Ricciardo wins F1 Belgian Grand Prix
Australian driver holds off a late Nico Rosberg challenge, Lewis Hamilton retires from 16th place in Belgium.
Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo beat Nico Rosberg to win an incident-packed Belgian Grand Prix.
Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas was third.
| F1 Championship |
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Drivers (Top-5) 1 N Rosberg Mercedes 220 Constructors (Top-5) 1 Mercedes 411 |
Rosberg extended his championship lead over Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in acrimonious circumstances but 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 was loudly jeered by the Spa crowd when he went onto the podium.
“It’s not my position to comment on it at all because I haven’t seen it,” Rosberg said afterward 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.
Meanwhile, 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 was fifth. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was fourth.
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 pole.