2016 Belgian Grand Prix: Another Mercedes Win, Chaos Everywhere Else
The 2016 Belgian Grand Prix had no surprise for the ultimate winner as Mercedes won yet another race, with Nico Rosberg running away from the field for an easy win – but chaos ensued everywhere else. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was in a distant second followed by Rosberg’s Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton, in third.
Red Bull’s other driver, Max Verstappen, channeled his inner Pastor Maldonado and took out both of the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen on the first turn of the first lap and resulting multiple crashes along the way enabled both Ricciardo and Hamilton, who had to start in the back row, to work their way through the race and without either Ferrari to impede them, made quick work of the much slower cars occasionally ahead of them.
With the victory, Rosberg has 223 points and climbs to within nine points of the 2016 Formula One season leader Hamilton with 232 while Ricciardo sits in third with 151 points.
2016 Belgian Grand Prix Results
1 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 44 1:44:51.058 25
2 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 44 +14.113s 18
3 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 44 +27.634s 15
4 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India Mercedes 44 +35.907s 12
5 11 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 44 +40.660s 10
6 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 44 +45.394s 8
7 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 44 +59.445s 6
8 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams Mercedes 44 +60.151s 4
9 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 44 +61.109s 2
10 19 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 44 +65.873s 1
11 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 44 +71.138s 0
12 21 Esteban Gutierrez Haas Ferrari 44 +73.877s 0
13 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 44 +76.474s 0
14 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso Ferrari 44 +87.097s 0
15 30 Jolyon Palmer Renault 44 +93.165s 0
16 31 Esteban Ocon MRT Mercedes 43 +1 lap 0
17 12 Felipe Nasr Sauber Ferrari 43 +1 lap 0
NC 20 Kevin Magnussen Renault 5 DNF 0
NC 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 3 DNF 0
NC 55 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso Ferrari 1 DNF 0
NC 22 Jenson Button McLaren Honda 1 DNF 0
NC 94 Pascal Wehrlein MRT Mercedes 0 DNF 0