“It’s going to be a very challenging race because the tyres are extremely hard”. While Rosberg did everything he needed to do by winning in Spa, Hamilton’s third place finish means the gap between both drivers stands at nine points ahead of next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.
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In addition to Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Esteban Gutierrez and Marcus Ericsson have also been handed grid penalties.
When the rest of the field made a decision to pit, it meant that Hamilton managed to restart the race in a far better position than he might have been in otherwise.
By then he had too much to do to catch Ricciardo but succeeded in limiting the damage to his title bid.
The German racer led the Grand Prix from start to finish after qualifying on pole, collecting maximum points. All this by lap eight and with Alonso and Hamilton already in fourth and fifth.
Hamilton’s grid penalties increased to 55 places after Mercedes had further engine changes, following those made during Friday’s practice.
But with only 22 competitors, Hamilton will start no lower than the 21st place in which he qualified.
Nico Rosberg says he was shocked to see Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton make the Belgian Grand Prix podium and only realised how high up Hamilton was when he checked the results after the race.
“It’s been a great weekend, very happy of course”, Rosberg said.
“I am aware of that, but he had the big disadvantage at the weekend”.
After chaotic opening lap of the race saw the Ferrari’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel collide with Max Verstappen before Renault’s Kevin Magnussen crashed into the tyre wall at Eau Rouge.
However, Hamilton holds on to his lead in the drivers’ championship by nine points following this somewhat unexpected result.
First, a slow-starting Verstappen was gobbled up by the Ferrari duo of Vettel and Raikkonen before Vettel turned into his teammate with Raikkonen then bumping into Verstappen.
“We had a hard weekend up to now, especially this morning”.
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“I was a bit nervous but we set a target, and I knew if we did a [1m] 48.0, like I did, it should be safe”, he said. I think today I was on it, I was sharp. The Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenburg were next, with the top 10 rounded off by Valtteri Bottas, Jenson Button and Felipe Massa.
