Belgian GP: Hamilton takes sixth win of 2015

After the calamities of the Hungarian GP, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes got back to winning ways at the Belgian GP at Spa, with teammate Nico Rosberg finishing second.

Starting on pole, Hamilton benefited from his German rival having a shoddy getaway at the lights to retain his lead, though he was forced to hold off a strong challenge from the fast-starting Sergio Perez on the opening lap to stay in front.

The poor start from Rosberg saw him drop from second to fifth, and though he made is way back up to second with a third of the race gone, he couldn’t catch Hamilton, who duly took his sixth win of the 2015 F1 season, while Romain Grosjean finished an excellent third for Lotus, benefiting from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel suffering from a puncture on the penultimate lap.

Daniil Kvyat continued his good form to finish fourth, though it was disappointment for his Red-Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who was forced to retire midway through the race while running fifth.

Perez managed to finish a solid fifth for Force India, narrowly ahead of Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen. Valterri Bottas had to settle for ninth after a bizarre pit-stop mistake saw him fitted with a wrong tyre, while Marcus Ericsson picked up the final point in tenth.

After the extraordinary race at Hungary four weeks ago which saw neither Mercedes driver make it onto the podium, this race at the famous Spa circuit in Belgium represented a degree of normality as Hamilton and Rosberg finished first and second, although there was plenty of incident along the way.

A lot had been made beforehand about Hamilton’s poor starts in recent races, but on this occasion the Brit finally got his start right, whereas Rosberg went backwards as he bogged down at the lights, allowing Perez, Ricciardo and Bottas to fly past.

By the end of the first round of pit-stops, Rosberg had got himself back up to second, but he was over eight seconds behind Hamilton, and though he pulled that back to around three seconds mid-way though the race, Hamilton was able to find an extra gear from thereon to take the win comfortably.

Behind them, it seemed that the unusually off the pace Vettel had managed to pull off a great result by taking third after making only one stop while everybody else had made two, but his worn tyres gave up with a lap and half to go, meaning he failed to score any points, and putting him 67 points behind Hamilton in the driver’s standings. With eight races to go, his title ambitions are probably over.

Vettel’s misfortune allowed Grosjean to score his first podium since 2013 after a superb drive in which he had started ninth. His luckless teammate Pastor Maldonado however was forced to retire with car trouble on lap two whilst running seventh.

Kvyat’s fourth place and Ricciardo’s early-race form proved that Red-Bull are heading in the right direction, while Force India could also be happy with the performance of their car after Perez finished fifth. His teammate Nico Hulkenberg was unable to start the race due to mechanical issues.

Elsewhere it was a disappointing race for Ferrari, with Raikkonen’s seventh place the only thing they had to show for their efforts, while the Williams cars were unusually slow throughout the race, hence Massa and Bottas could only finish sixth and ninth respectively. And despite some apparent engine upgrades, McLaren-Honda remained well off the pace, with Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button finishing well outside the points.

After the four-week summer break, F1 is now back in full swing, with the Italian GP at Monza next on the horizon in a fortnight’s time. There are still eight races to go, but with Hamilton’s lead over Rosberg in the driver’s standings now up to 28 points, things are looking increasingly good for the Brit as he bids to secure a third world title. Rosberg is still in the hunt, but he needs to start beating Hamilton on a regular basis sooner rather than later if he is to have a chance of claiming his first championship this year.