With Nico Rosberg securing his sixth win of the season, the result has narrowed the gap between Hamilton and him to nine points in the championship standings.
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Teammate and championship rival Nico Rosberg won the race in comfortable style, with Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo taking second. “Congrats to Lewis, last place to third must be pretty impressive”.
Nico Rosberg has downplayed Lewis Hamilton’s stockpile of engines, saying he doubts it will give the British racer the advantage in their title battle. Hamilton started from the back row with Fernando Alonso, after both incurred multiple grid penalties for extra engine part changes this weekend.
Pole-sitter Rosberg retained his lead on the short run down to the La Source hairpin, but utter chaos broke out behind him. An early crash, which involved front row dweller Max Verstappen, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, led these three to a lap-one pit-stop.
Although overtaken by Alonso, Hamilton was still up to 15th by the end of lap one as Verstappen, Nasr, Vettel, Button and Raikkonen all pitted with damage.
The incidents prompted the safety auto to come out on lap three, and when the race re-started a lap later Sainz, Marcus Ericsson, Jenson Button and Pascal Wehrlein – who hit Button from behind – had all retired.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz lost control when his rear right tire blew out, sending him pirouetting to an improvised halt on the grass.
With debris scattered across the track, the virtual safety auto was deployed to slow the field down with Hamilton in 13th. He was later taken to hospital with an ankle injury and will certainly be a doubt for the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Hamilton actually admitted that he thought he had a good chance of winning after the red flag opened the race up with just nine laps gone.
The Guardian’s Giles Richards declared the race one of Hamilton’s most impressive writing: ‘This comeback ranks easily alongside his previous best: when he took his McLaren from 24th on the grid to eighth in Barcelona – without the advantage his current Mercedes enjoys – and after a fire during qualifying at Hungary in 2014 forced a pit lane start, followed by a courageous, considered and determined drive to claim third place.
Hamilton’s podium finish from 21st on the grid was a record for the circuit on a day of serial incidents, accidents and collisions. He pitted again for a final time with 12 laps remaining, but was unable to close the gap on either Ricciardo or Rosberg, and crossed the line almost 30 seconds adrift of his Mercedes team-mate.
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“We prepared ourselves in a way that we hoped that we would get some points, but one of my guys took me up to the Paddock Club today [before the race] and I was like “I might not finish today”, said Hamilton. The team did an incredible job.
