The classic race after the summer break was won by Red Bull. Daniel Ricciardo, the laughing third, benefited from the mistakes of the two Silver Arrows and won the race in Spa thanks to an intelligent strategy. Valteri Bottas finished on the podium for the fourth time. Nico Rosberg saved himself for second place and slightly extended his lead in the overall standings.
by Bruno Fleckenstein
After the rainy qualifying and good results, Mercedes was confident of getting a good result. But the drivers screwed up their own race on this race Sunday. Nico Rosberg got off to a bad start and Lewis Hamilton took the lead, closely followed by a resurgent Sebastian Vettel, who immediately put pressure on Hamilton but misjudged, drove into the run-off zone and was overtaken by Rosberg. The latter in turn set off on Hamilton's heels and tried to overtake him in a corner passage, but was unsuccessful. But during this maneuver, Rosberg's front wing touched Hamilton's right rear tire. Completely unnecessary! What many always feared happened in this race! They shot each other down!
It was a race of unusual and clumsy events
Hamilton pitted with flat tires and found himself back on the track in 19th place. Rosberg wasn't quite as badly affected, although the front wing change took up additional time.
The race didn't start particularly well for Ferrari either. While the entire field of drivers set off on the formation lap, the mechanics on Alonso's Ferrari were still screwing around on the grid as if they were in the pits. He was able to leave a few moments later and take his place on the grid, but this mishap earned the Spaniard a 5-second penalty, which he had to serve during a tire change.
Nevertheless, the Scuderia delivered a remarkable performance. Kimi Räikkönen classified ahead of Fernando Alonso for the first time, I believe, and finished fourth, fighting for a podium spot. Alonso was also in a very tight group of four with Magnusson, Button and Vettel on the last lap. There was a hard fight and Alonso rammed his front wing into Vettel's Red Bull rear end, but the latter suffered no damage from it.
The performance of the Williams was also worth mentioning. Valteri Bottas passed Nico Rosberg on the straight with ease, as if the Silver Arrow wasn't an opponent to be taken seriously. He then battled with his compatriot Räikkönen for the podium with about 8 laps to go. Raikkonen's tires, however, already had 15 laps behind them and Bottas' tires only nine. Together with the Williams power, the Ferrari couldn't fight back for long and Bottas drove to his third final place.
One or two laps later, Lewis Hamilton drove his Silver Arrow into the pits due to technical problems. After the botched start, he was unable to successfully catch up in the race.
Nico Rosberg came into the pits for his third change on lap 34 and set off again on the faster, soft tires. He immediately set the fastest lap at just over 1:50 minutes, three seconds faster than Daniel Ricciardo, who was leading at the time. But it wasn't quite enough, as Ricciardo had a lead of around 20 seconds. Nico Rosberg was able to catch up, but it wasn't enough, even though he reduced the gap to 3.3 seconds by the end.
He was thus a satisfied second and Daniel Ricciardo the happy winner once again, thanks to successful strategy and supposedly a new gear ratio on the Red Bulls' gearbox to make them more competitive again.
The season is far from over and Ricciardo also has a chance of winning the world title. Let's see what awaits us in the next race.
Results Belgian Grand Prix 2014
1 Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing, winner after 44 laps
2 Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, + 3.3 sec.
3 Valtteri Bottas, Williams, + 28.0 sec.
4 Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, + 36.8 sec.
5 Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing, + 52.1 sec.
6 Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, + 54.2 sec.
7 Jenson Button, McLaren, + 54.5 sec.
8 Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, + 61.1 sec.
9 Sergio Perez, Force India, + 64.2 sec.
10 Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, + 65.3 sec.
11 Nico Hülkenberg, Force India, + 65.6 sec.
12 Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, + 71.9 sec.
13 Felipe Massa, Williams, + 75.9 sec.
14 Adrian Sutil, Sauber, + 82.4 sec.
15 Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber, + 90.8 sec.
16 Max Chilton, Marussia, + 1 lap
17 Marcus Ericsson, Caterham, + 1 lap
18 Jules Bianchi, Marussia, + 5 laps
Out of service
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Lap 38, + 6 laps
Romain Grosjean, Lotus, Lap 33, + 11 laps
Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1 lap, + 43 laps
Andre Lotterer, Caterham, 1 lap, + 43 laps
Start of the race: Hamilton passes Rosberg, followed by Vettel
Raikkonen in his best race this season
After qualifying, things seemed to be all set for Mercedes
Podium at Spa 2014: Ricciardo (center) ahead of Rosberg (left) and Bottas (right)
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