Hamilton: Safety Car for debris ‘unnecessary’ in Belgium

In a gripping season in which neither driver has managed to score consecutive race victories, Hamilton bounced back after Vettel’s win last time out in Hungary to cut the Ferrari driver’s World Championship lead to seven points.

The Finn, re-signed by Ferrari for 2018, scorched to a record fastest lap in 1min 43.916sec around the spectacular Spa-Francorchamps cicuit on an overcast day in the forests of the Belgian Ardennes.

The four-time champion has been at the team since 2015 and has helped build them up to be title contenders this year after a hard few seasons.

“I’m not happy with myself, not happy with the auto, so I think we have a little bit to come”, said the four-time former world champion who leads the title race ahead of Hamilton by 14 points.

Hamilton’s 1:46.603 on lap 35 proved the second-fastest, with Ricciardo’s 1:47.549 on lap 44 coming in third. And with eight races remaining in the calendar, it promises to be a lip-smacking battle all the way down to the season finale in Abu Dhabi in November.

Vettel could not make the most of his one opportunity to attack Hamilton, after the safety auto in the second half of the race, but said “the positive thing is that we had very good race pace”.

Vettel finished second, about 2 seconds behind Hamilton.

Ferrari clinched its last drivers’ title in 2007 — when Raikkonen won in his first stint there — and its last constructors’ title the year after.

There was huge disappointment for tens of thousands of Dutch fans who had crossed the border into Belgium when Max Verstappen retired on the eighth lap after a loss of power.

Hamilton was 0.541secs ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who was third, while Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari took the fourth place. Meanwhile, Hulkenberg was reporting a faulty rear on his Renault. Haas’ driver Romain Grosjean finished seventh followed by Felipe Massa in eighth place.

Ocon, in a post-race interview, clearly blamed Perez for the collisions.

Perez lost his right rear wheel after the collision while Ocon sustained some damage to his front wing.

The Formula 1 Season waves the green flag on the Belgian Grand Prix early on Sunday morning.

The aforementioned safety vehicle was brought out when the debris from an all-Force India crash was scattered about the track.

The safety auto exited toward the end of lap 33.