Apologies but due to logistical difficulties I was not able to file my report on the Belgian Grand Prix until now. But here’s what went down on Sunday in the Ardennes at Spa-Francorchamps…

Surging Ricciardo takes 2nd straight win for Red Bull, Rosberg relegated to 2nd after early race incident with Mercedes teammate Hamilton; Bottas grabs another strong 3rd for Williams

The echoes of Senna-Prost grew a little bit stronger Sunday at Spa as Mercedes teammates and Championship contenders Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton clashed early on lap 2, damaging Rosberg’s front wing but catastrophically puncturing Hamilton’s right rear far from the pits. The Englishman, who had been ahead as Rosberg tried an inside move when tire and wing came together, then had to limp home as his tire delaminated and began buggy whipping his bodywork for nearly 4 miles. While his Silver Arrow was able to continue it put him so far back in the pack that eventually the team retired the car in order to save the engine for future use, earning Hamilton zero Drivers’ points after starting from 2nd on the grid. Rosberg, who had won the Pole in wet conditions on Saturday, was able to soldier on despite an off sequence pit stop for a front wing change, showing great pace as the race wound down and coming home in second place and with a tidy 18 Championship points. Afterwards, the acrimony between the teammates was palpable with claims by Hamilton that Rosberg had stuck his nose in deliberately to “prove a point” and Rosberg putting it all down to a racing incident but certainly not apologizing. Mercedes team management was less than thrilled with the loss of Constructors’ points from the clash and vowed to give both drivers a stern talking to. But then again, it’s racing not a Sunday drive in the forest so these things happen between intense competitors and any ill will generated by them only serves to spice up the Championship going forward, especially with Mercedes running away with it. I say keep it up, lads!

Almost lost in all that controversy was another outstanding performance by Red Bull junior driver Daniel Ricciardo, who took advantage of the Mercedes infighting to run away to victory. Despite the long summer break, Ricciardo picked up where he left off in Hungary 4 weeks ago to win his second Grand Prix in a row at the fabled Spa-Francorchamps track. The young Aussie, who has simply come to grips with the 2014 chassis much better than his 4-time World Championship teammate Sebastian Vettel all year long, was able to outlast a charging Rosberg on fresher option tires by 3.3 seconds as the German ran out of laps. If not for a technical infraction in Australia at the beginning of the season that cost Ricciardo a 2nd place he would be 18 points closer to Hamilton for second in the Drivers’ standings. As it is, he is 35 points back in 3rd and a solid 25 points ahead of Fernando Alonso — impressive to say the least especially in an inconsistent car.

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas showed his prowess yet again to take another podium with a solid 3rd place, while teammate Filipe Massa collected some of Hamilton’s tire debris, which hindered his performance and mired him in 13th. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonnen had his best finish of the year with  a 4th after running a clean race and finally besting teammate Fernando Alonso. Alonso’s race was compromised when the team was penalized with a 5 second stop-and-hold for having personnel on the grid at the start for the warm up lap. Nonetheless, the peerless Spaniard ran a gallant race and forced his way up to 7th, dicing particularly fiercely with McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen, who was eventually dropped by the FIA stewards from 6th to 12th for his aggressive and successful attempts to keep the veteran Ferrari driver behind. That seemed a very harsh judgment for what appeared to be good hard racing and one doubts that of it had been Vettel or Hamilton forcing Alonso onto the grass rather than a rookie that the stewards would have imposed the same sanction.

Speaking of Vettel, the great Red Bull driver had a decent 5th place finish but still seemed to struggle, as he has all season, with lack of downforce when putting the power down, particularly with this weekend’s small rear wing configuration on the RB10. Rounding out the rest of the Top 10, McLaren’s Jenson Button was promoted to 6th after his teammates post-race penalty, Sergio Perez took 8th and Nico Hulkenberg (who started 18th) took 10th for Force India and Daniil Kvyat was 9th for Torro Rosso.

The post-Magnussen penalty Top 10:

Complete results for the Belgian Grand Prix at Formula1.com

In other news from the mid-Summer break, Torro Rosso will replace their veteran French driver Jean-Eric Vergne with soon-to-be 17-year-old (yes, you read that right) Max Versteppen. While Torro Rosso has always been a stepping stone team for up and coming young drivers, putting a kid who cannot drink and has not even got out of high school yet into the cockpit seems a risky move. Jut ask former champion Jaques Villeneuve.

The next race is another classic and the last of the European circuits, the Grand Premio d’Italia from legendary Monza on the weekend of September 7th. Hope to see you then!