DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award: 2016 FORMULA 1 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX

Williams again! In the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix, it was once again Williams who executed the fastest pit stop. In doing so, the team also wrapped up the DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award with eight races of the 2016 season still to go.

By performing the fastest pit stop of all the teams in Belgium, Williams made it an impressive eleven victories from 13 races, giving them an unassailable lead ahead of second-placed Mercedes. The Silver Arrows were the fastest pit crew on the other two weekends. As there are only eight grands prix still to be contested in 2016, Williams are now assured of lifting this year's trophy.

After Felipe Massa was the beneficiary of the fastest stop in the previous race in Germany, it was Valtteri Bottas's turn in the Belgium GP as the mechanics changed his tires in record time. When he made his final stop of the race at Spa, he was sent on his way in just 2.14 seconds. Runners-up this weekend were Red Bull. Max Verstappen's fourth stop (including the red flag period) took only marginally longer - 2.18 seconds.

Williams took third place as well on Sunday, this time servicing Valtteri Bottas in 2.30 seconds. The team that has dominated this category in 2016 set a new world record in the race at Baku in June with a time of just 1.92 seconds. It was a successful Grand Prix all round for them, because Bottas also set an unofficial new top speed record in Formula 1, being clocked at 378kph on a qualifying lap.

Chaotic race thwarts team strategies

The eventful race at Spa was marred by the red flag period that followed Kevin Magnussen's accident. On Lap 5, the Danish Renault driver crashed into the barriers at the top of the legendary Eau Rouge at high speed; thankfully, his injuries were only minor. For safety reasons, the Belgian GP was temporarily halted while the tire wall was repaired. This interruption threw the tire strategies of various teams into disarray.

While Williams, Force India and Haas brought both drivers in twice for tire changes, other teams had to adapt to the crash and to further incidents or to adopt a split strategy as the race progressed. Max Verstappen and the two Ferrari drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen, had already been forced to return to the pit lane following a collision in Turn 1 on the first lap.

Nico Rosberg secured pole position for the Belgian GP in Saturday's qualifying. The Mercedes man made a deliberate choice to start Q2 on the soft tires knowing that these would be the ones he would start the race on. With the high temperatures prevailing at Spa, increased tire degradation was expected. Rosberg hoped that, with this choice of the somewhat harder compound, he would not have to pit until later in the race.

On the other hand, he was at a disadvantage compared with Verstappen who was starting alongside on the front row with supersofts. But the young Dutchman was unable to exploit the advantage of the better grip in the first meters. In fact, his start proved to be a bit of a disaster as he clashed with the Ferraris.

"As it turned out, a dramatic start to the race ruled several of the main contenders out of the running straight away," explained Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical) at Mercedes. "We lucked in with the safety car because many teams stopped and lost position, while we deliberately chose to stay out on a two-stop plan. We then lucked in again with the red flag, which effectively created a fresh race and sealed our positions in first and fifth. Going into that with two sets of the medium compound available for Nico, we had a safe two stints to the flag."