Jeremy Clarkson takes aim at Belgian GP race director after 80-minute delay

TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson took aim at the race director during the Belgian Grand Prix.

The race at Spa-Francorchamps was delayed by 80 minutes due to heavy rain. It eventually got going behind the safety car. The drivers have already had their say on the decision, with the delay splitting the opinions of the paddock, but now, the former Top Gear host has called it out on social media.

“Dear God in heaven. What is the race director at Spa doing?” he wrote.

Clarkson is no stranger to the world of F1. He’s often seen on the Sky Sports broadcast talking with former driver and analyst Martin Brundle during the grid walk, and has never been one to shy away from discussing his opinions on races via social media or in his column for The Sun.

The Spa-Francorchamps circuit has seen two fatalities in the last six years – French driver Anthoine Hubert in 2019 and Dutch driver Dilano van ‘t Hoff in 2023 – in poor weather conditions. In addition to this, multiple drivers spoke with the FIA following the British Grand Prix at Silverstone explaining that the visibility was too poor, which is why there were several incidents.

Mercedes’ George Russell explained that while drivers usually love racing in the rain, he wasn’t happy to race in wet conditions on the Sunday.

“When you’re doing over 200 miles an hour out of Eau Rouge, you literally cannot see anything; you may as well have a blindfold on. It isn’t racing, it’s just stupidity.”

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Michael Potts / Motorsport Images

Others, including four-time champion Max Verstappen, felt the race could have started earlier. “Of course we spoke after Silverstone to be a little bit more cautious with the decisions, but this was at the other extreme for me,” the Red Bull driver explained to the media.

Once the race got underway, Lando Norris lost the lead to his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri after the safety car returned to the pits. From then, the Australian driver retained his lead. Piastri changed from intermediate to medium tyres, and one lap later, Norris changed to hard tyres.

While Norris hoped the medium tyres wouldn’t last to the end of the race, Piastri nursed the softer compound to the chequered flag to take his eighth F1 grand prix victory.

Photos from Belgian GP – Race