Hamilton on pole at Spa

Mercedes secured their 22nd consecutive pole position with Lewis Hamilton qualifying on P1 ahead of his teammate Nico Rosberg. It is Hamilton’s sixth win this year and he now leads his team-mate by 28 points in the world championship. “I had great pace in the auto “. “I was cautious at the end because of tires but I brought it home”.

Hamilton has now won six races this season, and 39 in his Formula One career. Rosberg has 36, level with two-time champion Graham Hill.

There’s not much to say about a Mercedes AMG 1-2 that hasn’t already been said.

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

“I completely messed up the start”, he said.

“The start was really bad so I need to practice that a bit more”. Lewis did a great job and deserved the win. I tried to challenge him but not enough.

Rosberg was in a rush to leave the circuit since his wife is expecting their first child “any time”.

Indeed the closest he came was after the virtual safety auto was deployed when Ricciardo came to a sudden halt on lap 20, just past the pit lane entrance going on to the start-finish straight. “Fernando and I will just be racing each other and I don’t think we will see another vehicle until we are lapped”.

Hamilton was all praises for the team, citing that his vehicle felt good from the get-go. The 30-year-old is 21 points behind the two-time world champion with nine races remaining. He showed some good pace in his second stint on the soft tyres coming through the field and was granted third place when Sebastian Vettel’s tyre blew out on the penultimate lap. The mistake saw the Williams driver penalised with a drive-through penalty from which he never really recovered as he went on to finish ninth.

While he fumed, Grosjean grinned as he returned to the podium for the first time since 2013 in a morale boost for a financially-hit team who arrived in Spa with the threat of having their cars impounded hanging over them.

Lewis Hamilton was rarely troubled as he cruised to victory in today’s Belgian Grand Prix.

“I can’t believe I am on the podium”, Grosjean said. Lotus’ Romain Grosjean was actually fourth fastest today but will suffer a five-place grid penalty due to a gearbox change. Button, meanwhile, was only 17th, three seconds adrift of Hamilton’s best lap.

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 Finland’s Valtteri Bottas of Williams and Sweden’s Marcus Ericsson of Sauber.

In his 150th race and in Ferrari’s 900th, the German driver was unable to finish and, venting his frustration, launched into a tirade littered with swear words during a series of media interviews afterwards.

Mechanical problems forced several competitors, including Australian Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo and Venezuelan Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado, out of the race.