Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium): Lewis Hamilton celebrated his 200th Formula One race in style Sunday with a pole-to-flag Belgian Grand Prix victory for Mercedes that halved Sebastian Vettel’s championship lead to seven points.
The Briton’s fifth success in 12 races this season, and 58th of his career, came a day after he equalled Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 68 pole positions.
Vettel finished second for Ferrari, 2.3 seconds behind. Australian Daniel Ricciardo took third place for Red Bull after a storming re-start following a late safety car period that had closed the gap to the frontrunners and triggered a flurry of pit-stops.
With eight races remaining, four-time champion Vettel, whose next race is Ferrari’s home Italian Grand Prix in Monza, has 220 points and Hamilton 213.
Kimi Raikkonen and Bottas finished fourth and fifth respectively. Nico Hulkenberg finished sixth, Romain Grosjean was seventh and Felipe Massa took eighth.
While Hamilton and Vettel played out their own private duel, there was plenty of action further down the field with the Force India duo of Mexican Sergio Perez and Frenchman Esteban Ocon playing a starring role.
The simmering pair clashed twice, the second time bringing out the safety car when Ocon, who finished ninth, tried to get past on the run down to Eau Rouge and was almost squeezed into the wall.
Debris from his car’s broken front wing littered the track while Perez’s right rear tyre was punctured, leaving him limping back to the pits on a rim.
Schumacher honoured
Mick Schumacher, the son of Formula One great Michael, marked the 25th anniversary of his father’s first Grand Prix victory by driving a lap in the German’s championship-winning 1994 Benetton car ahead of the race here, Sunday. The Belgian Grand Prix is inseparably linked with the seven-time World Champion as he made his debut there in 1991, won his first race here in 1992. For the excited spectators in the grandstands it was an opportunity to again see Michael’s car in which he clinched the 1994 title in a nail-biting finish in Adelaide, pipping Britain’s Damon Hill.
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