Lewis Hamilton eased to a comfortable lights-to-flag victory at the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Briton held off teammate Valtteri Bottas on the long run to Les Combes on the opening lap and from there could easily control the race as the Finn was unable to mount a challenge.
Before the start, an exhaust failure ended Carlos Sainz’s day early, with the McLaren due to the start from seventh.
That meant only 19 cars lined up when the lights went out, with the two Mercedes holding formation and Verstappen repelling Ricciardo through Rivage.
Charles Leclerc made a great start from 13th, running as high as eighth at one point, bu when the DRS was enabled, the Ferrari began falling back down the field, slipping to 12th.
Bottas initially has the pace to close on Hamilton but Mercedes appear to hold the Finn back behind the Briton, forbidding him from using a higher engine mode.
Verstappen also didn’t have the pace to match the all-black Silver Arrows, meaning the order was fairly static but for the falling Leclerc.
A big crash for Giovinazzi exiting the Fagnes chicane brought out the safety car, however, with Russell as an innocent casualty as he hits debris and joins the Alfa Romeo in the barrier.
All the drivers choose to pit except for Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez, but a quiet period sees both pit and fall back down the field
Leclerc’s miserable day continues as he falls back to 14th in the pitstop phase, behind teammate Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.
Initially, Verstappen could match Bottas on the hard tyres but slowly began to fall back as all three leaders tried to nurse their tyres home.
And that they did with Hamilton crossing the line eight seconds clear of Bottas and the Dutchman a further seven behind in third.
Ricciardo fell back in the period after the safety car, but as the front runners slowed, he closed to just with 3.5s of his former teammate in fourth setting the fastest lap of the race on the final lap.
Esteban Ocon passed Alex Albon made it a brilliant last seven kilometres for Renault as he passed Alex Albon for fifth, demoting the Red Bull to sixth ahead of Lando Norris.
Gasly used his fresher tyres to charge back up to eight in the AlphaTauri after not pitting under the safety car.
While Racing Point had a very disappointing race on a circuit where they usually thrive, falling back from their grid positions as Lance Stroll led Sergio Perez over the line to complete the top 10.
Highlighting the plight of the Ferrari-powered teams, not one scored a point on Sunday with Kimi Raikkonen the highest placed in 12th for Alfa Romeo.
Ferrari themselves opted for a two-stop strategy with both but it didn’t improve their dismal weekend as Vettel claimed 13th and Leclerc 14th.
Behind them was only the two Haas cars and Nicholas Latifi in the Williams.
Full results are available below:
