Nico Rosberg seized pole position for Sunday’s Belgian Formula One Grand Prix with a lap that was only just fast enough to guarantee him top spot at the end of a close-run qualifying session.
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“It’s been a great weekend, very, very happy with that result”, Rosberg said after his 20th career win and first in Spa.
The race had to be red flagged for barrier repairs after Kevin Magnussen’s Renault crashed into a tire wall outside Turn 4, allowing both Alonso and Hamilton another opportunity to gain more ground on the restart.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo finished second.
Verstappen became the youngest driver to win a race with a brilliant victory at the Spanish GP in May; but his aggression is not to everyone’s liking.
As a result, with eight races remaining starting at this week’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the final European event of the year, Hamilton leads with 232 points to Rosberg’s 223.
The Briton has always been aware he would have to take engine-related penalties at some point this year after suffering a spate of reliability woes earlier in the season. “Congrats to Lewis. From last place to third must have been pretty impressive”.
“But in general, I had everything under control because I just had an awesome vehicle out there, and Lewis wasn’t there to battle it out, which made it a less-difficult weekend”.
Rosberg insisted that he didn’t know that Hamilton was up to fifth by the red flag period, despite having got out of his vehicle and walked back down the pitlane during the break.
“I’m confident of fighting with these three, and I can definitely push them more”, he said.
German Vettel eventually finished sixth, with Raikkonen of Finland ninth, while Verstappen was 13th, much to the disappointment of thousands of the Dutchman’s fans thronging the circuit.
When the rest of the field chose to pit, it meant that Hamilton managed to restart the race in a far better position than he might have been in otherwise.
Ricciardo said: “If we have a clean race and we don’t get held up by anyone who shouldn’t be in front of us, I don’t think we’ll see Lewis in the mirrors”.
The incident involving Magnussen capped a remarkable start to F1’s first race since the summer break – but Hamilton was unruffled and emerged in podium contention by the time the safety vehicle had been called.
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Ferrari duo Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel qualified third and fourth respectively, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. “I don’t think it will make a big difference after this”.
