Ricciardo takes advantage of Mercedes team battle and wins at Spa

Ricciardo takes advantage of Mercedes team battle and wins at Spa

Daniel Ricciardo has strengthened his outside chances of an unexpected late-season challenge for the championship by winning a dramatic Belgian GP after Mercedes’ title-duelling drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton finally came together on track.

It has taken 12 races and several near misses and off-track flashpoints, but it has taken an on-track tangle that many pundits and fans (including perhaps Mercedes’ management themselves) had thought was an inevitable consequence of Rosberg and Hamilton’s hitherto tense private title duel finally happened on the second lap of today’s action-packed Spa race.

While challenging Hamilton on the run to Les Combes with Rosberg having lost the lead into the first corner of the race, he attempted to go round the outside of his team mate at the right-hander, but as Hamilton turned in to take the racing line, Rosberg only succeeded in slicing the team-mate's tyre.

As the puncture took hold of Hamilton's left-rear tyre, Hamilton was sent slewing wide at the next corner and forced with his left rear tyre shredding rubber, to crawl his way back to the pits for an emergency change of tyres as the pack streamed past him. Dropping to the back of the field, Hamilton whose rear floor was also substantially damaged in the incident, didn't have the pace in the car to claw his way back up the order and after numerous requests to retire the damaged car to save the engine was finally granted his wish in the closing laps and this weekend in Spa was his third scoreless race of the year.

And while Rosberg didn't go on to win the race, he required a front-wing change at his first stop after damaging the original part in the clash. But Rosberg's fightback to second place behind the impressive Ricciardo re-increased his championship advantage to a joint season-high of 29 points.
The recriminations from the incident between Hamilton and Rosberg are only just beginning with an uncharacteristically fuming Mercedes chief Toto Wolff expressing his anger at the situation and seemingly Rosberg in particular after the race on Sky Sports F1 coverage.

As a result of this incident between the two Mercedes drivers, Ricciardo was only too happy to once more pick up the pieces as he secured the third win of his stunning season and second in a row either side of the summer break. Ricciardo passed his team mate Sebastian Vettel after he ran wide early on at Pouhon and Ricciardo inherited the lead when Rosberg pitted for his change of front-wing.

Throughout the race, he then managed to stop one less time than the recovering Mercedes of Rosberg to potentially bring himself back into play in the title fight. His deficit to Rosberg currently is 64 points, but with 50 up for grabs in November’s bumper Abu Dhabi finale, Ricciardo shouldn’t be discounted for battling for the title just yet.

The other rising star of the season so far which is Valtteri Bottas has delivered his latest podium finish after beating Spa master Kimi Raikkonen to third place in the battle of the Finns and Raikkonen finished the race in fourth place. Sebastian Vettel came home in fifth place ahead of Kevin Magnussen in sixth place, Jenson Button in seventh place and also Fernando Alonso who took a five-second penalty at his first stop for his mechanics still being on the grid after the 15-second start warning. But this did not stop Alonso battling Vettel and the McLaren drivers in a thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle in the closing laps of the race.

However, it was announced after the race that due to the incident between Magnussen and Alonso on the final few laps, Magnussen has been handed a 20 second time penalty and two penalty points on his licence which now promotes the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg to tenth place and Magnussen therefore finishes the race in twelfth place.

Sergio Perez managed to achieve ninth place in the race after Force India struggled throughout the weekend to extract pace and performance from the car and have now lost fifth place in the Constructors Championship to McLaren. Rookie Danill Kvyat once again impressed and finished in ninth place ahead of newly promoted Nico Hulkenberg to tenth place.

Jean-Eric Vergne had a disappointing weekend after firstly it being announced that he was to be replaced by Toro Rosso with the 16 year old Max Verstappen being signed for the 2015 season, having a dismal qualifying and now a harder race finishing in eleventh place.

Behind Vergne, came Kevin Magnussen after his time penalty being added in twelfth place ahead of Felipe Massa in thirteenth place who suffered damage after collecting the debris from Hamilton's tyre after the collision with Rosberg and also ahead of the Sauber's of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Guiterrez in fourteenth and fifteenth places respectively.

Max Chilton outperformed his team mate Jules Bianchi and finished the race in sixteenth place ahead of the Caterham of Marcus Ericsson in seventeenth place and his team mate who finished in eighteenth place 5 laps down despite retiring from the race.

The retirements from the Grand Prix were Lewis Hamilton, after deciding to save his engine after his incident with Rosberg sent him to the latter end of the grid with no chance of improving, the Lotus's of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado who it is believed were suffering with engine problems that forced them to retire and also Andre Lotterer whose F1 debut lasted three laps after he suffered issues with his power unit.

The official classification of the race at the Belgian Grand Prix is as follows below

Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1.24.36.556s
Nico Rosberg Mercedes 3.3s
Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 28s
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 36.8s
Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 54.2s
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 54.5s
Fernando Alonso Ferrari 61.1s
Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 64.2s
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 65.3s
Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 65.6s
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 71.9s
Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 74.2s
Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 75.9s
Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 82.4s
Esteban Guiterrez Sauber-Ferrari 90.8s
Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1 lap
Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1 lap
Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 5 laps
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 6 laps
Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 11 laps
Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 43 laps
Andre Lotterer Caterham-Renault Power unit

Thanks to Kevin Bennett once again for providing some stunning photos, and to Graham and Leigh for Spa