Hamilton in pole position for Belgian GP

“I thought I would end up in the wall and, to be honest, it was pure luck that I didn’t”.

Hamilton’s 80th podium pulled him level with the late F1 ace Ayrton Senna in fourth on the all-time list. It was the seventh 1-2 finish for Mercedes this season.

Rosberg had a poor start and dropped from second to fourth before regaining the second position.

He told reporters: “Unfortunately I messed up the start”. We were really trying to go for the podium this afternoon and I felt very emotional during the last lap of the race!

“Lewis did a great job and deserved the win”, he said. I gave it absolutely everything. I tried to challenge him but not enough.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was a disappointing ninth after winning in Hungary, the last race before the summer break.

Hamilton set a new personal best time of 1m 54.315s on lap 25 to extend his advantage over Rosberg to more than five seconds.

“Today was a dream and the vehicle was fantastic all weekend”, declared Hamilton, who controlled the race from the opening lap – after an aborted first start – and never looked threatened by his German rival. He even closed in on Hamilton two-thirds of the way through the race before the defending world champion stretched the gap.

Lotus’s Romain Grosjean took third after a rear tyre failure on Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari with two laps to go. Pirelli’s racing team boss Paul Hembery said: “The damage is consistent with an external source”.

“This is a really hard track for me and this is one of those where I have struggled a bit”, he said.

Hamilton reacted by showing how comfortable he was with his set-up and the circuit by banging in several storming laps, one a full seven-tenths quicker than his team-mate and had extended his lead to five seconds by lap 27.

This was Romain Grosjean’s 10th podium of his career and his first since 2013, when he finished 3rd at the now-defunct Indian Grand Prix.

The next race is the Italian Grand Prix on September 6. This is illegal in Formula One, and meant the driver took on penalties.

“I was super-refreshed after my holidays”, he said.

Lotus has been involved in problems off the track, with Belgian police threatening to impound the cars because of money owed to a former reserve driver.

The start was initially aborted when Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg encountered mechanical gremlins on the grid, waving his hands to signal he would be unable to get away.

Behind them came Mexican Sergio Perez, in a Force India, Red Bull’s 2014 victor Daniel Ricciardo and Russian teammate Daniil Kvyat.

Local hero Dutch teenager Max Verstappen thrilled his fans in a big crowd by driving from 16th on the grid to take eighth place for Toro Rosso ahead of Finn Valtteri Bottas of Williams and Swede Marcus Ericsson of Sauber.

Perhaps the most memorable moment of the race came when Williams pitted Bottas and managed to put on three soft tyres and one medium. But having lost out to Hamilton in their title fight a year ago, it is Rosberg who is now hoping to win the championship despite failing to keep pace with his team-mate in qualifying.