Hamilton takes victory at Spa as Vettel suffers puncture in podium battle

Lewis Hamilton took a dominant victory at the Belgian Grand Prix for Mercedes, extending his championship advantage over team mate Nico Rosberg who made it a 1-2 finish for the Brackley team.

Rosberg had to fight back up to 2nd after a poor start with wheelspin off the line, which dropped him to 5th. The engineers on the pit wall played their cards well, and managed to get him out ahead of the pack after his first pit stop for 2nd place.

Romain Grosjean took his first podium finish since the US Grand Prix in 2013. The Frenchman battled up from 9th after receiving a gearbox penalty. He found himself in a battle with Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari in the latter stages of the race, himself recovering from a poor qualifying.

The two were on contrasting strategies, with Vettel only making one stop which meant his tyres were losing grip towards the end of the race. The German suffered a puncture on the Kemmel Straight on the penultimate lap which dropped him out of the points.

Daniil Kvyat was 4th, having been a man on a charge at the end of the race; passing Kimi Raikkonen in 7th, Felipe Massa in 6th and Sergio Perez in 5th within the final few laps. Perez struggled towards the end of the race, having shown very strong form in the early stages. A good getaway and the impressive straight line speed of the Force India meant he challenged Hamilton for the lead into Les Combe on the opening lap.

Max Verstappen was 8th having picked up his pace towards the end of the race. The Dutchman further demonstrated his overtaking ability, going side by side with Marcus Ericsson through Blanchimont before out-braking the Sauber driver into the Bus Stop chicane.

Valtteri Bottas showed good pace early on, but received a drive through penalty after his pit crew mixed the soft and medium tyres on his car. The Finn left the pits with three soft tyres, and one medium tyre on the right rear.

Marcus Ericsson crept into the top 10 after Vettel’s puncture, edging out his team mate Felipe Nasr for the final points paying position.

Nico Hulkenberg retired after complaining about a loss of power on the formation lap. The start was aborted to recover the Force India. Pastor Maldonado, Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz Jr. also retired.

#f1 #F1 #formula