Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo won an incident-packed Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, while Nico Rosberg was second to extend his championship lead over Mercedes teammate lewis Hamilton in acrimonious circumstances. Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas was third.
The increasingly strained relations at Mercedes look set to get even worse after Rosberg effectively ended Hamilton’s race chances with a risky overtaking move that saw him clip and puncture the Briton’s left tire.Rosberg, who finished 3.3 seconds behind Ricciardo, was jeered by the Spa crowd when he stepped on to the podium.
“It’s not my position to comment on it at all because I haven’t seen it,” Rosberg said of the incident. “Of course it’s very disappointing from a team’s perspective. We could have done a lot better than just finish in second place with the car we have.”Hamilton retired with five laps remaining after his team noticed some further degradation and he appeared to blame Rosberg after the race. “I’m sure he’ll leave here happy,” Hamilton told the BBC.
Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff called the situation “absolutely unacceptable” and blamed Rosberg. “You don’t try to overtake with the knife between your teeth in lap number two and damage both cars,” he told BBC sport. “lewis is very upset. We kept him out there for a long time with a damaged car. He’ll recover quickly. It’s going to be handled.”
Rosberg looked visibly uncomfortable in the post-race news conference when asked to respond to Wolff’s comments. “I respect their opinion,” Rosberg said. “The inside was blocked and I gave it a go on the outside.”
It was a second straight win for Ricciardo after victory at the Hungarian GP last month and the third of an impressive season. The Australian continues to outshine his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel, who finished fifth behind Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
Rosberg extended his lead over Hamilton from 11 points to 29, while Ricciardo is 35 points behind Hamilton. Showing remarkable consistency, Bottas secured a fourth podium in the past five races.
Rosberg started from pole for the fourth straight race, but Hamilton and Vettel got past the German on turn 1. Then, as Hamilton fixed his racing line, Rosberg tried to pass him on the outside but his front wing hit Hamilton’s left side, also damaging Rosberg’s car. “Nico hit me, Nico hit me,” an exasperated Hamilton said over the race radio.
The two drivers have clashed throughout the season. In Hungary, Hamilton refused team orders to let Rosberg past.At the Monaco GP in May, Hamilton was incensed when Rosberg surprisingly crashed late in qualifying when under no pressure, leading to a safety car coming out and squandering Hamilton’s chances of securing pole position.
Still, Rosberg is optimistic the situation will be resolved. “I’m confident that we can. It’s always going to be an intense battle and there will always be difficult moments. I’m sure we’re going to have to discuss today,” he said. “We had a very good discussion after Hungary. It was reviewed and clarified.”
Hamilton had qualified on the front row for the first time in six races.
But once again the 2008 champion needed to carve his way back through the field, just like in the previous two GPS — Hungary and Germany — where he qualified 20th and 22nd due to technical problems.
First points for Perez but Force India slide further
Sergio Perez scored his first points at the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix but that couldn’t prevent Sahara Force India from slipping to sixth place in the team standings. A ninth place finish for Perez resulted in two points for Force India, taking their tally to 100 after 12 rounds but they lost a place in the constructors’ championship in the first race post the summer break. Nico Hulkenberg missed out on a point by three tenths of a second.