Hamilton back on form for Mercedes with dominant victory at Spa, Rosberg 2nd best; Grosjean surprises with fantastic P3 for Lotus

Photos via GrandPrix247.com

The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Fracorchamps, the first race in anger after the long summer break at a legendary circuit renowned for drama and danger, did not disappoint. While Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton returned to form and stamped his authority on the race from pole to the checkered flag, all behind him was chaos. His teammate and closest rival, Nico Rosberg, had a poor start under the new “no clutch coaching” rules and was swamped immediately by the onrushing Williams of Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez’s Force India and Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull. While Rosberg would fight back to come home 2nd his chances of catching Hamilton were essentially doomed with that sluggish start. And now 28 points adrift, so might Nico’s chances of breaking Lewis’ stranglehold on the Drivers’ Championship.

Aside from Hamilton’s renewed dominance, the other big story of the Belgian GP was Lotus’ Romain Grosjean. The mercurial Frenchman started from P9 after a a 5-spot grid penalty for an engine change on Friday. But Grosjean was undeterred and carved his way through the field, his improved Lotus chassis showing a fine balance of power and stability that suited the always tricky-fast Spa circuit. With the help of a good pit stop he emerged in 7th place on Lap 10. He passed Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull on Lap 18 for P4 and then Perez on Lap 20 to take P3. That seemed to convince Grosjean that was exactly where he belonged. By the end of the race and after another round of pit stops he was in hot pursuit of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel for that last step on the podium with the laps  — and Vettel’s old tires on a one-stop strategy  — running out. And as fate would have it, on the penultimate lap Vettel’s right rear tire blew directly after the two cars tore up Eau Rouge nose to tail. Vettel suffered the ignominy of limping home with nearly the entire field passing him while an emotional Grosjean raced home for a much needed podium for beleaguered Lotus.

Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat, who finished 2nd in the last Grand Prix in Hungary, had another outstanding drive on Sunday. After a poor qualifying effort left him starting from P12 on the grid, the young Russian took advantage of the empty space caused by the DNS of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg to get off to a fast start that would see him up to P9 by Lap 3. The retirement of Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado early in the race and his teammate Riciciardo on Lap 21 opened up more opportunities for advancement for the young Russian. And advance he did. Storming by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikonnen on Lap 38, Williams’ Massa on Lap 40 and wrapping up with a final power move past Force India’s Perez, Kvyat salvaged Red Bull’s day with a very impressive 4th place finish. His victims would finish in that exact order below him: Perez in P5, Massa P6 and Raikkonen P7.

While Massa hung in and had decent enough race, Bottas’ strong start was illusory. The Finn seemed to lack power and was re-passed almost immediately by Rosberg. Something definitely seemed amiss with the two Williams on the soft tires and to make matters worse, Bottas’ pit crew blew their first stop — and his race — by putting a non-matching hard compound tire on the right rear. That led to another pit stop plus a drive through penalty, making Bottas’ eventual P9 a better result than they deserved for such a bungle. Scuderia Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen had an adventurous race of his own with several daring-borderline-foolhardy passing attempts spicing things up. The 17-year-old half-Belgian finished P8 in his “home” GP. Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson took the last points paying position, once again proving that simply surviving can trump flat out pace.

McLaren seem to have finally given up on 2015 and appear to be using the remaining races to develop their woeful Honda power plant for next year. The proud former champions Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button finished P13 and P14 respectively.

Top 10 finishers for the Belgian Grand Prix:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in two weeks from equally mythical Monza in Italy. It’s another track that suits flat out speed and a brave driver so look for Hamilton to turn up the heat even higher in his quest for back-to-back championships. Hope to see you then!