“At that point [at the red flag] I was already in the points, which was great, so it was just a case of seeing what I could get”, Hamilton added. Esteban Gutierrez (Haas), 19.
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The running order at that stage was Rosberg ahead of Ricciardo, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, Alonso and Hamilton, with Vettel 11th, Verstappen 16th and Raikkonen 17th.
As pole-sitter Rosberg raced out in front and never looked back Hamilton weaved his way through the field in what turned out to be an eventual first few laps that saw, Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen all collide at the first corner and suffer c ar damage.
“I know how he races so I can adapt to that”, said Rosberg who was controversially penalised at the last race in Germany for a passing move on Verstappen which was deemed illegal by the stewards.
Kimi Raikkonen clipped his Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel, sending the German spinning and dropping him to last.
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.
The others failing to reach Q2 were Esteban Ocon – on his F1 debut for the Manor team – Felipe Nasr, Marcus Ericsson and Daniil Kvyat. We chose to start the race with Soft tires, if you can make them work it will make a massive difference, we’ll see how the race will pan out but I think our plan will be fine.
All three had to come into the pits for repairs, with the Ferrari team also having to put out a fire under Raikkonen’s auto as he was fitted with a new wing.
Hamilton, who was meanwhile up to third on lap 18 after overtaking Alonso and Huelkenberg, pitted on lap 22 of the 44 laps with soft tyres, and again on lap 33 with medium.
This was a tale of two races really: one in the first nine laps of utter carnage, before a slightly more subdued affair following the red flag for Kevin Magnussen’s horrific shunt. Elsewhere, Jenson Button was 13th for McLaren with British rookie Jolyon Palmer 18th. After four laps behind a Safety Car, the race was red flagged so marshals could fix the damaged wall.
In a fascinating sub-plot, Verstappen and Raikkonen were involved in another incident as Verstappen appeared to nudge him wide.
Then, Verstappen zig-zagged in front of him as he tried to hold position, prompting Raikkonen to use an expletive when describing Verstappen’s driving as “ridiculous”.
A slow pitstop three laps later dropped Hamilton to ninth, but as those ahead made their stops soon afterwards he rose back into the top three behind Rosberg and Ricciardo.
“This is the best result I could have hoped for”, said Hamilton, who said on Saturday that he was aiming for a top-10 finish. It was definitely a weird qualifying session for me.
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Er, safety? Gents? That was Mercedes’ third win at Spa.
