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Lewis Hamilton wins Belgian Grand Prix in his 200th Formula One race to close title gap
Few, if any, of Lewis Hamilton’s 58 grand prix victories have been as hard-boiled as this. It was not the prettiest demonstration of his race-craft but it was surely among the most defiant, as he held off a charging Sebastian Vettel with a prize example of thou-shalt-not-pass frontrunning, halving his rival’s championship lead from 14 points to seven. “I told you what I was here for,” he said, after his fifth win this season reignited his exhilarating duel with the one driver able to hold a candle to his talent. “And I wasn’t leaving here without it.”
This was a weekend to reaffirm Hamilton’s stature as perhaps the finest British sportsman of his generation. While Andy Murray might reasonably take issue with that claim, the Scot spends his Sundays hitting a tennis ball, not hurling a delicately-tuned machine around the forested majesty of Spa, where a ride through the steepling Rivage generates G-forces more familiar to fighter pilots. “There are only three sports,” Ernest Hemingway once argued. “Bullfighting, motor racing and mountaineering. All the rest are merely games.”
As a personality, Hamilton continues to polarise, both by his esoteric fashion sense – he changed straight from his race overalls on Sunday into off-the-shoulder black dungarees bought on his latest trip to New York – and his mercurial mood swings. But in this chapter for Formula One, he is without peer. Just 24 hours after he had equalled Michael Schumacher’s 68 pole positions, he underlined his quicksilver racing instincts by thwarting Vettel despite carrying less pace and inferior tyres, as well as negotiating the controversial intervention of a safety car.
Hamilton was unhappy with the safety car, introduced late on, while a small amount of debris from a collision between Force India team-mates Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon was swept away. Having described it as a “b------ call from the stewards,” he explained: “It’s a bit like Nascar, where they keep putting these cars out there for no reason.” Ultimately, it did nothing to derail his lights-to-flag triumph. After a four-week summer break, he has driven in Belgium with a sense of rejuvenation, fired by a consuming ambition to move alongside Vettel with a fourth world title.
If there was a note of restraint to his celebrations, it came from the remorseless pressure to which Vettel subjected him here. Spa, like Silverstone, is the kind of high-octane rollercoaster where Mercedes should, on this year’s form, display a fractional edge on Ferrari. But Vettel was never more than a few tenths adrift, at one point almost slipstreaming past Hamilton as they launched out of Eau Rouge and up the Kemmel straight. As the German said, ominously: “Going from now, I don’t think we have a circuit we should fear.”
Theirs now looks a straight two-way fight to the finish, after Valtteri Bottas’ remote prospects ebbed away in fifth. The man to leapfrog him was Daniel Ricciardo, whose sixth podium finish of 2017 formed a vivid contrast with team-mate Max Verstappen’s sixth retirement. It was especially galling for Verstappen to have his engine fail in front of 40,000 fans clad head to foot in Dutch orange. “Unbelievable,” he said, shaking his head, as father Jos watched on thunderously from the garage. Ricciardo, pressed on why his results were so much consistent, was his blunt Australian self. “I talk to my car, I massage it,” he said. “Max is more aggressive – he goes straight in.”
These were far from the only strained relations in the paddock last night. Over at Force India, Perez and Ocon shredded just about every protocol in the book on intra-team dynamics. After the pair almost took each other out on lap one, on the hair-raising descent into Eau Rouge, Otmar Szafnauer, the team’s chief operating officer, joked that if they collided again, he might consider moving them on. Remarkably, on lap 30, this became a self-fulfilling prophecy, as Ocon grazed Perez’s right rear, a contact that tore away the Frenchman’s front wing and pulled off the Mexican’s tyre like a sweet wrapper.
For Fernando Alonso, too, the agony went on, with the Spaniard now almost certain to leave McLaren unless the team can extricate itself from its 10-year engine deal with Honda. Any trace of forbearance vanished on Sunday, as Alonso lambasted his car’s power deficit yesterday as “embarrassing”, before ordering his race engineers to cease radio communications until the end of the race. An eighth limp to the pits in 11 races was a fitting metaphor for his predicament, and talks of a potential move to Williams are understood to have begun.
There was, however, a far more heart-rending moment on Sunday, as memories of Schumacher were reawakened. The seven-time world champion’s career is indivisible from Spa: he had his first race here in 1991, for Jordan, not to mention his first victory the following year, and to mark the fact, his son Mick performed a lap in the 1994 Benetton.
