FORMULA ONE

Victorious Hamilton closes in on Vettel

LEWIS Hamilton celebrated his 200th Formula One race in style yesterday with a pole-to-flag Belgian Grand Prix victory for Mercedes that halved Sebastian Vettel’s championship lead to seven points.

The Briton’s fifth success in 12 races this season, and 58th of his career, came a day after he equalled Michael Schumacher’s alltime record of 68 pole positions.

“Sebastian put a great fight on but this is what I said I was coming to do so I did it,” Hamilton told the crowd from the podium.

Vettel finished second for Ferrari, 2.3 seconds behind, after pushing his rival all the way without being able to get close enough to make a move stick in what amounted to a twohorse race of relentless pressure. With eight races remaining, four-times champion Vettel has 220 points and Hamilton 213.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo took third place for Red Bull after a storming restart following a late safety car period that had closed the gap to the frontrunners and triggered a flurry of pitstops.

Ricciardo, on fresh ultrasoft tyres, passed Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas to surge into the top three, with the Finn also losing out to the Ferrari of compatriot Kimi Raikkonen as he ran wide. Germany’s Nico Hulkenberg finished sixth for Renault, Romain Grosjean seventh for Haas and Brazilian Felipe Massa eighth for Williams. — Reuters