Sebastian Vettel Holds off Lewis Hamilton to Win Belgian F1 Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel produced a flawless performance to win the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday at Spa.

After a chaotic start, the Ferrari man overtook Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap and led the race from that point on. The win sees Vettel reduce Hamilton's lead to 17 points at the top of the driver standings; the Mercedes man was a comfortable second, while Max Verstappen steered his Red Bull into third.

Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas produced one of the drives of the day, as he recovered from starting in 17th position to come home in fourth. 

The opening stages of the race were full of incident at Spa, as Fernando Alonso was shunted from behind by Nico Hulkenberg off the start and careered over the top of Charles Leclerc.

As we can see, it would've been a scary moment for the Frenchman, who was well protected by the new halo technology:

Further forward in the pack, Vettel was able to pull off an excellent move on Hamilton to jump into first place. The timing of the move was perfect for the Ferrari driver, as the safety car was called out just as he completed the overtake.

There were also some high-profile casualties at the start, with damage to Daniel Ricciardo's back wing ending the Red Bull man's chances of points; a puncture was also suffered by Kimi Raikkonen. Both drivers would eventually retire.

After the safety car came in, Vettel was able to pull away from Hamilton. Behind them Verstappen was the man on the move, as he went about getting past the pair of Force India drivers, producing sharp moves to overtake Esteban Ocon and then Sergio Perez.

F1 journalist Luke Smith noted that Verstappen hasn't previously had the best of times in Belgium, as he set about trying to reel in Hamilton:

Further back, despite his tough start, Bottas was cutting through the field with ease, and was up into the points positions well before the halfway mark.

At the front of the pack, Hamilton did threaten to close the gap to Vettel at times, although whenever it started to creep down, the German appeared to have something in reserve to pull away again. The Ferrari Twitter account noted that their man was in a comfortable position:

With that in mind, the main action came from Bottas late on, who had continued to motor through the field and up to the Force India pair. The Finn was quickly past Ocon into fifth and was on the hunt to get past Perez in the final stages.

The Mexican offered more resistance than his team-mate, but with four laps remaining Bottas used DRS to surge past the Force India and complete a fine drive. Up ahead, Vettel, Hamilton and Verstappen crossed the line in almost processional style.

For Vettel, this was an ideal outcome after the summer break, as he showed daring and skill to overtake Hamilton and then composure in spades to hold his rival at arm's length. The momentum was fully with the Mercedes man before the interval, but the Ferrari star went some way to wrestling it back here.