Belgian Grand Prix 2016: Winners and Losers from Spa Race
Nico Rosberg claimed his sixth victory of the 2016 Formula One season in Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
The German secured his third consecutive pole position on Saturday and followed that up with a measured drive to cut Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton's championship lead to just nine points with eight races remaining.
Joining Rosberg on the podium were Daniel Ricciardo—who evaded the first-lap collision between Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen and the Ferrari drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, to finish second—and Hamilton, who recovered to third from the last row of the grid.
With a look at a day to forget for Toro Rosso and standout performances by McLaren-Honda's Fernando Alonso and Force India, here are the main winners and losers from Spa.
Winner: Nico Rosberg
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With Hamilton incurring a 55-place grid penalty for exceeding the engine component-usage regulations, the pressure was off for Rosberg at the Belgian GP.
Or was it?
As his main rival was effectively out of contention for the win before the weekend even started, there was arguably an even greater emphasis than usual on Rosberg to claim a pole-to-flag victory.
The prospect of gifting a must-win race to a stray Red Bull or Ferrari was an ever-present danger, and the gap between the top three in qualifying—just 0.166 seconds separated Rosberg and Raikkonen—was more uncomfortable than it perhaps should have been, proof he couldn't afford to relax.
But Rosberg remained professional, producing a faultless performance from pole to secure his first victory in more than two months.
The shenanigans between Verstappen and the Ferrari drivers afforded him some welcome breathing space at the start as Rosberg established a lead of more than four seconds to Nico Hulkenberg on the first lap alone.
The safety-car and red-flag stoppage for Kevin Magnussen's crash at Raidillon reeled him back into the chasing pack, with the rule that allows the drivers to make a "free" tyre change during the delay threatening his control of the race, especially as Hamilton had recovered to fifth by that stage.
Yet, again, Rosberg—having switched to the durable medium tyres—settled back into his rhythm and managed a handy gap to those behind.
A timely sixth win of 2016 will give Rosberg a much-needed boost of confidence, but his excitement may have been tempered slightly when he climbed out of his W07 in parc ferme to find Hamilton's car sat beside him in third place.
Hamilton's points advantage has been cut to nine, but Rosberg will have hoped to have taken a much larger chunk out of his team-mate's lead.
Loser: Max Verstappen
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According to Motorsport.com's Filip Cleeren, around 25,000 Dutch spectators made the trip to Spa for the Belgian GP weekend, wearing their orange t-shirts, waving their flags and setting off their smoke bombs.
As he tossed caps into the crowd during the pre-race drivers' parade, Verstappen—competing with a one-off helmet design for his adopted home event—appeared to be absorbing all that energy from his fans.
But did all that support—and all that pressure to "put on a show" for his supporters—contribute to the 18-year-old's scruffiest performance since he joined Red Bull?
Starting on the supersoft tyres, as opposed to the softs used by the cars around him, there was a possibility Verstappen—who came dangerously close to parking beyond his grid spot at the end of the formation lap—would emerge from the first corner in the lead.
But excess wheelspin off the line saw him instantly lose a couple of positions and, rather than shuffling into the pack, he decided he wanted them back there and then, poking his nose underneath Raikkonen at La Source and losing part of his front wing when Vettel turned in on them both.
A pit stop for repairs at the end of that dropped him down the order before the safety car period and red-flag stoppage—which should have rescued his afternoon—made it even worse.
During the stoppage, television pictures showed Verstappen examining replays and reliving the Turn 1 incident with his Red Bull team, meaning that when the race did eventually resume, he returned to his car in an even angrier state than when he left it.
That was evident in his driving for the rest of the race, with Verstappen pushing Raikkonen and Sergio Perez off the track at Les Combes and changing direction on the Kemmel Straight when Raikkonen was lining up a pass, yet again testing F1's code of conduct to the limit.
An 11th-place finish confirmed home advantage was, on this occasion, a hindrance for Verstappen, who fought a little too hard for his own good.
Winner: Daniel Ricciardo
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With the Ardennes forest painted orange for the weekend, Ricciardo made no secret of his desire to upstage Verstappen at his adopted home race.
