Amidst the chaos and carnage of an exhilarating Belgian Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo kept his cool to finish a strong second behind Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, with Lewis Hamilton third.
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After chaotic opening lap of the race saw the Ferrari’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel collide with Max Verstappen before Renault’s Kevin Magnussen crashed into the tyre wall at Eau Rouge.
That elevated Ricciardo, starting fifth, to second and the Australian kept that place until the end, crossing the line 14.1 seconds behind the triumphant Rosberg.
All this by lap eight and with Alonso and Hamilton already in fourth and fifth.
First, a slow-starting Verstappen was gobbled up by the Ferrari duo of Vettel and Raikkonen before Vettel turned into his teammate with Raikkonen then bumping into Verstappen.
“The championship has been bouncing a bit in both directions and it is going to go long in the season before we know which way it is going to go”.
Magnussen was led away limping with an ankle injury, his vehicle wrecked, while the safety auto came out.
Hamilton charged through the field and was chasing hard for second place when he ran out of laps.
The sport held its breath with Magnussen’s vehicle buried in the wall, but the Dane was able to walk away from his destroyed Renault albeit with a limp.
Webber was interviewing the top three after Sunday’s race when Ricciardo, known for his zany humor, took off one of his racing shoes and asked Webber to drink some Champagne out of it.
Thanks to a red-flag situation caused by Kevin Magnussen driving his Renault into a wall, the red flag was deployed and the race was even suspended for a short time right after in order to fix the severly damaged wall.
The 15-minute suspension enforced a clean start, with Hamilton looking like a potential race victor all of a sudden.
On lap 12 he swept past Alonso, and six laps later he was in a podium position after easing past the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg.
The pause allowed the teams to pit their cars for a rolling re-start behind the Safety Car, Rosberg taking medium tyres and most others, including Alonso and Hamilton, taking softs.
Nevertheless, Hamilton, who predicted he would struggle to score a single point on Saturday night, will be ecstatic to leave here having lost only 10 points to his championship rival.
“After the chequered flag I looked at the results”, said the German. But this comeback ranks easily alongside his previous best efforts when he took his McLaren from 24th on the grid to eighth in Barcelona – that without the advantage his current Mercedes enjoys – and after a fire during qualifying at Hungary in 2014 was followed by a courageous and determined drive to claim third place.
Hamilton said: “A big thank you to this crowd, they have been incredible and a big thank you to everyone for supporting me”.
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Meanwhile, Hamilton said he was “proud” of the way the team manage his three pre-planned engine changes this weekend.
