Hamilton marks 200th race with win in Belgium
spa-francorchamps — Briton Lewis Hamilton marked his 200th Formula One race by holding off championship rival Sebastian Vettel, to win the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Mercedes driver, who had equalled legend Michael Schumacher’s record of 68 pole positions earlier on Saturday, clinched the 44-lap race at the famed Spa-Francorchamps Circuit, 2.3 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Vettel.
It was the three-time world champion’s fifth victory in 12 races this season and the 58th race win of his career. Pertinently, his victory slashed the gap to just seven points to championship leader Vettel.
Vettel is on 220 points, while Hamilton has 213. And with eight races remaining in the calendar, it promises to be a lip-smacking battle all the way down to the season finale in Abu Dhabi in November.
Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo finished third in what was an incident filled race.
Despite starting from pole and staying in the lead, Hamilton was unable to build a gap of more than two seconds to Vettel. Both drove flawlessly, adding thrill to the race, from the start to the chequered flag.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth after an interesting journey down to eighth place and back up. After Max Vertsappen’s retirement due to an engine failure on lap 10, Raikkonen was handed a 10-second stop-go penalty for speeding under double yellow flags, and an additional reprimand of three penalty points.
Meanwhile, for Dutchman Verstappen, who had more than 80,000 fans to support him at this race, the gutting retirement was the sixth out of 12 races so far.
Finishing fifth was Mercedes driver Valterri Bottas, who had started third on the grid, but lost out to Ricciardo and Raikkonen, who overtook him in a three-way fight at the Kemmel Straight.
In sixth place was Nico Hulkenberg, who claimed the highest ever finish for the Renault team. Haas’ driver Romain Grosjean finished seventh followed by Felipe Massa in eighth place. Force India’s Esteban Ocon finished ninth followed by Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz in 10th place.
For Ocon, the race got entertaining when his teammate Sergio Perez tried to squeeze him into the wall on lap 29. The Mexican clipped his teammate’s front wing and sustained a puncture on his right rear tyre after running over the debris. The two have had several run-ins with each other this season, with the last one being in Baku at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, further severing their relationship.
The incident was investigated with no further action taken, but it brought the Safety Car out due to the debris all over the track. The Safety Car period lasted from lap 30 to 33.
Perez eventually had to retire from the race, with two laps left to go, due to damage sustained from the incident. Apart from him and Verstappen, the other two retirements were that of Pascal Wehrlein and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.
Although this power-hungry track suited the Mercedes more than the Ferraris, the tyre choices played to the advantage of the scarlet outfit. The next race at Monza in Italy is a home-track for the Ferrari drivers, who will have a huge advantage over the rest.