2017 F1 Belgian Grand Prix – Hamilton beats Vettel by 2.3s as Verstappen retires with a power-unit failure

The 2017 Belgian Grand Prix was held over 44 laps at Spa-Francorchamps. Starting from pole in his 200th Grand Prix, Hamilton beat Vettel to claim his 58th career victory. His winning time was 1:24:42.820, with a final margin of 2.358s.

Vettel pursued the Mercedes from the start, with the pair separated by around two seconds for much of the race. Bottas, Räikkönen and the two Red Bulls contested the leading positions behind them. Hamilton relinquished the lead only briefly during the pit-stop cycle. The opening lap left the fight for victory intact, and Hamilton had to defend throughout the race.

Verstappen stopped with a power-unit failure after completing seven laps, leaving the Dutch fans who had travelled to the nearby race without a finish to celebrate. Räikkönen received a 10-second stop-go penalty for failing to observe yellow flags at the scene, costing Ferrari’s other car a more favourable track position.

The two Force India drivers made contact twice on the downhill run towards Eau Rouge. The second collision damaged Pérez’s right-rear tyre and Ocon’s front wing. Debris prompted a safety car on lap 30, erasing the previous gaps, and the teams brought their drivers in for fresh tyres.

Hamilton and Bottas switched to soft tyres, while Vettel and most of the other front-runners chose ultrasofts. At the lap-34 restart, Ricciardo and Räikkönen passed Bottas on either side. Vettel immediately put Hamilton under pressure, but could not turn the tyre difference into an overtaking move. Hamilton held the lead to the finish.

Ricciardo finished third, Räikkönen fourth and Bottas fifth. Hülkenberg took sixth, Grosjean seventh, and Massa held eighth under pressure from Ocon, while Sainz claimed the final point. Ocon brought his damaged car home in ninth for two points.

Pérez retired late in the race but had completed enough laps to be classified 17th. Alonso, Verstappen and Wehrlein also failed to finish. Pérez’s case illustrates the need to read both classification and retirement status when assessing whether a driver reached the chequered flag.

Hamilton scored 25 points to move to 213, closing on championship leader Vettel’s 220 and reducing the gap from 14 points to seven. Bottas was third on 179. The direct contest between the title rivals at Spa tightened the championship battle ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.