There have been races I’ve done where I’ve needed something like that and it’s not happened and it’s been a real tough fight from the back.
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The Briton is set to start Sunday’s race dead last after being hit with a cumulative 55-place grid penalty and, like Friday, spent most of the session on refining his Mercedes’ long-run pace. Simple moves on Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg followed as the world champion became the first driver in the history of the famous race to finish in the top three after starting from such a lowly grid position.
“It’s frustrating to have to end the race like this, but I will keep fighting and forget today as quickly as possible”. Knowing he would be at the back regardless, the team sensibly opted to save his rubber for Sunday, when it could be vital in coming back through the field.
By then he had too much to do to catch Ricciardo but succeeded in limiting the damage to his title bid. This, on a long and difficult seven-kilometer (four-mile) track where the unexpectedly high heat is causing havoc with tires pumped up to rock-hard pressure. “But really pleased to get the win”.
Rosberg, meanwhile, took his sixth win of the campaign and first since June. “Red Bull was very quick”. “It’s such a great motivation”. “I am very happy with it”.
Yet Rosberg would have hoped to be within touching distance, if not ahead of Hamilton, following his penalty. “The fact that we have six components to an engine, I don’t think it’s great”.
The previous youngest was Mexican Ricardo Rodriguez, who qualified second for Ferrari at the 1961 Italian GP, aged 19. Vettel finished sixth, Alonso seventh, while Valtteri Bottas put the first of the Williams in eighth place.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo split the Mercedes drivers following another exemplary performance.
Ted Kravitz gives his thoughts on a thrilling Belgian Grand Prix.
“It’s all (in) the last corner”, an unhappy Vettel said after qualifying.
Vettel later explained his outburst, saying: “I was a bit upset because I was expecting more”.
The three-time world champion had been forced to start at the back following a raft of engine changes, but made a sensational charge to not only get himself in among the points, but sat, remarkably, in fifth position.
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The Briton, victor of six of the last seven races leading up to the Belgian round, still leads the championship but by a narrower nine-point margin with eight of a record 21 races still to run.