“It was great to use my dad’s old livery,” said Schumacher Jnr, an accomplished Formula Three driver seeking to graduate to F1. “I was just amazed by the car.” There have been few updates on his father’s condition since December 2013, when he suffered irreparable brain damage in a fall while skiing in Meribel. And yet Schumacher’s body of work, featuring a staggering 91 race wins, still stands apart. It offers almost the only target that the revitalised Hamilton has left to chase.
Lap 43 of 44
Vettel has just put in a new lap record of 1:46.577 as he is starting to run out of time. No one can say that F1 is not competitive this year. These two will keep the challenge going.
Palmer moves into P13 (not P11 for a change) and Perez is going to retire.
Ocon is trying to hold onto his P9 with Sainz breathing heavily down his neck.
Lap 38 of 44
Hamilton has got a 1.152 lead over Vettel but the Ferrari is very quick as the Brit mentions over the radio.
Ricciardo - in P3 - has a nice 2.5s gap over Raikkonen, who has Bottas closing on him.
Massa is up to P8 and Hulkenberg looks like he's having another good weekend as he currently sits in P6.
Lap 35 of 44
If Vettel is so quick now, what will he be able to manage with DRS? Hamilton needs to get that 1s gap between him and the Championship.
Hamilton leads Vettel, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Bottas, Hulkenberg, Grosjean, Massa, Ococn and Sainz.
Stroll is P11, followed by Perez, Kvyat, Palmer, Vandoorne, Ericsson and Magnussen.
We're racing
Hamilton does the smart thing and backs up the pack similar to Baku...
He manages to get away but while Vettel is chasing Hamilton, Bottas is chasing him. Somehow Hamilton keeps his place with Vettel alongside him as they head from Eau Rouge to the Kemmel straight amid some great defending. Bottas is down to P5 after coming off the track after being challenged by Ricciardo and Raikkonen.
Lap 32 of 44
So, F1 is definitely back.
The Mercedes both pitted onto the softs and Vettel and Ricciardo put the ultras on.
Hamilton is not happy because of the safety car, it obviously give Vettel the chance to close that gap. Watching Ericsson unpit himself is understandably annoying for the Brit.
Lap 29 of 44
The rest of the race may be down to who has the best strategy if these softs don't last much longer than 15 laps.
Ocon and Perez are ignoring the fact that they are teammates - once again - as they battle for the P11. Now Ocon is querying why Perez was pitted before him ("because he had a penalty)
They touch again. That's the second time today and Perez has a puncture. His race is over and we're gonna get a safety car. Ocon is trying to limps home and just spewing mess all over the track. Very naughty that.
Lap 19 of 44
Raikkonen is not happy because the car was still at the side of the road.
He has served his penalty and is baying for blood, for want of a better term.
Vettel is just 1.492s behind Hamilton, followed by Bottas, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Ocon, Raikkonen, Perez, Sainz and Grosjean.
Magnussen is P11 ahead of Magnussen, Massa, Alonso, Palmer, Stroll, Kvyat, Vandoorne and Ericsson.
Now Sainz has a penalty for cutting the corner earlier and gaining an advantage. A five second time pen for the driver.
Lap 15 of 44
Vettel is in and he is on a one-stop strategy so it will be interesting to see how this works. The German driver comes out in P3 as the meat in the Mercedes sandwich.
Hamilton gets ahead of the Finn which isn't surprising given he has fresher tyres.
Hamilton leads Raikkonen, Vettel, Bottas and Ricciardo.
The Brit already has a 1.316s lead over the Finn.
Lap 14 of 44
Raikkonen is under investigation for failing to slow down under the yellows after Verstappen's car faltered.
Ferrari are currently just going about their business - ignoring the Mercedes - and their tyres look healthy at the moment. Bottas has pitted.
Vettel leads Raikkonen, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Bottas, Hulkenberg, Sainz, Ococn, Perez and Grosjean.
Lap 11 of 44
Palmer and Ericsson both pit onto the softs and Magnussen is telling his team that he needs to pit now. And he's in, along with Lance Stroll.
Hamilton leads Vettel, Bottas, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Ocon, Perez, Grosjean and Alonso.
Massa is P11, followed by Sainz, Kvyat, Vandoorne, Magnussen, Palmer, Stroll and Ericsson. Wehrlein is still MIA.
Ocon and Grosjean into the pits.
