The German beat Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull), while Championship leader Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), climbed from 21st to 3rd place.
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Race victor Nico Rosberg claimed he was surprised with the performance of his team-mate and title rival Lewis Hamilton in a thrillingly chaotic Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.
With the tyre barrier destroyed, the race was then suspended with further repairs carried out.
Magnussen lost control of his Renault coming out of the top of the hill at Eau Rouge, spinning at speed and slamming backward into the barriers.
Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was a season’s best fourth ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, while Fernando Alonso was seventh for McLaren. “I can’t say right now what the plan is – the team will know already what’s best and we’ll discuss that later”.
With Nico Rosberg securing his sixth win of the season, the result has narrowed the gap between Hamilton and him to nine points in the championship standings.
“I just had an awesome auto and Lewis wasn’t there to battle it out, which made it a less hard weekend”.
Rosberg returns to the top of the table if he wins in Belgium and Hamilton finishes in eighth position or lower.
Lewis Hamilton is preparing for a tough Sunday slog in sweltering conditions as he bids to claw his way through the field at the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix.
The rise of the Championship leader was expected, but not to this extent: the British, besides flawless tire management in the heatwave, has benefited from many early race incidents that have put offside several top names, starting with Max. The Danish driver walked away from the incident with a slight limp and was whisked away to the medical center to be checked out.
Dutch teenager and local hero Max Verstappen was second to become the youngest front-row starter in Formula One history ahead of Finn Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari.
Nico Hulkenberg drove a great race to finish in fourth position and just missed the podium after a Hamilton comeback.
Hamilton said: “I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who supported me today”. “We’ve had a pretty hard weekend up to now, especially this morning, so I am happy we have got the job done”, said Rosberg. “Our performance today was stronger than I expected”. It’s been already an fantastic weekend.
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“I’m all up for fair battles and close racing”, an exasperated Raikkonen said after the race, adding that Verstappen’s racing style is “not correct” because his aggressive driving could have caused a “big accident”. “It was cool. We took damage on the first corner but came back out and it was a race by myself but to keep Lewis behind was great”.
