SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Preview: 2004 Belgium Grand Prix

I will be taking the course during the 2004 season using EA's F1 Challenge '99-'02 and Ralph Hummerich's excellent RH 2004 Season carset that's available from this link.

A Lap of Spa Francochamps

After briefly accelerating over the line you brake for the incredibly tight La Source hairpin. This hairpin is almost always the scene of a first lap incident (Hakkinen and Coulthard came together there in 2000).

This goes around to the right and is taken in second gear at 35mph. You then accelerate downhill towards Eau Rouge with a concrete wall to your right and no run off to your left (it is not surprising that Philippe Streiff and Stephan Bellof both lost their lives here a few years ago while David Coulthard sparked the biggest pile up in grand prix history here when he lost control here at the start of the 1998 race). Eau Rouge is the left right kink at the bottom and is taken in top gear and usually taken flat out in top gear in qualifying.

You then accelerate up the hill to Radillon (sometimes mistakenly referred to as Eau Rouge as well). You crest the brow of the hill and sweep around to the left at about 180mph. Jacques Villeneuve always tries to take this flat and usually ends up crashing here (he stuffed his Williams into the wall here in 1998 and then both he and Zonta managed to pile their BARs into the barriers in 1999!).

It is important to get as much speed as possible through Radillon as it leads onto a Hockenheim style straight leading towards Les Combes with only the slight right hand kink of Kemmel to worry about (it was down this straight that Hakkinen famously overtook Schuey around Zonta's lapped BAR in 2000).

At the end of this straight (one of the main overtaking areas on the track incidentally) you break down for the slight uphill right left of Les Combes. The right hand part of this is taken in 3rd gear at 85 mph while the left hander is normally a gear and 15mph down.

There is a short piece of acceleration before breaking for Malmedy which is a right hander taken at just over 100mph in 3rd gear (it was here that Coulthard moved over in 1998 to be punted up the bum by Schumacher!).

There is a short straight going downhill before breaking for Rivage. Although this 180 degree, 3rd gear right hander seems quite simple, the camber of the road and the steep incline downhill make it very easy to run wide here.

You accelerate downhill again sweeping round to the left before accelerating towards Pouhon (a left hander taken at about 150mph in 4th gear).

You accelerate again towards the right left at Fagnes taken at about 100mph in third gear before the double right hander at Stavelot which is taken at about 100mph in 4th gear.

The rest of the circuit is another adrenaline rush as it is all almost flat out. The circuit sweeps round to the right and then left at Blanchimont (the only place you feather the throttle — though you are doing nearly 200mph at the time!).

You brake just before the pit entrance (which is immediately in front of you) to take the Bus Stop chicane. This is a 2nd gear right left chicane followed by a right left chicane that leads back onto the pit straight. For 2002 the Bus Stop and the exit of Eau Rouge has been slightly altered, although neither corner is particularly different the Bus Stop's exit will be much quicker resulting in more of an overtaking possibility going into La Source.

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