Lap 9 of 44
Verstappen is crawling up Eau Rouge and he is out of the race. His car halts right in front of his army of fans and as you can imagine, he is devastated. Another mechanical failure for the teenager.
"Unbelievable. I can't believe this."
That is a 50% failure rate for the Red Bull driver.
Lap 6 of 44
Ocon has just gone past Alonso - what would the former champion be able to do with a decent engine?
Magnussen and Grosjean are having a nice little battle for P12/13.
Alonso: "It's embarrassing. Really embarrassing." This was after being passed by Perez and now drops down to P10.
Wehrlein is in the pits, suspected suspension issue but they are hoping to get him back out.
Palmer has a rear grip problem.
Lap 4 of 44
Ocon, Alonso and Hulkunberg having a great battle and the experience of the McLaren driver means he comes back to regain his place and come out ahead to keep his P7 with Hulkenberg in P8 and Ocon in P9.
There are some nice battles going on in the middle of the pack. Hulkenberg gets past Alonso into P7, and Perez moves up to P10 ahead of Magnussen. That DRS is going to make it an interesting afternoon.
Formation lap
And off they go.
Here is how they line up (with a couple of edits for penalties):
Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1min 42.553secs
Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 1:42.795
Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes GP 1:43.094
Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:43.270
Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:43.380
Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Red Bull 1:43.863
Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Renault 1:44.982
Sergio Perez (Mex) Force India 1:45.244
Esteban Ocon (Fra) Force India 1:45.369
Fernando Alonso (Spa) McLaren 1:45.090
Romain Grosjean (Fra) Haas F1 1:45.133
Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 1:45.400
Carlos Sainz (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:45.439
Jolyon Palmer (Gbr) Renault No Time
Lance Stroll (Can) Williams 1:46.915
Felipe Massa (Bra) Williams 1:45.823
Marcus Ericsson (Swe) Sauber-Ferrari 1:47.214
Pascal Wehrlein (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari 1:47.679
Daniil Kvyat (Rus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:46.028
Stoffel Vandoorne (Bel) McLaren No Time
Are you excited?
I'm excited. Toto Wolff even looks excited.
They are all getting strapped in and we'll see the mad dash back to the pits from the mechanics and engineers.
Remember there are only 44 laps today because this is the longest track at 7.004km.
The race lap record is 1:47.263, which was set by Vettel in 2009.
A legend remembered
On the 25th anniversary of his first win, which was at Spa, the world of F1 salutes Michael Schumacher.
You can read more about his son's lap of the track here.
30 minutes until lights out
Here is how they will all line up today:
Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1min 42.553secs
Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 1:42.795
Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes GP 1:43.094
Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:43.270
Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:43.380
Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Red Bull 1:43.863
Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Renault 1:44.982
Sergio Perez (Mex) Force India 1:45.244
Esteban Ocon (Fra) Force India 1:45.369
Jolyon Palmer (Gbr) Renault No Time
Fernando Alonso (Spa) McLaren 1:45.090
Romain Grosjean (Fra) Haas F1 1:45.133
Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 1:45.400
Carlos Sainz (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:45.439
Lance Stroll (Can) Williams 1:46.915
Felipe Massa (Bra) Williams 1:45.823
Marcus Ericsson (Swe) Sauber-Ferrari 1:47.214
Pascal Wehrlein (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari 1:47.679
Daniil Kvyat (Rus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:46.028
Stoffel Vandoorne (Bel) McLaren No Time
NOTE: Felipe Massa has a five-place grid penalty for failing to stop for yellow flags and Stoffel Vandoorne has a 65-place grid penalty using for additional power unit components.
Deals being done
Although Sebastian Vettel waited until the day of qualifying, a few other drivers confirmed their drives for next season during the summer break. The German Championship leader has confirmed he will stay with Ferrari for another three years and Kimi Raikkonen will partner him for at least one of those.
McLaren have confirmed their deal with Stoffel Vandoorne for 2018 and are hoping to tie-up the Fernando Alonso situation shortly. Although after another power failure yesterday, he may not be keen to sign anything soon.
Some thoughts on that record
Not only is it a phenomenal achievement, but he also achieved it at the track where the legendary German driver achieved his inaugural win 25 years ago.
It is an event that is being marked by his son, Mick, driving a 1994 Benetton from his private collection. It was in a Benetton car that Michael won the first of his 91 races and it's a nice touch to commemorate the anniversary.
