Eau Rouge and Raidillon

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This is one of the most famous and challenging corners on any race track in the world.  This is Eau Rouge at Spa-Francorchamps taken yesterday afternoon during the track walk before the FIA World Endurance Championship event which begins today in Belgium.


The most famous part of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit is the Eau Rouge / Raidillon combination. Having negotiated the La Source hairpin, drivers race down a straight to the point where the track crosses the Eau Rouge stream for the first time, before being launched steeply uphill into a sweeping left-right-left collection of corners with a blind summit. Properly speaking, the Eau Rouge corner is only the left-hander at the bottom. The following right-hander that leads steeply uphill, which was introduced in 1939 to shortcut the original hairpin "Ancienne Douane", is called "Raidillon". The corner requires a large amount of skill from the driver to negotiate well and the long straight ahead often produces good overtaking opportunities for the best drivers at the following "Les Combes" corner. The corner was tighter and narrower on the old circuit than it is today on the current circuit, which made it considerably slower.

Round 2 of the FIA WEC will take place on Saturday 4 May.  For live streaming of the race visit www.fiawec.com

Images taken on a Nikon D800 with a Nikon 17-35mm f2.8

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