The Spa circuit may have a reputation for being one of the most challenging and exciting on the F1 calendar – but it didn’t do much for Anthony Davidson this year.
After a nightmare practice session, during which his car proved itself unequal to the challenge of the Belgian circuit, his team opted for radical changes to the set-up during qualifying – but they only made things worse.
Under the circumstances, a quiet race and a view of the chequered flag from down on the race track were about as good as Davidson could have hoped for.
Left on the back row with recent performance advances refusing to materialise, he chose to start from the pit lane and was doubtless satisfied to finish 16th with a fastest lap time of 1:51.391, put in on the final race lap.
Team-mate Takuma Sato managed to bring his car home 15th with a fastest lap time around half a second faster.
Speaking after the race, Davidson said: “It was a pretty uneventful race for me. I had to start from the pitlane after feeling a problem on the front end of the car on the out lap, so that was a shame.
“But I caught up with the back of the pack and really fought hard on my one-stop strategy to make the most of it, and I think we did.
“I was stuck on the prime tyre for longer than I wanted and just as the options came into the working window. From then on I just had to bring the car home.
“It was good to see our strategy pay off and I think that we’ve learnt a lot from this weekend and will move forward for the last three races.”
Super Aguri’s sporting director Graham Taylor added: “Given the Saturday that we had, today was going to be all about working hard to produce a standard race and both drivers stuck to their task.
“Anthony reported an ill-handling car on the way to the grid, so we opted to change the set-up and start from the pitlane. We put both drivers on what we believe were the best strategies today and I think that we got the best out of the cars that we could.
“The team did a great job in the pitstops and once again our reliability was good.”