Daniel Ricciardo wins F1 Belgium Grand Prix

Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull Racing-Renault won an exciting  race at the 2014 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix legendary 7.004 kilometre Spa-Francorchamps circuit. This was the 12^th round of the season and took place over 44 laps.

Though it was Nic Rosberg’s (Mercedes AMG Petronas) fourth successive pole and his seventh of the season, he finished second in the race while his team mate Lewis Hamilton had to retire at Lap 39 after he was told to pit at the end of the lap to cool the car. It was a problem with aero degradation said the team.  Zero points for Hamilton at Spa.

Ricciardo thus got his third win of the year. Valtteri Bottas of Williams-Mercedes came in third position and his Finnish counterpart from Ferrari Kimi Raikkonen came in fourth.  Sebastian Vettel, former world champion had to be content with fifth position while Kevin Magnussen of McLaren-Mercedes beat his teammate Jenson Button across the line. Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, Sergio Perez of Force India-Mercedes and Daniil Kvyat of STR-Renault completed the top ten.

Earlier as the race started Hamilton got a knock from his team mate as the latter’s front left wing tagged Hamilton’s left rear tyre. Hamilton had to limp back to the pit with his tyre shredded. It was a bad beginning for Hamilton.  

Three-time Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer who made his F1 debut with Caterham where he had been drafted earlier in the weekend to replace Kamui Kobayashi, saw an early exit. 

File Photo of Daniel Ricciardo, courtesy Red Bull Racing