Though Nico Rosberg of Mercedes won the Formula One race in Belgium, this race will be remembered more for all its crashes and near misses. Rosberg scored his sixth victory of the year, the 20th of his career, and his first at Spa-Francorchamps. His teammate Lewis Hamilton got the third position having driven well from the back of the grid, with Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull Racing coming in second.
For Force India it was a near miss for the podium as driver Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez came in fourth and fifth respectively. Their total of 22 points lifts Force India into fourth place, ahead of Williams, with 103 to 101. The remaining table of ten who earned points included Sebastian Vettel and his team mate Kimi Raikkonen who came in sixth and ninth respectively. Seven to drive in was Fernando Alonso of McLaren followed by Valtteri Bottas of Williams. Felipe Massa of Williams came in tenth.
Now coming to the chaos, it all started when early on in the race when Sebastian Vettel cut back sharply and hit his own team mate Kimi and pushed the Finn into contact with the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. All three cars were damaged; Verstappen lost a chunk of his front wing, Raikkonen sustained a puncture and front wing damage and limped to the pits, and Vettel also had resultant problems with his front wing. On the opening lap, Pascal Wehrlein ran his Manor into the back of Jenson Button’s McLaren, putting both of them out.
The sixth lap saw Kevin Magnussen losing the back end of his Renault, which was running in eighth place on team mate Jolyon Palmer’s tail. Despite crashing into the barriers backwards, Kevin was able to walk away with minor injuries. His Renault looked a write-off, and the race had to be red flagged on the ninth lap because the tyre wall and barriers needed repairs.
After the race restarted, Rosberg immediately resumed control. Despite Ricciardo tailing him throughout, he had to be content with a second position.
RACE RESULTS
POS. DRIVER TEAM
1 NICO ROSBERG MERCEDES
2 DANIEL RICCIARDO RED BULL RACING
3 LEWIS HAMILTON MERCEDES
4 NICO HULKENBERG FORCE INDIA
5 SERGIO PEREZ FORCE INDIA
6 SEBASTIAN VETTEL FERRARI
7 FERNANDO ALONSO MCLAREN
8 VALTTERI BOTTAS WILLIAMS
9 KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN FERRARI
10 FELIPE MASSA WILLIAMS
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