It’s safe to say championship rivals Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton couldn’t have had two more different races at the Belgian Grand Prix.
As Rosberg led all 44 laps en route to his sixth victory of the year, Hamilton recovered from 21st to finish third. But who had the most impressive race at Spa-Francorchamps?
After all, with the Briton out of the picture, taking his medicine for poor early season reliability, who else was realistically left to challenge the German for the win?
But then with Hamilton, we know he is in a car that is often running well under it’s potential during the races and around an overtaking-friendly circuit who could stop one of the sport’s best at going wheel-to-wheel?
Indeed, knowing Hamilton was fifth by lap seven would have you in shock, however, he achieved that gain having only overtaken two cars competitively.
On the opening lap, he gained six positions, having been last on the run to La Source following a cautious start, thanks to Max Verstappen and the two Ferrari’s coming together at the first corner, Pascal Wehrlein and Jenson Button colliding at Les Combes and Felipe Nasr pitting for repairs.
Carlos Sainz’s tyre failure and a pit-stop for Felipe Massa moved the world champion to 13th, which became 12th after his first overtake on Daniil Kvyat on lap two.
The VSC for Sainz’s stricken Toro Rosso meant he held station on lap three before his second pass, on Esteban Ocon, on lap four for 11th.
Hamilton had just made a move on Fernando Alonso for 10th but almost simultaneously Kevin Magnussen crashed at Eau Rouge causing a safety car, therefore, the Mercedes driver gave the position back.
In 11th, he would gain six positions under the safety car as drivers ahead pitted while he stayed out. Later, barrier repairs meant the red flag was shown and Hamilton would effectively start the second race from fifth.
In retrospect, therefore, to only gain two further positions over the remaining 36 laps doesn’t seem quite so great.
Hamilton did dispatch of Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg within 10 laps of the restart, as he opted for a two-stop strategy using softs for the first two stints. But he didn’t have the pace to challenge Daniel Ricciardo as a switch back to mediums, which he had used at the original start too, sealed his third place finish.
A solid if not spectacular race then for the Briton if you consider the position he had got to in such short order. Indeed the biggest thing Hamilton could probably be praised for was avoiding the carnage in those opening laps.
As a result, the air of disappointment around Rosberg that somehow the Belgian Grand Prix was an opportunity missed shouldn’t be so prevalent.
While most were predicting a result around sixth-eighth for Hamilton, Nico must have surely anticipated an unpredictable race around a circuit known for producing them.
His own race, while not as complex as his teammate, was actually a much better drive than Rosberg has been credited for.
It’s true that the early laps were straight forward after the incidents at La Source left the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg behind him in second, in fact, the Mercedes had a four-second gap at the end of Lap 1!
But the VSC actually allowed Hulkenberg to significantly close in again to within three seconds meaning Rosberg had to push again before the safety car and later the red flag.
The new race brought a new challenge in Ricciardo, who stayed out under the safety car while Hulkenberg pitted, and for a few laps, the pressure was really on.
The Red Bull on softs was faster than the Silver Arrow on mediums with the Australian briefly getting within DRS range. However, as the tyre life fell away as did Ricciardo thanks to an impressive stint on the white-striped Pirellis by Rosberg.
That meant his second stint on the same tyre was trouble free with no competition and he just paced himself to the finish line.
As mentioned earlier then, two different races but two very similar performances. In fact, now thinking about which was best, I honestly couldn’t give you a solid answer either way!
