Hamilton beats Rosberg at Spa to extend lead

Lewis Hamilton took a comfortable victory in the Belgian Grand Prix to extend his championship lead to 28 points over Nico Rosberg.

Starting from pole, Hamilton led in to Turn 1 as Rosberg got a poor start, with Sergio Perez jumping up to second place and attacking the leader in to Les Combes. Hamilton held on and was then able to ease away at the front as Rosberg had to fight back through from fifth place.

Rosberg managed to climb to second during the first round of pit stops and a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) period saw him close to within two and a half seconds of his team-mate, but Hamilton had pace in hand and extended his advantage to 5.5s when required.

Sebastian Vettel was set to finish in third place having attempted a one-stop strategy but his right rear tyre failed on the Kemmel Straight on the penultimate lap to demote him to 12th. Romain Grosjean took his first podium since the United States in 2013 with an impressive third place having been within a second of Vettel when the failure occurred.

An impressive drive from Daniil Kvyat saw him come home fourth ahead of Perez, with Felipe Massa sixth and Kimi Raikkonen seventh. Max Verstappen made a late charge up to eighth but outbraked himself passing Raikkonen on the final lap, while Vallteri Bottas was ninth and Marcus Ericsson tenth.

There was an aborted start as Nico Hulkenberg retired on the grid and while new restrictions on what teams can tell drivers at the start of races had no major impact, Mercedes again struggled off the line at Spa. Rosberg dropped to fifth place behind Perez, Daniel Ricciardo and Bottas, with Hamilton having to hold off the Force India which had started from fourth place.

Bottas was passed by Rosberg at the end of the opening lap and Vettel followed him through at La Source, while Pastor Maldonado quickly joined Hulkenberg in retirement after slowing on the second lap.

With Ricciardo struggling to pass Perez, Red Bull opted to pit the Australian early while team-mate Kvyat started to climb back up in to the top ten having started from 12th. The first round of pit stops saw Bottas drop out of contention for serious points having been fitted with three soft tyres and a medium on the right rear, which led to the Williams being handed a drive through penalty.

Grosjean was on a charge as he dispatched of Ricciardo at Les Combes on lap 18 and soon pulled the same move using DRS on Perez. The Force India was struggling and pitted at the end of the lap, with Ricciardo close behind but failing to exit the final chicane as his car spluttered to a halt.

The VSC was deployed to clear the Red Bull, with a number of drivers opting to make their second stops at that time. Vettel had been last to make his first stop and switched to medium tyres on lap 14, leaving him with 29 laps to complete to make a one-stop strategy work.

On the restart, Rosberg was a little over two seconds behind Hamilton and the championship leader asked how the gap had become so close, but simply responded by pulling out another three seconds in the following laps. From that point on, Hamilton never looked under threat even as dark clouds started to form over the circuit.

No rain materialised and the late drama was provided by Kvyat, who had opted to pit later having stayed out behind the VSC. The Russian climbed through the field, passing Raikkonen, Massa and Perez in to Les Combes using DRS, having to be particularly robust as he dispatched the Williams.

With Grosjean closing in, Vettel was unable to ease off in third place despite the age of his tyres and with less than two laps remaining his right rear failed - the same tyre which went on Rosberg's car in Friday practice.

Click here for a gallery of the biggest crashes at Spa-Francorchamps 

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