What happened on Saturday
You may have heard that Hamilton matched Michael Schumacher's record of 68 career pole positions yesterday, and today the Mercedes man will race for the 200th time in F1.
If you missed yesterday's action, you can catch up here.
What time does the race start, what TV channel is it on and will Lewis Hamilton win?
What is it?
It is the 2017 Belgian Grand Prix, the 12th Formula One race of the season and the first after the month-long summer break.
When is it?
It is on Sunday August 27.
What time does the race start?
It begins at 1pm British Summer Time, or 2pm local time.
What TV channel is it on?
This race is on both Sky Sports F1 and Channel 4 so hopefully the driver’s can give terrestrial television viewers a great race.
On Sky Sports the coverage starts at 11.30am with the track parade first up, before news from the pitlane and further race build-up culminating in the return of Martin Brundle and his legendary track walk ahead of lights out. The former driver was taken ill at Silverstone last month with a stomach virus and went on to miss the Hungarian Grand Prix
Channel 4 will be live from midday with presenter Steve Jones likely to be joined by former driver's Karun Chandhok, David Coulthard and Mark Webber.
What happened last time out?
Sebastian Vettel won his fourth race of the season to take a 14 point lead into the summer break, after Lewis Hamilton started and finished fourth in Hungary.
It was a Ferrari 1-2 with Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen finishing second and Valtteri Bottas came home in 3rd.
How do the standings look?
What are they saying?
Lewis Hamilton on marking his 200th Grand Prix at the legendary Spa circuit:
"It is crazy to think that I have been in Formula 1 for that long! Reaching that milestone, I feel very privileged. And believe me: I still feel young at heart! (Laughs) I do remember my very first Grand Prix – and now I have a 200 marker. Awesome. Actually I should toast to the next 200! "
Stoffel Vandoorne on renewing his contract with McLaren:
"No, there never has been any doubt [that I wouldn't sign]. The team has been really supportive in the difficult times. Obviously I’ve been with McLaren for the past couple of years as a young driver and then as a reserve driver, so they know my capabilities.
"They know the effort I’m putting in with the team and it’s good to see that the team is 100 per cent behind me and I’m definitely looking forward to the future with them."
Max Verstappen on his and Red Bulls decision to take just one set of softs and nine super-softs:
"We just have to go out there and see what the balance of the car is and then of course we try some different tyres and we know the degradation and from there on we’ll go further into the weekend."
Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas on their being two Finns on the podium for two consecutive races.
KR: "Obviously we must try to win races. If you don’t get that then you get the next positions and would it really make us happier? I don’t think I know. I think you’re happy if you win but less if you come second or third but obviously it’s been great for Finns, for us, but I don’t think it’s something that you aim to purposely do or you get more satisfaction from that I think is purely if you do better than worse."
VB: "Yeah, I think definitely to finish one-two would be better than two-three so but yeah, we are always there to try and win the race and not really focus on who is third or second. Of course, it would be nice."
What happened in qualifying?
Lewis Hamilton hailed a special day in his career after equalling Michael Schumacher's all-time record with pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix.
The triple world champion, who will tomorrow also start his 200th race, delivered a dominant performance to soar to the top of the order at Spa-Francorchamps and claim the 68th pole of his glittering career.
It was here, deep in the Ardennes, where Schumacher recorded his first of 91 victories, a quarter of a century ago.
The very same venue also marked Hamilton's first visit to a grand prix as an 11-year-old boy, already making waves on the karting scene. Little would Hamilton know that two decades later he would have the same number of poles as Schumacher, reaching the landmark in 43 fewer races.
Hamilton will be joined on the front row of the grid on Sunday by his rival Sebastian Vettel - who he trails by 14 points in the championship - after the Ferrari driver pipped Valtteri Bottas in the closing moments of qualifying.
"It is definitely a special day," Hamilton, 32, said. "I knew the record was on the horizon, and at some stage I would get the 68th pole. I did not apply pressure, but now being there it is an unusual place to be.
What are the odds?
- Lewis Hamilton - 4/5
- Valtteri Bottas - 5/1
- Sebastian Vettel - 11/2
- Kimi Raikkonen - 14/1
- Max Verstappen - 25/1
- Daniel Ricciardo - 33/1
What's our prediction?
Although Kimi Raikkonen is known as the 'King of Spa' with 14 wins, with Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton with two victories each.
So we can't see past the Finnish driver with Ferrari 'owing' him a race victory after his pit stop led to Vettel taking first place in Paris.