Lewis Hamilton successfully eked out his tyres to score his fifth win of the 2020 world championship, with victory over team mate Valtteri Bottas.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen ensured that the Mercedes pair were kept honest and picked up his seventh podium finish of 2020 despite strong pressure from Renault's Daniel Ricciardo.
There was no sign of a light at the end of the tunnel for Ferrari, who were largely absent from the day's action with both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc finishing out of the points.
Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi crashed out of the race on lap 11, and one of his tyres collected Williams' George Russell but both drivers escaped uninjured. Sadly Carlos Sainz didn't even take the start after his McLaren suffered an exhaust failure.
Sainz misses out on the race
It had been an unusually sombre build up to the race, with the End Racism protest followed by a moment's silence for Anthoine Hubert who died in a Formula 2 accident here at Spa one year ago. There was also gloom of a different kind elsewhere on pit lane at the McLaren garage, where Carlos Sainz' MCL35 lay in pieces having suffered an exhaust failure that couldn't be repaired in time for the start.
It left 19 cars lining up on the grid, headed by another all-Mercedes front row with polesitter Lewis Hamilton supported by his team mate Valtteri Bottas, ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Renault's Daniel Ricciardo on row 2. Of those on the front five rows, only the top three were starting on the medium compound. In the bottom half of the grid the balance of power was emphatically reversed: AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly had opted to start on the hard compound, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc on soft tyres, and everyone else was on the medium
The wet weather tyres were firmly packed away: as if trying to raise the spirits of everyone in attendance at the Closed Event, the weather had turned warmer on Sunday and was even serving up some sunshine and glimpses of blue skies in between the white (and somewhat darker) clouds overhead. There was little risk of rain for the race, but in the Ardennes that can always change in a matter of seconds. Certainly no one was taking anything for granted as the lights went out and the race got underway.
Hamilton and Bottas take early charge
Hamilton and Bottas made sure not to trip over each other into La Source, although Bottas applied pressure on Hamilton up to Eau Rouge before finally settling into second. Verstappen felt he had a chance to attack for second place but in the end found his hands full with Ricciardo into Les Combes and through the first lap. In the second Renault, Esteban Ocon got an early jump on Alexander Albon for fifth place, while a poor start for Sergio Perez and the absence of Sainz on the grid allowed Lance Stroll to leap up to seventh place.
After a dismal time for Ferrari on Saturday, Leclerc brought some initial cheer to the beleaguered Scuderia by using his set of softs to jump up from 13th on the grid to ninth. It put him ahead of Perez, but the Mexican was soon able to get back in front of the Ferrari as Leclerc continued to struggled to find speed on the long Kemmel straight. The Monegasque was also powerless to fend off Gasly once the AlphaTauri got the hard tyres up to temperature, and was then similarly dispatched by Lando Norris and Daniil Kvyat as his soft tyres faded rapidly.
Safety car for Giovinazzi and Russell
Hamilton and Bottas had pulled out a six second gap over Verstappen when the situation changed dramatically with a safety car being scrambled on lap 11 after Antonio Giovinazzi suddenly veered off at Les Fagnes, the car getting comprehensively wrecked by its impact with the barrier. Debris was scattered across the racing line as the Alfa Romeo rebounded across the track, and Williams' George Russell was first on the scene where he was inadvertently collected by a tyre that had detached itself from the C39. Fortunately Russell was unhurt by the worrying incident, although he was also inevitably out of the race.
Teams responded quickly to bring their cars in for a 'free' pit stop, although it happened so quickly that Ferrari were left scrambling to service Leclerc. Hamilton and Bottas double stacked with only minimal loss of time, but the same tactic worked less well at Renault where Riccardo's stop held up Ocon to the extent that the Frenchman lost position to Albon.
The top three were now all on hard tyres, as was Gasly who had stayed out to assume fourth place ahead of Perez, who had also opted not to come in for an early stop which meant he was ahead of Ricciardo. When the racing resumed on lap 15, Hamilton managed the restart to perfection to maintain the lead, and Bottas was able to keep Verstappen at bay for second. The closest battle was over fourth place between Gasly and Perez, the latter coming under pressure to make progress before his soft tyres died an early death. However the gambit didn't pay off and rather than making up places he was soon in reverse, quickly dispatched by Ricciardo and Albon before finally being forced to pit at the end of lap 18 for a set of hard tyres to see him through to the finish.
Power concern for Hamilton
Although things at the front were looking well under control at Mercedes, there was a moment of panic when Hamilton came over the team radio to report a loss of power. His race engineer calmly assured him that it was a merely case of energy management and that all should be back to normal, but it spurred Bottas to put in his fastest lap yet in case an opportunity presented itself. However the Mercedes pit wall had called it correctly, and Hamilton was soon once again calmly pulling away from Bottas, Verstappen and the rest of the field, Ricciardo successfully passing Gasly for fourth just before the halfway point of the 44-lap race, and a few minutes later it was Albon's turn to get by.
Gasly finally pitted on lap 27, the last man to do so, taking on a new set of medium tyres in part exchange for the initial set of hards. He was able to come back out in 16th ahead of Leclerc, who had made a second pit stop - much to Leclerc's confusion: "What's happening, why do we need to stop?" he asked. The team topped up the pneumatic pressure on the SF1000 as they bolted on a new set of mediums, which appeared to be the answer to Leclerc's query.
With 14 laps remaining, Hamilton had a four second lead over Bottas who had a similar margin over Verstappen, but Mercedes remained wary of the Red Bull undercutting Bottas in the closing laps if additional pit stops proved to be required. Further back, Gasly and Perez were earning the dividends from their respective one-stop strategies and making their way back up through the field, Perez returning to the top ten with a pass on Raikkonen down the Kemmel Straight on lap 33. Their progress contrasted with the moribund Ferraris, Vettel still in 13th place and Leclerc down to 16th after his second stop and making heavy work of passing the the two Haas cars.
Mercedes struggles to the end with tyre wear
Tyre wear was becoming an increasing issue for Hamilton, who locked up and went wide at the chicane on lap 38 clearly suffering from a lack of grip. He wasn't the only driver to be suffering: Bottas had a similar wayward moment, and Albon was also struggling.
Despite the headaches at Mercedes, Verstappen was unable to capitalise and in fact was falling further away from the leading pair as the final laps counted down. Ricciardo was running in a lonely but safe fourth place and entertained himself by picking up the bonus point for fastest lap along the way. Albon was just managing to hold on to fifth ahead of Ocon, Norris was under pressure from Gasly who had made his way back to up eighth ahead of Stroll, and Perez had run out of momentum and topped out in tenth place.
The final lap saw Ocon finally get the better of Albon to claim fifth place behind Ricciardo in a very positive day for Renault. But at the front there was no shock reversal of fortunes for the leaders, Hamilton and Bottas managing their tyres to the line without any last minute dramas leaving Verstappen having to settle for third place.
Hamilton extends championship lead, Verstappen holds on to second
It means that Hamilton's lead in the drivers championship over Verstappen is 47 points, with Bottas narrowing the gap in third to just three points. IN the constructors standings, Mercedes now enjoy a 106 point lead over Red Bull, while McLaren move ahead of Racing Point and Ferrari remain in fifth place in the standings.
Outside the top ten, Kvyat just missed out on picking up a point ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, while the two Ferraris were doubtless embarrassed to end up with Vettel in 13th followed by Leclerc in 14th ahead of Romain Grosjean, Nicholas Latifi and Kevin Magnussen.
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