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.
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Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari recovered from a first-corner collision with his own team-mate Kimi Raikkonen to take sixth ahead of Fernando Alonso, who had started 22nd on the grid.
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.
Nico Rosberg won an incident-packed Belgian Grand Prix featuring a chaotic start, wild overtaking, a heavy crash, safety cars and a red flag.
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.
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.
With the tyre barrier destroyed, the race was then suspended with further repairs carried out.
“So I came out of Eau Rouge with a decent gap between me and those cars ahead because they all looked like they were going a bit insane”. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo – who is now playing second fiddle to Verstappen – starts the race from fifth spot.
“I just had an awesome vehicle out there and Lewis was not there to battle it out so that made it a less-difficult weekend”, Rosberg said.
I honestly didn’t know what was going to happen in this race.
Rosberg, who cruised to his sixth victory of the season, was happy to win on Formula One’s return to action.
Soaring temperatures proved problematic for a number of drivers, with Rosberg and Hamilton among those to report issues with their tyres as a result.
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.
While applauding Hamilton for “a great job to come all the way through”, Rosberg also expressed amazement at how far his teammate had progressed.
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“It’s great to break records, but I want to break other records”, he said in the matter-of-fact style that underlines his cool temperament. “Sure, I’m aware of it, but he had the big disadvantage at the weekend”.
