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.
Jonathan has won multiple awards for journalism - in 1991 he was the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Sir William Lyons’ Award for young journalists, in 2010 he was awarded the Outstanding Individual accolade for consumer journalism in the Haymarket wards, in 2011 he won Haymarket’s Scoop of the Year, and in 2018 he was awarded a prestigious Medaglia d’Oro at the Lorenzo Bandini Awards for his contribution to F1 journalism.
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