Rosberg Clinches Victory At The Belgian GP; Hamilton Still Leads

The Belgian GP turned out to be a very eventful one with a number of incidents and accidents that spanned throughout the 44-lap race. An early crash, which involved front row dweller Max Verstappen, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, led these three to a lap-one pit-stop. However, Nico Rosberg capitalised on his early lead, which he maintained till the end of the race, gaining important championship points. Behind him was Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who seemed quite satisfied with his consecutive second spot finish. Third, and probably the most remarkable finish, was Hamilton’s. 

The Briton started off on the last row of the grid and climbed up till he made his position clear on the podium. Hamilton’s endeavour has earned him fifteen points in the race. taking his total 232 points, which is a tad bit ahead of Rosberg’s 223. 

The accidents kept on unfurling as the race progressed, such as Carlos Sainz’s rear tyre blow-out as he was racing on the Kemmel Straight, landing him into elimination. A similar fate met Jenson Button and Pascal Wehrlein after the latter bumped into the back of Button's McLaren.  

Then again, the race was red flagged after Kevin Magnussen went into a high-speed crash at the renowned Eau Rouge (a series of left-right-left turn at the Circuit de Spa, which often land drivers into trouble). Magnussen sustained a broken ankle and the race was stopped until the track was secured of the rubble from the crash. However, as soon as the race resumed on lap 11, Hamilton carried his massive gain – of the fifth position from fifteenth by lap nine – to the third place finish.

Meanwhile, Rosberg was busy extending his lead over Ricciardo and had taken it to an astounding 14.1 sec over the Australian by the time the chequered flag was waved. Back in the order, Hamilton was able to pass Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg. However, Hamilton was briefly behind Hulkenberg after his late pit-stop but was eventually able to pass him to regain the third place.

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Hulkenberg has equalled his best-ever F1 result by finishing fourth, though, he is yet to achieve his first ever podium finish. His teammate, Sergio Perez, accompanied him on the fifth position to bring the Force India team on the fourth place in the constructor’s standings, ahead of Williams team.

Finishing sixth was Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel ahead of Fernando Alonso, as he was able to make the most of the day after the race resumed after the red flag.

Valtteri Bottas was able to finish eighth, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in ninth and Felipe Massa at the tenth position.