Hamilton continues to pile up wins and is on track to overtake Schumacher’s record.
SPA-FRANCHORCHAMPS, Belgium—August 30th—Watching over warn tires was not much of a problem for Lewis Hamilton. He went on to win Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix with a comfortable 4-second victory over Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas. Max Verstappen took third.
After the race, Hamilton preferred to look at the challenges he faced on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton: It wasn’t the easiest of races. I had a lock-up into Turn 5, which started to give a bit of vibration, and the tire temps were slowly dropping.
The race had one major event. Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Williams’ George Russell were involved in an accident at sector 14, which brought out the only safety car on lap 11. As the debris was swept up and the race resumed on lap 14, Hamilton regained the lead and held until it until the end of the race.
Teammate Bottas was never close to Hamilton. The Finn, who struggled with his tires near the end of the race, was behind Hamilton by 3.9 seconds with ten laps left but kept losing his time, eventually finishing just under nine seconds behind the Briton.
The major battle was further behind. As Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo took fourth and had the fastest lap of the race, teammate Esteban Ocon led a trio of drivers for fifth. The Frenchman passed Alex Albon (Red Bull) on the last lap and was able to just held off McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Pierre Gasly took a gamble and stayed out longer, which put more wear on his first set of tires. But that strategy paid off. The Alpha Tauri driver took eighth ahead of the Racing Point pair of Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez.
Ferrari was once again the disappointment of the day. Sebastian Vettel finished in 13th, just ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc. The American Haas F1 Team was not any better. Romain Grosjean took 15th with Kevin Magnussen at 17th.
Besides Giovinazzi and Russell, McLaren’s other driver, Carlos Sainz Jr., never started the race due to an exhaust failure.
Hamilton comfortably leads the world championship by 47 points over Verstappen.
It was Hamilton’s fifth victory in seven races this season, and that puts him on the verge of equaling Michael Schumacher’s race wins by two. If the Briton takes this season’s title, he will also equal Schumacher’s world titles of seven.
Even as Hamilton is getting older, he doesn’t seem to notice it. “I’m 35 going towards 36, but I feel better than ever,” Hamilton said. “That is a positive, and I am grateful to the team.”
