Mercedes came off the summer break with the warning from Toto Wolff that they had to be wary of the threat posed from Ferrari, who had won last time out in Hungary. It was the Silver Arrows first race in the new V6 era that neither car hadn’t claimed a podium place. They hoped that they would get back in order around the hilltops of Spa-Francorchamps.
2015 Belgian Grand Prix Mercedes Review
They came with a newly designed rear wing, and it seemed to do the business as Mercedes were 1-2 in all three practice sessions. Rosberg dominated Friday, but had a scary moment in FP2 coming into Blanchimont corner, when his right rear tyre suffered a failure, The German narrowly miss going into the barriers. On the Saturday, Hamilton topped the time-sheets in FP3, by half a second over his teammate.
In qualifying, the Mercedes safely made it into Q3, with Hamilton quickest in Q1, and Rosberg in Q2. In the final stint, Hamilton took pole position with an impressive time, which was 0.458 seconds off second-place Rosberg. The difference was mainly in the middle sector, as the first and final sector times were identically. This was Hamilton’s tenth pole position of the season, and meant he had won the FIA Pole Position Trophy, which was previously held by Rosberg. It also made him the first driver, since Mika Hakkinen in 1999, to take six consecutive pole positions in the same season.
With the new start procedures introduced for Spa, and Mercedes problems in the last two races, there was some concern on how this would affect them. At the start, Hamilton got away out in front, but Rosberg had a poor one, and found himself down in sixth, but quickly got past Vettel for fifth, and then Bottas for fourth-place. Hamilton led from Perez and Ricciardo. Rosberg gained third when Ricciardo pitted on lap eight, then second-place a lap later when Perez came in to the pits. There was an 8.5 second gap between the Silver Arrows pair by this point in the race. Rosberg pitted on lap 13 for the medium tyres, and Hamilton a lap later for the same compound. The gap was 3.5 seconds when the Virtual Safety Car came out, due to Riccardio stopping just past the chicane. Rosberg closed to just over two seconds in that time, which made Hamilton question if his team-mate had gained an unfair advantage. A few laps after the VSC period was over, Hamilton put in some quick laps to gave him nearly a five-second cushion. Mercedes called in Hamilton on lap 31, for the soft tyres, and Rosberg followed a lap later for the same compound. With a half-a-minute gap over the next cars, Mercedes cruised to the finish to take their seventh 1-2 finish of the season.
Overall a successful day for the Brackley-based outfit, who extended their advantage over Ferrari by 37 points. With Vettel failing to score for the first time this season, due to tyre failure on the penultimate lap, it looks like Ferrari’s outside chance to catch the Mercedes pair for a three-way title battle is over, and that the championship will be decided by the Silver Arrows pair. Hamilton has now a 28-point lead over Rosberg, and with only eight races left, the feeling is how long can Rosberg be considered a title threat to the Brit.
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