F1: Vettel Beats Hamilton To Win Crash Ridden Belgian GP

Sebastian Vettel took a dominant win in the 2018 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix beating Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton. The first race post the summer break though kick-started with a massive crash on the opening lap. Vettel took the lead in the opening lap from pole-sitter Hamilton on the Kemmel straight and retained the pace until the end of the 44 lap race. Finishing third on the podium was Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen after starting in the fourth row, while Valtteri Bottas made a stellar recovery to fourth after starting at the back of the grid. Stars of qualifying, Force India's Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon finished at P5 and P6 respectively.

The opening lap saw Vettel, Hamilton and Ocon extend into a three-day fight with the German in the lead. Ocon closed in on Vettel but couldn't hold the lead as Hamilton dominated P2, while teammate Perez moved into P3. Meanwhile, Nico Hulkenberg's wheels locked up, crashing into Fernando Alonso who was sent airborne and into Charles Leclerc. The crash left the three drivers out of contention and fortunately without any injuries. Daniel Ricciardo's rear wing was also damaged due to the flying Alonso with the Red Bull damaging Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari. The incident brought the red flags out.

Both Ricciardo and Raikkonen pitted for repairs but the damage was enough to push them out of contention. While Raikkonen stopped a few laps down, Ricciardo retired from the race with 13 laps to go. At the restart four laps later, Vettel surged forward with Hamilton being a close second. However, the Ferrari certainly had a better pace building a gap of three seconds by Lap 21.

Both Vettel and Hamilton drifted away from the rest of the rest of the field, while Verstappen moved into P3 ahead of the Force India cars, 10 seconds behind the leaders. There was no holding back Vettel this time as the German finally took the chequered flag, cutting his championship lead to 17 points.

Bottas was the other star of the race today having started at the back of the grid due to an upgraded engine, but climbed the order to pass the Haas and Renault cars, and eventually the Force India twins in the final stages. Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finished seventh and eighth, putting the team six points behind Renault in the constuctors' standings. The last places in the top 10 standings were taken by Pierre Gasly and Marcus Ericsson.