The fact we have six components of an engine I don’t think it’s great.
Advertisement
Add to that the extremely warm temperatures this weekend – the mercury boiled over at 35 degrees on Saturday – and Hamilton’s chances of becoming the first driver to win from the back of the pack in Formula One history appears bleak. “So, it all came together and it was feeling good so I am very pleased about that one”.
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.
Although Ferrari looked uncompetitive on Friday, they have turned things around overnight and Raikkonen was only 0.166secs off Rosberg’s pace in qualifying – and just 0.017secs slower than Verstappen.
Hamilton was aided by the collision between Max Verstappen, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel at the start, meaning all three were behind him at the end of lap one.
Hamilton was up to fifth by the time the race was red-flagged after nine laps following a huge accident to Renault’s Kevin Magnussen.
Rosberg believes other than the start, a red-flag period to fix barrier damage after a hefty shunt for Renault’s Kevin Magnussen at Eau Rouge and subsequent safety auto restart, he had the race under control.
The sport held its breath with Magnussen’s auto buried in the wall, but the Dane was able to walk away from his destroyed Renault albeit with a limp.
The safety vehicle was initially deployed, but damage sustained to the tyre barrier meant the race was suspended to allow for further repairs.
“We really made quite a few changes on the vehicle going into qualifying and we found the right way”.
But with only 22 competitors, Hamilton will start no lower than the 21st place in which he qualified. “Seriously?’ But I didn’t know until after the race where he was”.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull completed the podium line-up, finishing behind Rosberg.
Hamilton will start from the back alongside two-time champion Fernando Alonso of McLaren, who also collected multiple penalties for fitting new power units.
Advertisement
After the restart, he fought past Alonso and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg to take the final place on the podium behind Rosberg and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. It has been a remarkable day and a great race, ‘ he said. The team did an incredible job this weekend.
