SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium -- Lewis Hamilton says a little bit of luck and some high-speed judgement were crucial in keeping Sebastian Vettel behind him in the closing stages of the Belgian Grand Prix.
Hamilton beat his title rival to victory by just 1.4s on Sunday, securing his fifth win of the season and cutting Vettel's lead in the drivers' championship to just seven points. Although he led Vettel for the vast majority of the race, Hamilton's chances of victory came under threat with 14 laps remaining when a Safety Car was deployed following a collision between the two Force India drivers.
The pause in racing allowed all drivers to make a free pit stop for fresh tyres, allowing Vettel to take on a set of the faster ultra-soft tyres while Hamilton -- who had used all of his sets of ultra-softs earlier in the weekend -- had to settle for the slower softs.
Speaking after the race, Hamilton explained how a small error combined with some precision gapping to Vettel behind helped him retain the lead when racing resumed on lap 34.
"Initially I got a very good start on the back straight and got a really good pull away and was able to catch him [Vettel] out, as I did in Baku on the restarts with the Safety Car," Hamilton said. "I broke away but I didn't have the right [engine] power mode selected, so I pulled away initially but then he started catching me up as we went into the last corner.
"Initially that felt like it was a mistake, but in actual fact it was a really good thing because if I'd gone into the last corner with that gap and come out of Turn 1 with that gap, he would have had the momentum -- being three or four car lengths behind -- to really propel and really be able to get a good tow and come past me. So it worked out perfect."
The next challenge for Hamilton was keeping Vettel behind him at the start of the next lap. The long run from the first corner at La Source to the chicane at Les Combes is prime overtaking territory, but wary of Vettel getting a slipstream along the Kemmel Straight, Hamilton allowed to the Ferrari to close in.
"Going into Turn 1 I had very cold tyres, so I had a small lock up and he was on the gas before me and I could see him," he added. "Then as we were going down that straight [towards Eau Rouge] I didn't keep it fully lit the whole way, I just gave it 90 percent throttle just to keep him as close as possible.
"I knew he wasn't going to come by because he knows I would overtake him at the top part [on the Kemmel Straight] with the tow, so as we were going up Eau Rouge that's when I gave it maximum power. When we got to the top, he had no space to really propel himself, so he just pulled out to the side [and was unable to pass].
"It was a cool battle, but it was really great to go into Turn 5 [Les Combes] having done just enough to stay ahead, I was really happy with that. And after that it was nine or ten laps of qualifying, just heavy, fast laps to try to continue with that gap. He was very quick, he had the better tyres, so I had to pull out some very good laps to stay ahead of him because he was very, very quick in that second phase."