Hamilton wins in Spa as Lotus gets podium
Sweet sixth victory for Lewis Hamilton, who won the Belgian Grand Prix in a dominant fashion and extended his championship lead over Nico Rosberg to 28 points.
It was also Hamilton’s 39th career win, and reached 80 podium finishes to join the all-time rankings in fourth place (equalling Ayrton Senna). Only Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost and Fernando Alonso have more.
P2 came Nico Rosberg for the Silver Arrows, and P3 was a very emotional and brilliant Romain Grosjean, who achieved Lotus’ first podium since November 2013.
"It has the feel of a race win." said Grosjean afterwards. "Every time I start in Spa, I remember 2012… but it made me stronger. It helped me to be who I am today."
The number eight Lotus was tangled in the battle for the last place in the podium with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who raced his 150th GP; however, during Lap 42 and under pressure for Grosjean, the long Ferrari stint came at a price and a tyre blowout meant Seb’s retirement from the race. He was clearly unhappy about it.
"Things like that are not allowed, if that happened 200m earlier, I’m not standing here right now." Vettel insisted this is "unacceptable", and both Mercedes drivers agreed on the German’s side to it. Time for Pirelli to face new criticism, it seems.
Following the podium drivers, it was a great fourth place for Russian driver Daniil Kvyat, who overtook whatever stood in front during the latter part of the race in a great showing. Then came Sergio Perez, Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen (who started 16th), Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas.
9th placed Verstappen had the move of the race, going on the outside of Blanchimont to overtake Felipe Nasr. Bold and extremely brave.
RACE RESULTS
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:23:40.387
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, +2.058s
3. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, +37.988s
4. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Racing, +45.692s
5. Sergio Perez, Force India, +53.997s
6. Felipe Massa, Williams, +55.283s
7. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, +55.703s
8. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, +56.076s
9. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, +61.040s
10. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, +91.234s