Prior to the start, the Australian told Sky Sports' television coverage how the outpouring of support for his team-mate had given him "extra motivation" to "go and put it to 'em," but Ricciardo was fortunate to avoid being caught up in the incident that defined Verstappen's race.
As he later explained, per Motorsport.com's Charles Bradley, a piece of debris damaged his front wing as he tried to navigate his way through the shower of carbon fibre at La Source, leaving him "struggling" in the opening phase of the race.
Persevering with a poor-handling car—rather than heading straight for the pits for repairs and new tyres as so many did when the safety car first appeared—was crucial, with the red-flag stoppage gifting Ricciardo and Red Bull a free stop to repair the damage and rescue their race.
Restarting from second place, Ricciardo—despite being on the soft-compound tyres—was unable to seriously challenge Rosberg when the race resumed and from there he had a lonely race, securing the runner-up spot when responding to Hamilton's increased pace in the closing laps.
His third podium finish in as many races has strengthened his grip on third place in the drivers' standings, with Ricciardo now 23 points ahead of Vettel.
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Loser: Ferrari
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As dependable as Vettel has been for Ferrari over the last 18 months, the four-time world champion remains prone to errors that a driver of his calibre should never make.
His launch from fourth on the grid allowed Vettel to pass Raikkonen and Verstappen on the run toward Turn 1, but he ruined all his hard work when he reached La Source, where he turned in too tightly, hit his team-mate for the second time in 2016 and spun, instantly falling to the rear of the field.
The incident was reminiscent of his collision with Ricciardo at last year's Mexican GP, where he swiped into the first corner on the assumption the Red Bull driver wouldn't be there and received a puncture for his troubles.
And it condemned his team to another recovery afternoon at a circuit where Ferrari should have been targeting a first podium finish since Austria.
Indeed, Vettel—who predictably blamed a "very bold" Verstappen for the Turn 1 incident—felt it would have been possible for both Ferraris to finish in the top three at Spa, explaining "the pace was good" even when both cars were carrying damage, per Motorsport.com's Pablo Elizalde.
The German ultimately salvaged sixth, finishing within 10 seconds of fourth-placed Hulkenberg, while Raikkonen—the faster of the pair throughout the weekend—recovered to ninth, around six seconds behind his team-mate.
On an afternoon Ricciardo enjoyed a lonely drive to second, extending Red Bull's lead to 22 points in the fight for the runner-up spot in the constructors' standings, Ferrari were left to wonder what might have been had their lead driver left some racing room at the start.
Winner: Lewis Hamilton
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As noted ahead of the race, the eventful starts at Spa meant Mercedes should have seriously considered starting Hamilton from the pit lane to avoid the inevitable first-lap shunt, especially following their costly failure to do so in China earlier this season.
The Silver Arrows ultimately decided to let Hamilton start from the grid, placing huge trust in their world champion to steer clear of any trouble, and their faith was repaid with an extremely mature, sensible drive from the back row of the grid.
Hamilton was understandably cautious when the five red lights went out, to the point where he was effectively creeping around La Source to check the coast was clear.
With Alonso widely regarded as the best starter in F1, Hamilton almost seemed to latch onto the back of his former team-mate's car and allowed the Spaniard to guide him through the storm—dodging this incident and that, gaining positions all the while.
So when the red flag waved and the race was temporarily stopped, Hamilton found himself as high as fifth and suddenly there was all to play for on this weekend of damage limitation.
He quickly disposed of Alonso, whose help he no longer required, on the restart, and when he caught and passed Hulkenberg soon after, it felt as though anything was possible.
Yet despite gearing his entire weekend around his performance in the race, Hamilton struggled with tyre degradation, with his two stints on soft-compound tyres lasting 12 and 11 laps respectively before his switch to mediums for the final stint.
Even so, in a race he could easily have stumbled into someone else's accident and lost the lead of the world championship, third place from 21st on the grid is a potentially title-deciding result.
Loser: Toro Rosso
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Most people in F1 were ready to get back to business at the Belgian GP, but Toro Rosso were no doubt hoping the month-long summer break would be extended by two weeks.
The Red Bull B-team have been dreading this phase of the season for some time, with Carlos Sainz Jr. admitting Toro Rosso are beginning to pay the price for running undeveloped, year-old Ferrari engines in 2016, per Motorsport.com's Pablo Elizalde.
