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The Belgian Grand Prix was anything but boring; Lewis Hamilton found his way to the podium after a back of the grid start, Kevin Magnussen crashed at a speed near to 200mph and Fernando Alonso had a miracle race for McLaren, finishing seventh after starting at the back with Hamilton.

Nico Rosberg had a straight forward race at Spa, he needed to stay clear of any mishaps in the opening laps and maintain a safe distance from Hamilton. As simple as a race can seem it doesn’t always unfold that way. With a combination of a virtual safety car, the actual safety car and a red flag in the race, Rosberg’s job suddenly got that little bit harder. Despite those problems the German stayed out in front and delivered a faultless performance giving him his first win at the infamous Belgian GP.

There were a few scrapes in the opening lap between the two Ferraris and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. With Rosberg leaving the other drivers behind Verstappen battled to hold on to second place, it wasn’t meant to be though. The Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel caused problems for his team mate and Verstappen. Kimi Raikkonen and Verstappen were fighting it out for second until Vettel hit his own team mate causing damage to all three cars and leaving Verstappen way down the pecking order. This is where Daniel Ricciardo took advantage and secured himself second place – as long as he could fend off any attack from the quickly approaching Mercedes of Hamilton.

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The sixth lap of the Grand Prix saw the end of Magnussen’s race and the end of his trusty R. S. 16. He lost control of the Renault at the top of Eau Rouge, one of the fastest corners of the track. He was running eighth before he span and destroyed not only his car but the barrier as well. Magnussen was able to walk away from the crash and was taken to medical for a check up. The race was red flagged to ensure the barrier could be rebuilt properly.

Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez put in an amazing performance for Force India but once again Hulkenberg just missed out on a podium finish, finishing fourth behind Hamilton.

Podium Interviews

Nico Rosberg: It’s been a great weekend, very, very happy with that result of course. I understand that some of you are disappointed. I understand that you wanted Verstappen to up here. Another year, he’s very young. He has many years to go. You’ve been amazing this weekend. So many of you have come, it’s been very impressive to see, great atmosphere. Thank you to my team of course, great car they have given me. A very special day. And of course congrats to Lewis, from last place to third must have been pretty impressive.

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Daniel Ricciardo: Firstly, thank you for doing that [Webber drank sparkling wine from Ricciardo’s race boot]. I think we just made our country even more proud. It was cool, you know. Obviously it was pretty messed up at the start, a lot of virtual safety cars and then the red flag. We knew we had a bit of damage actually from the first corner but we fixed the front wing and got back out. I mean, it was a bit of a race by myself but obviously I enjoyed the pace and to keep Lewis behind was a good achievement today.

Lewis Hamilton: Firstly I’ve got to say a big thank you… this crowd is incredible. I know a lot of these people came out for Max, which is amazing and that’s great for the sport, but I just want to say a big thank you to everyone for supporting me today. The team did an amazing job this weekend. I changed three engines. I’m actually ahead of these guys on engines, which is a good thing. Thanks to the team. Just a remarkable day: beautiful weather, great crowd and a great race.

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