Track Torque: Ricciardo brilliant in Belgium

DANIEL Ricciardo took his third victory of the season at Spa Francorchamps last Sunday and became the second Australian since Sir Jack Brabham in 1960 to win this particular race.

After a second lap incident, which I will come back to, between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, Rosberg chased flat out for the entire race in an attempt to beat Ricciardo but failed to make it to the flag by only 3.3 seconds!

A very good drive by Valtterri Bottas in his Williams Mercedes saw him earning yet another podium position, in third.

Back to the crash on lap two. Here I wish to quote what Mercedes Benz’s head of motor sport Toto Wolff had to say about the ‘unacceptable’ collision between Rosberg and Hamilton.

“This cannot and will not happen again,” he said, stating that the accident was a clear transgression of the rules laid down by Mercedes in an effort to allow the pair to race together without compromising the team’s overall objectives.

“Today we saw our worst case scenario when the drivers made contact on lap two and that ultimately cost us a 1-2 finish today … it has been our clear policy to let drivers race but rule number one is, don’t hit each other. To see that type of contact so early in the race is an unacceptable level of risk to be taking out on the track!”

I personally saw the incident as a racing accident, with Hamilton having just taken the lead, holding his line and squeezing out Rosberg through the corner!

Hamilton suffered tyre damage in the incident and had to rush to the pits on three wheels before rejoining the race proper. This resulted in him dropping to 19th position.

He didn’t have a lucky day as he struggled on, only to retire on the 39th lap.

Wolff, however, is more determined that they convert their comparative advantage into more silverware, and not a coming together.

As for the rest of the race there was plenty of excitement and ‘mixing of it’ in close proximity at very high speeds.

Sebastian Vettel drove a very good race in the beginning, behind his teammate, and Rosberg had a big job to get past him.

Kimi Raikkonen seemed more comfortable in his Ferrari, now that it has been tailored to suit him.

The two Ferraris were close together for a large part of the race.

Real duels took place between Bottas and Raikkonen and, further back, between Vettel and the McLarens of Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button.

Fernando Alonso had been part of this battle until he was slapped with a five second stop-go penalty because mechanics were still working on his Ferrari during the grid formation lap.

Just a lap from the finish Alonso again attacked but was edged onto the grass by Magnussen, an incident which earned him a post-race penalty, but gave us a thrilling four way fight to the flag.

Magnussen was given a 20 second penalty which dropped him from sixth to 12th in the final classification.

The other Williams driven by Felipe Massa had a very poor race after being damaged by debris during the second lap incident.

In the drivers’ stakes, Rosberg, on 220, is now 29 points ahead of Hamilton, with Ricciardo a further 25 points behind him.

In the constructors, Mercedes have 411, Red Bull 254, Ferrari 158 and Williams 150.

Roll on the excitement of Monza on September 7, with all the Tifosi right around the track!