SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Everything before the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday had been set up by the Formula One series’ organizers to ensure a more exciting race start.
Expectations of chaos were high because of a new rule designed to liven up the track action by giving full technical responsibility over clutch settings to the drivers at the start of the race, instead of their being told what to do by engineers over the radio.
But as if to prove that racing excitement cannot be manufactured in this game of man versus technology, the start went off practically without a hitch and the explosive action came in the penultimate lap of the race, when the right rear tire of Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari blew out while he was in third position.