In the first race back from the mid-season F1 break, Nico Rosberg won the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix, snapping a four-race skid that saw him relinquish the points lead to Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.
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Hamilton’s 60-place grid penalty was mainly a result of taking three new power units, leaving him with more available than Rosberg is due to have this season, but the German does not see it as an advantage for his team-mate.
“We had a hard weekend until qualifying”, Rosberg said, “Especially, this morning we were thinking that we were off the pace a bit”. We got the job done, having made some changes to the vehicle before qualifying.
Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel will form an all-Ferrari second row, with the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo in fifth.
Meanwhile, Hamilton will have company at the back of the grid, with another world champion, Fernando Alonso, also incurring a huge number of engine penalties this weekend.
Rosberg started Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix from pole position and spent must of the race off into the distance. I’m very pleased to be second in front of my fans. “Lewis starting at the back made it a lot easier and I’m sure he will back at Monza”.
“If I had a choice of tracks to start dead last and overtake this is definitely not in the top three”, said Hamilton, who posted one compulsory lap in qualifying on Saturday before watching the remaining action unfold with his feet up in the team’s hospitality suite.
Verstappen is the only driver of that leading group who will start the race on super-soft tyres, and Ricciardo believes his team-mate has taken the riskier strategy.
At the age of 18 years and 331 days, Verstappen passed the record of previous youngest front-row starter Ricardo Rodriguez at the 1961 Italian Grand Prix, when he was 19 years and 208 days.
The incident involving Magnussen capped a remarkable start to F1’s first race since the summer break – but Hamilton was unruffled and emerged in podium contention by the time the safety vehicle had been called.
Despite the need to make up ground at the start, Hamilton revealed he took a low-risk approach to an opening lap which witnessed a first-corner clash between the two Ferraris and Max Verstappen.
“If I had known this was going to happen, I would have had an even better summer”, said Hamilton.
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Valtteri Bottas was eighth for Williams ahead of Raikkonen and Brazilian Felipe Massa.
