Race report
Belgian GP: Top 10 quotes after race
Double podium for the Silver Arrows in chaotic Belgian Grand Prix
Photo by: XPB Images
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Engine | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 1h44'51.058 |
| "I am so happy to win here in Spa at this legendary track. It wasn't an easy weekend for us. We had to work a lot on the setup - but in the race it was perfect. The stints on the medium tyres were really good and I felt really comfortable at the start on the softs too. Our car was really great today, so thank you to the team for all their hard work in getting it spot on. It's great for the team that Lewis was able to recover to finish in third place, so overall a great result for us. It was a great atmosphere here with all the Dutch people coming to see Max. They shouldn't be sad because he is still young and I'm sure he will have a lot more races here with much better results. Now, it's only a few days until Monza. The penalties for Lewis made things easier for me today - but he will be back in the battle for the win again next weekend, which will be exciting." | ||||
| 2 |  Daniel Ricciardo |
Red Bull | TAG | 14.113 |
| “I’m pleased with that result, I knew a podium was on today. Of course you can never guarantee, but I knew if we had the pace that we did on Friday, that we would be able to get there. With Lewis starting at the back it was an opportunity to get at least a second place, and we got that. A win is always the big target, but Nico had the pace that we expected, so second is the best we could have done. There was a lot going on at the start and I actually hit some of the debris which damaged the front wing, so the red flag helped us as we were able to repair it. Before that the car was quite affected. Then, after that we got going; there wasn’t too much action for me, but I was just trying to be consistent and the outcome was good! The fans this weekend have been awesome. The driver parade was great, 99% of the fans are here for Max but they were cheering everyone and it was good sportsmanship; Max got bigger cheers but they were waving and cheering for everyone, it was really good to see. So big respect to the Dutch and Belgian fans, they were really cool.” | ||||
| 3 |  Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 27.634 |
| "If you'd offered me third coming into this race with all the penalties I would definitely have taken it! I really wasn't expecting that! As I said yesterday, I really didn't know what would be possible today. But I came into the race with a positive mental attitude and it all came together. It was a steep mountain to climb - but we did it together as a team. I'm so happy and so proud of everyone. Changing so many parts on the car, it would have been easy to make mistakes. But the guys did an exceptional job and all three Power Units worked flawlessly. I think I now have more engines than most of the others, which is great. Now, the fight is really on for the second half of the season. The car worked really well out there today. The most difficult part of the race really was the mental approach from the beginning in terms of whether I risked it all at the start or hung back and tried to pick my way through carefully. I kind of went for somewhere in the middle - but then all this commotion happened along the way and I'm grateful I could capitalize on that. Coming from the back and having to make overtaking manoeuvres, I had to push a little bit more than you'd normally plan to, so we went for a three stop strategy. Whether or not I would have made it on a two stop with the medium I'm not sure - but I'm glad we didn't take that risk. The team made the right call. I've been so impressed with the fans here this weekend. Naturally, a lot of them were here for Max. But I've seen loads of Brits here too and generally I feel like I've had great support right the way through, so thank you everybody." | ||||
| 4 | Nico Hulkenberg |
Force India | Mercedes | 35.907 |
| “Today is a massive result for the team and I’m feeling very happy with fourth place. There were some unusual circumstances, but we were there to take the opportunities and pick up some very important points. At the start of the race things worked out really well for me. The first lap was great; I was up in second place following Nico [Rosberg] and pulling away from the group of cars behind me. Unfortunately, the red flag proved costly because it neutralised things and bunched everybody back up again. The restart was clean and the rest of the race was quite controlled – just managing my pace and looking after the tyres. There was a battle with Fernando [Alonso] coming out of the pit lane, but we managed to stay ahead and keep the fourth position. Maybe if things had worked out slightly differently, we could have been on the podium, but I’m satisfied with the fourth position.” | ||||
| 5 |  Sergio Perez |
Force India | Mercedes | 40.660 |
| “It’s been a great day for the team and I am very pleased to finish fifth, but it was quite a tough race from the start. I chose a wide line going into turn one, but had to go far on the outside to avoid the first corner accident and that cost me a few positions. I dropped down to ninth and that compromised my race. I managed to make some good progress early on, but every time I switched to new tyres I found myself having to put a lot of stress on them as I needed to attack Felipe [Massa] then Fernando [Alonso]. I still managed to make my way through and bring home a good result for the team. Moving to fourth in the constructors’’ championship is a fantastic achievement for us, but we can’t get carried away because there’s still a very long way to go in the season. Hopefully we can keep our momentum going and keep scoring strongly.” | ||||
| 6 | Sebastian Vettel |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 45.394 |
