Lewis Hamilton was bullish in the wake of his third place at the Belgian Grand Prix after losing only 10 points of his 19-point championship lead to his Mercedes team-mate, Nico Rosberg, who won from pole.
The German would have been expecting to make a bigger dent in Hamilton’s title hopes, given that the Briton started on the back row of the grid after being penalised 55 places for taking three new engines. Hamilton, however, put in a remarkable recovery drive to gain 18 places and crucially has ensured he now has a stock of power units for the rest of the season.
“The fight is back on as far I am concerned,” Hamilton said. “The good thing is now I have these engines, so hopefully we will see a cleaner second half of the season because it has definitely not been the easiest so far battling for the title.”
Should the championship go to the wire, saving so many points at this race and winning in Hungary when Hamilton took the title lead for the first time may prove pivotal. “I felt I got back to my comfort level in driving and I expect to take that into the next race,” he said. “To go into the summer break 19 points ahead and only lose 10, well, if someone had said: ‘You are going to lose 10 points at the next race and take three new engines,’ I would have taken that.”
This was the race of a world champion and the sort of performance that sets up his run-in for another title perfectly. He has been overeager in the past to make up places and commit to all-out attack, but on one of the world’s finest circuits Hamilton gave a bravura performance of pitch-perfect control and measured aggression. He acknowledged it had required no little rehearsal and some maturity.
“In my early days in karting we were always last because we had a crap go‑kart, so I had to come through and in cars it sucked at the beginning, so I was always coming from the back,” he said. “In Formula One I’ve had at least one year where I was at the back having to come through to the front. It’s not a stressful scenario because I have been there so many times.
“The only issue is staying out of trouble and how hard you push. My racing instinct is to get the best start possible, jump as many people as you can in turn one and hopefully you have done half the job. That’s what I want to do but the other drivers are hustling for position so all the years of experience came to fruition in the race.”
Aware he would have to take engine penalties after the summer break, Hamilton had said before the race that he felt as though he was still behind Rosberg. Now he is firmly ahead and has one extra power unit in hand over his rival. Starting with the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, he also has the run-in he would like. In 2014, he won six of the final seven races and in 2015 four from five after Belgium to win the title three races before the end.
Toto Wolff, the executive director at Mercedes, was pleased with the result for both drivers, but expressed fears that Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is heading for a major accident after his battle with Kimi Raikkonen. The pair were involved in an incident at turn one but, more seriously, then clashed at Les Combes and a lap later the Dutchman moved very late to block an attempted pass by Raikkonen. He has done it before, but, as previously, was not adjudged to have been at fault by the stewards.
Wolff tried to sign Verstappen before he joined the Red Bull junior programme in 2014. “He is refreshing for me. He is a young boy I like a lot,” he said. “He comes in here with no fear, no respect, puts the elbows out. It reminds me of the great ones, it reminds me of Lewis Hamilton, of Ayrton Senna. You can see that some guys are starting to think twice about how to overtake him. Until now, all that has proven is that he is on the right track.”
However, the driver’s uncompromising approach is a cause for concern. “The FIA has not penalised it, the only thing that has happened is that he has been given a hard time in the drivers’ briefings,” Wolff said. “Maybe next time he will have a harder time. I just fear it might end up in the wall heavily one day. It is refreshing, but dangerous.”
