Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel wins Belgium GP to move past ex-world champ Prost's record of 51 race wins; cuts gap on Mercedes' Hamilton to 17 points in drivers' championship
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel poses with the trophy after winning the Belgium GP at Spa-Francorchamps yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
Sebastian Vettel made up ground in the title battle on championship leader Lewis Hamilton with a comfortable win ahead of the Briton in yesterday's Belgian Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver, who had started second, seized the lead from his pole-sitting Mercedes rival on the opening lap and survived a subsequent safety car period to cross the line 11 seconds ahead of his silver car.
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Max Verstappen finished a lonely third for Red Bull in front of the legions of his orange-clad Dutch fans packing the grandstands. Yesterday's win was Vettel's fifth this season and allows him to close the gap to Hamilton to 17 points in the overall standings with eight of the 21 races still to run. It was also the 52nd victory of his career, moving him ahead of four-time world champion Alain Prost's haul of 51 triumphs. The German chalked up the milestone at the same Spa-Francorchamps circuit at which his boyhood idol Michael Schumacher claimed his 52nd Formula One win in 2001.
"I had a great start," said Vettel after the race. "I think I timed it well and as soon as I was ahead I was quite relieved!" "More wins than Alain... woah!" he reflected. Vettel's hopes of seizing pole in Saturday's qualifying were dashed by a late shower but race day dawned dry and sunny. He didn't beat Hamilton off the line but made full use of his Ferrari's straight-line speed advantage to breeze past the Briton after the fearsome Eau Rouge on the flat-out blast up to the Les Combes sequence of corners.
There was carnage behind him as Renault's Nico Hulkenberg misjudged his braking into the first corner and ploughed into Fernando Alonso's McLaren, which then vaulted over the Sauber of Charles Leclerc. The incident brought out the safety car which stayed out for four laps. Hamilton, sensing an opportunity, tried to pile the pressure on Vettel at the restart but the German saw off the threat and stayed in the lead through the sole round of pitstops all the way until the flag.
"Congratulations to Seb," said the 33-year-old. "I did everything I could. He drove past me like I wasn't there on the straights." Valtteri Bottas finished fourth. The Finn had started 17th after incurring engine-related grid penalties and ran into the back of another car on the run down to the first corner. But the superior pace of his Mercedes allowed him to scythe through the field. Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon finished fifth and sixth, respectively, for the reborn Force India outfit.
The pink cars had locked out the second row of the grid in qualifying yesterday but were no match for the faster cars of Verstappen and Bottas. Still, they gave the team its best combined zresult of the season so far in its first race under new ownership. Romain Grosjean was seventh ahead of Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen. Pierre Gasly, set to replace Renault-bound Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull next year, was ninth while Sauber's Marcus Ericsson rounded out the top-ten. Ricciardo retired 30 laps into the 44 lap race.
The Australian had sustained heavy damage in the first lap start-line incident but had rejoined the race after Red Bull managed to fix his car. Kimi Raikkonen, a four-time winner at Spa, also sustained damage to his Ferrari in the first-lap carnage and eventually retired nine laps into the race.
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