Hamilton cruises to Belgian GP win, Ferraris finish 13th and 14th

Aug 31, 2020, 10:15 pm

Lewis Hamilton took his 89th career win and his fifth victory of 2020 following a dominant performance at Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.

Hamilton led from lights to flag, comfortably outperforming his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, who finished second. The victory saw Hamilton extend his championship lead over Max Verstappen to 48 points as the Red Bull driver finished third.

Although the result never looked in doubt, a big accident involving Antonio Giovinazzi and George Russell on lap 10 resulted in a Safety Car period. That prompted pit stops for the majority of the field and set up a long second stint to the flag. But as a number of drivers struggled to keep life in their tyres, Hamilton managed his race to perfection and crossed the line over eight seconds clear of Bottas.

The only sign of struggle came on lap 37 when he locked a brake and ran wide at the final chicane, which was followed up by a concerned radio message about his front right tyre. But with a comfortable lead over Bottas, and both cars behind him suffering similar issues, it had no impact on the result of the race.

Ferrari suffered an embarrassing weekend, finishing the race 13th and 14th just 12 months on from Charles Leclerc's first victory for the team at the same circuit. The stark contrast in performance compared to 2019 underlined the weaknesses of this year's car and its lack of engine power ever since the team's engine was subject to an FIA investigation over the winter.

Leclerc was forced to adopt a two-stop strategy when the team called him in to top up the pneumatic pressure on his car, but neither Ferrari was in contention for points on Sunday. The only cars that finished behind Leclerc in 14th were the Ferrari-powered Haas cars and Nicholas Latifi's Williams. 

Daniel Ricciardo secured a solid fourth place finish and the point for fastest lap, capping off a solid weekend for Renault, with teammate Esteban Ocon in fifth place. Alex Albon was passed by Ocon within the final few laps as the Red Bull driver finished nearly 30 seconds off teammate Verstappen.

Lando Norris took seventh for McLaren ahead of a good result for Pierre Gasly, who didn't pit under the early Safety Car, in eighth. The two Racing Points of Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez secured the two final points-paying positions in ninth and tenth.