Sebastian Vettel doesn't like himself as a prophet.

On Saturday afternoon, it took about 20 seconds for his warning to come true: "There is too much water, we should interrupt," he advised urgently over the radio.

The third round of qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix had just started this Sunday (3 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker on Formula 1 and on Sky).

It was raining again on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Anno Hecker

Responsible editor for sports.

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Lando Norris also saw what was coming, warned against “aquaplaning” - and shot 42 seconds later on the way from the infamous Eau Rouge depression up to the Raidillon curve from the piste. His McLaren crashed into the lane, spinning back onto the track as a wreck. Vettel approached, warned, slowly in his Aston Martin: “What did I say, what did I say, damn it,” the four-time Formula 1 world champion roared into the on-board microphone, “totally unnecessary. Is he ok? "

Vettel stopped at the level of the rubble in front of the remains of the McLaren and only drove on when he was convinced of Norris' welfare. The Englishman finally climbed out of the halfway smashed company car without help. He held his left arm. “He bumped his elbow,” said the German team boss of McLaren, Andreas Seidl, “he's been to the hospital for a check-up, but we assume he's okay.” The end of his tour probably hurts the Norris too: he had started the last lap of the grid race as the fastest.

The gruesome scenes, this time with a mild end, form the next typical episode in the Formula 1 history of this racetrack in the High Fens. Changes in wind and weather are sometimes difficult to predict, even at the end of August. On Saturday the fog gave way to a few sunny moments, before rain soaked everything, the wind occasionally tore open the cloud cover before it pushed them together again and the next load poured over the racetrack. The drivers are the first to feel what needs to be done on a flooded runway. But race director Michael Masi hesitated, as he did in Baku when the Australian stopped the race too late after Max Verstappen crashed. This time too? “No,” said the McLaren man Seidl, the TV broadcaster Sky, “the conditions were difficult. Unfortunately, Lando lost the car. "

While the discussion about the personal responsibility of pilots, their dependency and freedom as well as the duty of care of the race management picked up speed, Formula 1 continued the last eight minutes of qualifying after forty minutes of cleaning up and inspection tours - in a rain break. On the wet track, it got going again and offered a thrilling finale: At the last moment, Max Verstappen raced for pole position in the Red Bull, while his rival Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) finished third. The Dutchman's orange fan base was already cheering while the experts were still rubbing their eyes: Who came second, only 0.3 seconds slower than the World Cup candidate Verstappen?

George Russell, the man in the Williams, usually the second slowest car in the field: "I can't believe it, we made the best of the weather," said the Englishman in the fastest Mercedes of the day, if you will. The Williams is powered by a Mercedes engine. Vettel was also one of the winners in fifth, while Ferrari stood in the rain: Eleventh place only for Charles Leclerc, 13th place went to his team-mate Carlos Sainz. Another proof that under incalculable conditions, humans are either powerless in the machine or can show their strengths. Mick Schumacher was 18th out of twenty pilots.

Why did some drivers surprise many at Spa? Sometimes it depends on the choice of tires at the right time or on the use of the suitable rear wing: a large or a small one? That was a key question before qualifying. The mood of nature tormented the optimization artists in the teams' thinking centers. Lord God! How should engineers and drivers, fans of accurate calculation, commit themselves to this inconstancy? In Spa, too, on the Belgian high-speed track, which requires flat wings in the first and third sectors of the seven-kilometer runway so that the cars don't “stop” in the wind and move quickly.