Belgian Grand Prix: ‘Hamilton third?

“After the chequered flag I looked at the results,” said Belgian Grand Prixrace-winner Nico Rosberg. “I knew Daniel [Ricciardo] was behind me and then I saw ‘HAM’ in P3 and I was like, ‘What? Seriously?!” The German, still in his champagne-soaked racing overalls an hour and a half or so after the race, was smiling. Rosberg took the comfortable win that seemed inevitable once it had become clear team-mate Lewis Hamilton would be dropped down the grid because of a series of engine penalties this weekend. But few people - least of all Hamilton himself expected the world champion to recover to third place on what was one of the more difficult weekends for Mercedes this year. A combination of hot temperatures and fragile tyres run at what many drivers, including Hamilton, agreed were “ridiculously” high pressures ensured that this race was harder for Mercedes than anyone thought it would be. So for the Briton to come back through the field to third from 21st on the grid was a remarkable achievement. It was a weekend when Hamilton might reasonably have expected to come away with his championship lead wiped out. So to lose only 10 points, with his lead reduced to nine, was a “super-bonus”, as he put it. If Rosberg was disappointed, he hid it well. He joked with reporters during his news conference and brushed off suggestions that he might have been thinking about heading to this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix in a better position. “That’s not what I’m focusing on,” Rosberg said. “I came here to the Belgian Grand Prix and wanted to win it. The opposition was unusually close this weekend - not eventually in the race but leading up to that. I’m just happy it worked out. Perfect weekend for me.” He was “very surprised” by Hamilton’s result, he said, but praised what he said must have been a “great job”. And he cheekily brought up the controversial battle between Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen, cleverly making his views clear without actually saying them outright. All in all, it was a richly entertaining race weekend to start a hectic climax to the season, with eight races in 12 weeks. It brought together narratives on the title battle, notably Verstappen’s unsettling effect on his more experienced rivals, simmering discontent with F1’s Pirelli tyres and what appears to be a clock ticking down on Jenson Button’s future.