Although Sainz hoped the long, fast corners at Spa would conceal their problems, Toro Rosso's lack of straight-line speed was brutally exposed in the Ardennes forest.
Daniil Kvyat, who has returned to work looking just as happy and full of life as he did before the summer break, was eliminated from the first segment of qualifying for the second weekend in succession, while Sainz was outpaced by both Renaults in Q2.
And their misery continued into the race, when Sainz—having gained seven positions on the opening lap with "one of the best starts of [his] life, as he told the team's official website—suffered a high-speed, rear-right tyre explosion on the Kemmel Straight after running "over some debris" on Lap 2.
That failure, which caused so much damage that his rear wing was pointing vertically, put Sainz out of his misery, while Kvyat was left to struggle on to 14th place, finishing more than 20 seconds adrift of the final points-paying position.
That Kvyat went on to tell the same source his race was "not that bad" only underlined just how debilitating Toro Rosso's power deficit is at high-speed tracks.
And with Monza, the fastest circuit on the calendar, up next, their predicament will only get worse before it gets better.
Winner: Fernando Alonso
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In the buildup to the Belgian GP weekend, Alonso raised plenty of eyebrows by insisting he will head for retirement if the new-for-2017 F1 cars are not to his liking.
The Spaniard told Thursday's official FIA press conference his future will depend entirely on the success of next year's regulation changes, explaining how the state of 2016-style F1 has made him "a little bit sad" and unable to enjoy his racing.
Following his driver-of-the-day performance in Spa, however, you can only hope Alonso has rediscovered a little of his enthusiasm for F1.
Like Hamilton, the two-time world champion was nailed to the back of the grid for exceeding the engine component-usage regulations—one of those nuisances that is pushing him away from F1—but almost immediately rendered his penalty meaningless.
Alonso surged from 22nd place to 11th at the end of the first lap alone and, when others ahead pitted in the immediate aftermath of Magnussen's crash, had been elevated up to fourth when the red flag appeared.
Despite a free tyre change—he swapped his mediums for softs during the stoppage—Alonso was powerless to prevent Hamilton, Hulkenberg, Perez and Vettel sailing by and, at one stage, it seemed he could have been bumped out of the top 10.
Yet F1's wily old fox managed to do just enough to stay ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Raikkonen and Felipe Massa as the lesser mortals fought among themselves.
Alonso later told the team's official website how his race proved McLaren-Honda are making "progress—real progress" and his result "would have been unthinkable on a circuit like this" just "a few months ago."
And, yes, he did admit he enjoyed his afternoon's work, adding: "It was an exciting race to drive, and I had a good feeling throughout."
Maybe Mr. Happy is here to stay after all.
Winner: Force India
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For the slightest moment, it felt as though Hulkenberg was finally on course to register his maiden F1 podium finish in the Belgian GP.
The first-lap demolition derby left the German, who started from seventh, running second to Rosberg at the end of the first lap, but his rotten luck struck again just as we began to get ahead of ourselves.
Hulkenberg was among the drivers to pit at the first sight of Magnussen's crumpled Renault in the Raidillon crash barriers, changing onto fresh tyres on Lap 6—a matter of laps before the safety-car period became a red-flag stoppage.
The pit stop itself cost him only one position, but the red flag and the accompanying free tyre change to those who hadn't stopped left him fighting a losing battle against Lewis Hamilton before later winning a fight at the pit exit with Fernando Alonso, with whim he collided as the cars rejoined the track.
Despite the disappointment of missing out on the podium, fourth place was Hulkenberg's best finish since the 2013 Korean GP, and, as ever, the German was closely followed by team-mate Perez in fifth.
Perez also made the mistake of pitting before the red flag, but he made up for it by utilising an alternative strategy, which saw him complete two stints on the medium-compound tyres after the stoppage.
Getting both cars in the top five on a day the Williams drivers finished on the fringes of the points has elevated Force India to fourth place in the constructors' championship with eight races remaining.
Timing and tyre data sourced from the official F1 website, the FOM television feed and Pirelli Motorsport's infographics on Twitter.
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