Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel will form an all-Ferrari second row, with the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo in fifth.
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Spa-Francorchamps: A victorious Nico Rosberg had no idea where his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton had finished in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix until he studied the results after finishing the race.
The race was halted in the early stages when Dane Kevin Magnussen crashed heavily, but he limped away from his wrecked Renault auto with only a damaged ankle.
Formula 1: Mark Webber thought it would be a standard interview with fellow Australian Dan Ricciardo, it wasn?t the case.
Dutch teenager and local hero Max Verstappen was second to become the youngest front-row starter in Formula One history ahead of Finn Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari.
Re-live the action in the blog below! “Seriously?’ But I didn’t know until after the race where he was”. Fernando Alonso, who will also serve a hefty engine penalty – the size of which will be determined on Sunday morning – will join Hamilton on the final row. Hamilton is not expected to take part in qualifying beyond Q1 in order to save fresh sets of tyres for the race.
Rosberg insisted that he didn’t know that Hamilton was up to fifth by the red flag period, despite having got out of his auto and walked back down the pitlane during the break.
Given this, Mercedes took the opportunity to make multiple power unit changes – meaning a further and meaningless 25-place drop in a race of 22 cars – with a view to keeping Hamilton’s engine in good shape for the rest of the season.
“It has been a great weekend and I am very happy with that result of course”, said Rosberg. “The penalties for Lewis made things easier for me today – but he will be back in the battle for the win again next weekend, which will be exciting”.
“To come out with a clean race like I did and only lose 10 points and have three new engines, it’s a super bonus”, said the Briton.
Instead, Hamilton stayed out on track on his medium tires – which could go longer into the race than what those that his competitors were on could – allowing him to pick up positions under the Safety Car.
“To come away with the points we have today, I’m extremely proud of everyone”.
Hamilton said: “A big thank you to this crowd, they have been incredible and a big thank you to everyone for supporting me”. “It was a great weekend that ended with a wonderful race”.
But despite starting P1 to Hamilton’s P21, Rosberg could only shave 10 points off his team-mate’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship.
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The Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa rounded off the top ten in eighth and tenth.
