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Lewis Hamilton took a 24-point lead over Sebastian Vettel before they head into the summer break. The Belgian Grand Prix was going to be a very crucial race in the race for the Drivers' Championship.
Hamilton took pole position in a dramatic way after it started raining, at the beginning of Q3. Raikkonen had set the fastest lap in Q1 and Q2, and the Ferrari genuinely looked quicker than the Mercedes on a dry track.
Raikkonen quickly retired in Q3 and ended up 6th on the grid. The rain wasn't too helpful for Vettel yet again, as his car slowed down quite a bit, helping the Englishman in the Mercedes do the fastest lap on the day.
Sebastian Vettel had to win the race to close the gap on Hamilton, and it looked like the Ferrari cars could do it, provided the track stayed dry on race day.
Here are the 5 talking points from the race:
#5 Opening lap chaos
The race started off perfectly for the first half of the grid. Nico Hulkenberg in the Renault, starting 15th on the Grid, had a lockup on his brakes on turn 1, as he crashed into Alonso. Alonso toppled over Charles Leclerc's car, as a result, all 3 cars had to retire from the race.
Both Ricciardo and Raikkonen suffered the after-effects of the crash, as Kimi went into the pits with a punctured rear tire and the Red Bull driver pitted as well, which looked more like a mechanical difficulty. Valtteri Bottas had a minor incident on turn 1 as well.
Daniel Ricciardo did come back into the race, only to retire completely in the 29th lap of the race, due to some mechanical issues. Fernando Alonso faced a very similar situation in 2012, on the same track, when he was part of the Ferrari team.
#4 Raikkonen retires early on in the race
Kimi Raikkonen was excellent in the Qualifying round, but he was a bit lucky. After being the fastest driver in Q1 and Q2, he faced some difficulties in Q3, due to which he had to start 6th on the grid.
Kimi suffered a punctured rear tire in turn 1 on the opening lap and went into the pits. All was looking good for the Finn, but unfortunately, due to mechanical issues, he had to retire from the race in the 7th lap itself.
The Ferraris were looking faster than any other car on the day, but it's just been a very unlucky weekend for the veteran.
#3 Impressive finish for both the Force Indias
It was quite an amazing performance by the Force India drivers in the Qualifying round. Estaban Ocon achieved his career best position on the grid (3rd), and right behind him in 4th was his teammate Sergio Perez.
Both the drivers started off very strongly and did not give up their positions for a long time. Perez overtook Ocon pretty early on and maintained that throughout the race.
Sadly, the Verstappen and Bottas, in much better cars, overtook both the drivers. The Red Bull overtook pretty early on in the race and the Mercedes did it in the final laps of the race.
But still, not a bad result at all for both Ocon and Perez, as they both earned 18 points for Force India, tying them up with Torro Rosso in the Constructors' Championship.
#2 Verstappen gets his first podium finish in Belgium
Verstappen was way better than his teammate Ricciardo, both in the Qualifying round and in the main race as well. Verstappen was 7th fastest in Qualifying and the half Belgian looked focused enough to earn himself a podium finish.
He quickly overtook Perez and Ocon ahead of him, and with Raikkonen out of the race, he captured the 3rd spot and maintained that throughout the race. There was no pressure from anybody else behind him.
Had the race gone on a for few more laps, Bottas, maybe, would have closed in on Max, but the Red Bull driver was driving almost as fast as Vettel and Hamilton. It would have been a difficult task for Bottas.
#1 Vettel moves closer to Hamilton in the Championship table
Sebastian Vettel put up an amazing performance and achieved his 52nd Grand Prix win, surpassing the great Alain Prost's record.
After an unusual Qualifying round, the Ferrari did look like the superior car on a dry track. Vettel went ahead of Hamilton in the 1st lap of the race and never gave up his position since.
After his pit-stop, Hamilton did come within a second of him, but Vettel raced away from the Mercedes, giving the British driver no chance of catching up to him.
Ultimately, there was almost a 10-second gap between the two 4-time World Champions, making this a very comfortable victory for the German. The gap between the two has now been brought down to 17 points.