| "Today I had a brillant start. I was in second place and half a car ahead, so I could dictate the way. I could hardly see Kimi, he was in my blind spot, with Max even further right and out of sight. So I don't think what Max was trying to do would have worked. Obviously he didn't allow Kimi to move into the inside, and that prevented both of them from clearing Turn One in a normal way. We all three touched and collided, and this was bad news for Kimi and for me. Of course, with hindsight, I would have given more room to the inside, but you want to make the corner and try to race, and I gave room to Kimi, but not to three cars. Max had a bad start, he was falling behind. I think we have seen in the last couple of years that if you really dive down the very inside,the track is falling off and you basically go straight. The cars ahead have priority, and this is something he needs to understand. In that regard there was no way he could have made the corner without making contact. I don't think that me and Kimi have to change what we are doing, we respect each other and it's a pity when two cars of the same color collide." | ||||
| 7 |  Fernando Alonso |
McLaren | Honda | 59.445 |
| “It was an exciting race to drive and I had a good feeling throughout. We had good pace this weekend; we did better than expected on this track; we were in the top 10 with Jenson yesterday in qualifying; and we’ve scored points today. Believe me: a few months ago that would have been unthinkable on a circuit like this. That’s progress – real progress. “And, after all the bad luck we’ve had so far this weekend, we finally got some good luck today. We started last, but we managed to keep away from all the incidents, gain some positions thanks to the Safety Car and then a couple more because of the red flag. We then put on fresh tyres and found ourselves in fourth place – and, better still, we had the pace to manage the situation afterwards. Okay, we couldn’t hold back Lewis [Hamilton], Checo [Perez] or Seb [Vettel], because they were just too fast, but we had enough pace to keep Valtteri [Bottas] behind all the way to the flag. Finally, it’s great news that we overtook Toro Rosso in the Constructors’ World Championship – I think we can be regularly in the points from now on. So, to sum up, this weekend we saw evidence of very good progress from the team; we’re moving in the right direction, that’s for sure.” | ||||
| 8 |  Valtteri Bottas |
Williams | Mercedes | 1'00.151 |
| “It was a disappointing day and a shame that we wasted the opportunity that we had at the beginning of the race. We were in a great position after the start and when the safety car came in we should have pitted immediately. We then lost many positions. We tried to get the most out the race that we could after that, and I’m happy that we could at least get some points in the end, but overall it was disappointing. Looking ahead, we’ve got another race next week and obviously we need to learn from today. Hopefully we’ll be better in Monza.” | ||||
| 9 | Kimi Raikkonen |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 1'01.109 |
| "After the start, at the first corner, Sebastian didn't see that there was another car on the inside: he expected me to turn but I couldn't, so I found myself stuck in the middle with nowhere to go. We ended up touching each other and this was pretty bad for the rest of the race. After that it was an uphill battle: the floor of my car was a bit damaged, but we managed to recover some positions and do the best we could, even though it was not easy. I'm fine with fair racing and close battles, but, in my opinion, what happened at Eau Rouge with Verstappen was not correct. I was going full speed and I had to back off before Turn 5 because he just turned in front of me when I tried to overtake him. I've never had that with any other driver, if I hadn't braked hard I would have hit him at full speed and it would have ended up in a massive accident. It's hard to say where we would have been without the issue at the first corner, but the car felt well throughout the weekend. This was not the result that we were looking for, it's a pity but that's how racing goes sometimes." | ||||
| 10 |  Felipe Massa |
Williams | Mercedes | 1'05.873 |
| “It was a very difficult race. Trying to look after the tyres until the end and checking the tyre pressures while we were racing was tough. It was difficult to stay out long enough on track. When the tyres were there we were fighting for a great position but when the tyres went off we just couldn’t fight anymore.” | ||||
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
comments
Play along
More from
Kimi Raikkonen
The contrasting fortunes of F1's big-name moves to Ferrari
Prime
Prime
The contrasting fortunes of F1's big-name moves to Ferrari
The many surprise driver cameos of the 2023 NASCAR Cup season
The many surprise driver cameos of the 2023 NASCAR Cup season
Raikkonen enjoys "old-style" racing without F1 DRS in NASCAR
Raikkonen enjoys "old-style" racing without F1 DRS in NASCAR
More from
Ferrari
Ferrari reprises azzurro blue for Miami Grand Prix
Ferrari reprises azzurro blue for Miami Grand Prix
Ferrari announces HP as new F1 team title sponsor
Ferrari announces HP as new F1 team title sponsor
What's been going wrong for Leclerc in F1's tiny margins qualifying game
Prime
Prime
What's been going wrong for Leclerc in F1's tiny margins qualifying game
The plot twist that gave Arrow McLaren’s Ward his first win as team principal
St. Petersburg
The plot twist that gave Arrow McLaren’s Ward his first win as team principal
WRC looking to add F1-style team radio to TV broadcasts
WRC looking to add F1-style team radio to TV broadcasts
Formula E’s new Gen3 Evo car breaks cover
Monaco ePrix
Formula E’s new Gen3 Evo car breaks cover
Adrian Newey set to leave Red Bull F1 team
Adrian Newey set to leave Red Bull F1 team
The F1 hero-to-zero dividing line that has never been so thin
Prime
Prime
Chinese GP
The F1 hero-to-zero dividing line that has never been so thin
How Stroll and Magnussen revealed the scale of F1’s racing and rules problems
Prime
Prime
Chinese GP
How Stroll and Magnussen revealed the scale of F1’s racing and rules problems
Did F1's new sprint format work?
Prime
Prime
Chinese GP
Did F1's new sprint format work?
Chinese Grand Prix Driver Ratings 2024
Prime
Prime
Chinese GP
Chinese Grand Prix Driver Ratings 2024
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Subscribe now
Already subscribed? Sign in here
Top Comments