Hamilton on top in Belgian GP
“It worked out perfect. It was great to go into turn five, having just done enough. He was able to get way too close. It was only just enough to stay ahead.
SPA-FRANORCHAMPS, Belgium (AP): FOR A brief moment, Lewis Hamilton feared he had lost the Belgian Grand Prix yesterday.
Sebastian Vettel, on quicker tires with about 10 laps to go, drove up right alongside him on a long straight, and Hamilton thought “this might be it.”
But the British driver fended off his rival heading into the corner.
“It worked out perfect. It was great to go into turn five, having just done enough,” Hamilton said. “He was able to get way too close. It was only just enough to stay ahead.”
After that, Vettel never got another chance to pass Hamilton and conceded some ground in the title race.
Hamilton’s third Spa win helped him trim championship leader Vettel’s advantage over him to seven points, with eight races left in what is shaping up to be a nailbiting finish.
Hamilton’s fifth win this season was his 58th overall, having equalled Michael Schumacher’s pole position record of 68 in Saturday’s qualifying.
Vettel finished about two seconds behind Hamilton.
“I was waiting for Lewis to make a mistake and he didn’t,” the German driver said. “I’m not entirely happy.”
The track was more suited to Mercedes than Ferrari, and Hamilton said improvement can still be made.
“This weekend we definitely didn’t have the race pace. The car is not quite where we need it,” said Hamilton, who was competing in his 200th GP. “It was only just enough to stay ahead.”
Four-time F1 champion Vettel has 220 points to three-time champion Hamilton’s 213 heading into next weekend’s Italian GP in Monza.
“The positive thing is that we had really good race pace,” Vettel said.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo finished third — for his sixth podium of the season — ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, with Hamilton’s teammate, Valtteri Bottas, fifth.