{"id":5953,"date":"2018-08-26T16:13:38","date_gmt":"2018-08-26T20:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=5953"},"modified":"2018-10-17T12:00:32","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T16:00:32","slug":"sebastian-vettel-with-dominant-win-closes-gap-to-lewis-hamilton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2018\/08\/26\/sebastian-vettel-with-dominant-win-closes-gap-to-lewis-hamilton\/","title":{"rendered":"Sebastian Vettel With Dominant Win Closes Gap To Lewis Hamilton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sebastian Vettel<\/strong> clinched a dominant win at the Belgian GP <\/strong>and cut Lewis Hamilton<\/strong>\u2019s lead in the drivers\u2019 championship to 17 points. Vettel recorded his 52nd<\/sup> win to surpass Alain Prost and take third spot on the all-time Formula 1 winners list. Hamilton claimed second spot after he was overtaken by Vettel on lap 1. Max Verstappen<\/strong> completed the podium places in front of a large sea of Dutch fans in orange.<\/p>\n

Valtteri Bottas<\/strong> finished fourth as he cut through the field from 17th<\/sup> place on the grid. Sergio Perez<\/strong> and Esteban Ocon<\/strong> finished fifth and sixth to open the account of the new Racing Points Force India <\/strong>outfit. Romain Grosjean<\/strong>, Kevin Magnussen<\/strong>, Pierre Gasly<\/strong>, and Marcus Ericsson <\/strong>rounded off the top 10 positions.<\/p>\n

Sebastian Vettel With Dominant Win Closes Gap To Lewis Hamilton<\/h1>\n

The race started under clear skies with air temperature at 17 degrees C and track temperatures at 25 degrees C at the Spa-Francorchamps <\/strong>circuit. Lewis Hamilton started from pole position. Title-rival Vettel joined him on the first row.<\/p>\n

Force India drivers, Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez, were on the second row. Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen<\/strong> lined up on the third row. Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo<\/strong>, Kevin Magnussen, and Pierre Gasly lined up at the front of the grid.<\/p>\n

Carlos Sainz <\/strong>and Stoffel Vandoorne<\/strong> took engine penalties and started on the last row of the grid. Bottas and Nico Hulkenberg<\/strong> started on the second last row after PU penalties also. All the drivers in the top 10 started on the red-striped supersoft tyres.<\/p>\n

The Chaotic Start<\/h2>\n

Hamilton made a good getaway initially. But Vettel, as expected, used the slipstream and the Ferrari\u2019s superior straight-line speed to overtake the Briton on the Kemmel Straight. The two Force India drivers and Verstappen slotted behind the lead drivers.<\/p>\n

But chaos reigned behind them. Hulkenberg ran into the back of Fernando Alonso<\/strong> which launched his McLaren into the air. Alonso hit Ricciardo and damaged his car. The Australian in the concertino effect hit Raikkonen in front of him and damaged his rear wing.<\/p>\n

Alonso\u2019s car flew over Charles Leclerc<\/strong>\u2019s Sauber and ended his race. Leclerc was clearly saved from injury by the Halo on his car which was damaged. Bottas at the start ran into the back of the Williams and suffered front-wing damage himself.<\/p>\n

The Safety Car (SC<\/strong>) came out and Raikkonen and Ricciardo pitted for fresh tyres and front wing respectively. But both drivers eventually retired from the race. Bottas, however, rejoined the race on supersoft tyres and made his way through the field.<\/p>\n

Hulkenberg\u2019s mistake has resulted in a 10-place grid penalty for the German at the next race at Monza. Alonso, Leclerc, Ricciardo and Raikkonen\u2019s race was effectively ended by the first lap incident.<\/p>\n

On lap 4 the SC period ended and Vettel survived a Hamilton attack on the restart. The order was Vettel, Hamilton, Perez, Ocon, Verstappen, Grosjean, Magnussen, Gasly, Ericsson, and Sirotkin after the restart.<\/p>\n

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Lap 1, Turn 1 – all the angles \ud83d\ude35#BelgianGP<\/a> \ud83c\udde7\ud83c\uddea #F1<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/mo3dGx5Zi0<\/a><\/p>\n

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 26, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n