Lewis Hamilton back to winning ways in Spa as he wins Belgian Grand Prix from Sebastian Vettel

Max Verstappen was forced to retire only seven laps in with engine failure

Hamilton won on his 200th career race (Getty)

When yet another tangle between the warring Force India drivers brought out the safety car on the 29th lap of the Belgian GP, and Mercedes put leader Lewis Hamilton on the soft-compound Pirelli tyres during the ensuing pit stops, it seemed that they had thrown away an already nip and tuck race.

It was surely inevitable that the German would sail past the Englishman, denying him a 58th victory in his 200th grand prix.

But as he reminded everyone, on track and afterwards, Hamilton came to Belgium’s Hautes Fagnes region to win. And win he did, most emphatically, the day after he had equalled Michael Schumacher’s record of 68 pole positions.

He took control at the start, and though Vettel was never more than two seconds adrift and was often a lot closer than that, he retained it right through to the restart on lap 34 behind a safety car that he criticised heavily for being slowly driven and wholly unnecessary.

“It was like NASCAR,” he said, referring to America’s premier racing series, “where they put out the safety car for no reason. The debris was clear, and they could have used the virtual safety car instead, but I guess they wanted to see a race. For sure that was the reason they did that, because there was hardly any debris.”

As he had feared, Vettel, in the faster Ferrari, got very, very close to the back of his Mercedes on the run down to Eau Rouge, nowadays easily flat for the aces but nevertheless one of the most spectacular corners in the sport. But he got too close and had to lift momentarily, ensuring that Hamilton could not be slipstreamed out of the lead as they climbed the Kemmel hill to Les Combes at the top of the circuit.

“Even before that he was close,” Hamilton said. “Ferrari had the upper hand on race pace all weekend, they were very strong, and I was just towing him around.

Hamilton is now only seven points behind Vettel in the Drivers' Standings (Getty)

“Then the safety car was so slow, that it was really difficult to keep the temperatures in the tyres. He was very, very close and my front tyres were not switched on initially so he got a good tow, but he was too close out of Turn 1 and had to lift or he would have come by me potentially before Eau Rouge, so that was good for me that he lost that bit of performance momentarily.”

Vettel said: “Obviously I knew we had a tyre advantage on the ultrasofts and with him on the softs, particularly at the restart. On the exit to Turn 1 I was all over him.”

“I ran wide because my front tyres still weren’t up to temperature, and I could hear him get on the gas sooner than I did,” Hamilton said.

But on the run to Eau Rouge he cannily used only 90% throttle, knowing Vette would not want to pass him before that only to be overtaken with the slipstream going up the hill. As Vettel had to lift, Hamilton got his chance to stay ahead and when Vettel did pull alongside up the hill he was on the outside.

“I wasn’t happy with the restart,” he admitted. “I was too close, I had to back out, and going to the top of the hill it was a drag race in which I had nowhere to go.

Verstappen was forced to retire only seven laps in (Getty)

“But compared to Silverstone we were a lot better here, so we’ve made an improvement. Overall it was a very good race, good fun. The quality was very high, with very consistent lap times, but I never really had a chance to overtake. Maybe half a chance, a quarter of a chance. We were both waiting for the other to make a mistake which never came.”

Hamilton was equally complimentary. “He put on a great show, and it was fun to be racing against another team with Sebastian at his best with a car at its best, that’s what racing is about.”

And he explained why Mercedes out him on the soft tyre.

“We ran twice in Q2 yesterday so used our spare ultrasofts, whereas Ferrari only ran once so had a new set available. We had to put on a fresh tyre at the end, and with used ultrasofts we would have been in more trouble. It was a late decision, but a set of new softs was the right one at the end of the day.”

As Hamilton and Vettel ran away in their own private battle, their respective team-mates Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen initially led the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo until the luckless Dutchman cruised to a halt with power loss at Kemmel on the eighth lap, much to the dismay of his 60,000 fans who had flocked into the track. Raikkonen was a trifle harshly adjudged by the stewards to have driven too quickly past the abandoned Red Bull, and lost a place to Ricciardo when called to serve a 10s stop and go penalty on the 17th lap.

Hamilton lead ahead of Vettel (Getty)

On the restart, in which Bottas was on the same soft tyre as Hamilton, Ricciardo and Raikkonen, both on ultrasofts, got a run on him going up the hill. Ricciardo pulled a sublime overtake on the outside, as Raikkonen did likewise on the inside. The Australian thus cemented another opportunistic racer’s podium, leaving Raikkonen fourth ahead of Bottas.

Curiously, the stewards elected not to penalise Sergio Perez for the Fore India incident, even though he had already brushed his team-mate Esteban Ocon into the pit wall on the run down to Eau Rouge on the opening lap while occupied fighting with Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault (which eventually finished sixth), and been given a five-second penalty for gaining advantage after leaving the track at Les Combes later on.

Daniel Ricciardo was delighted with his third-placed finish (Getty)

Now he had denied Ocon racing room and they had made heavy contact; as Perez sustained a puncture, the Frenchman lost part of his front wing, hence the need to have the debris cleared away. That process was done very quickly, however, suggesting that Hamilton may not have been wrong about the true purpose of leaving the safety car out so long.

The stewards later explained that Ocon already had his right-hand front wheel over the white safety line, and should have backed out rather than persisting in running alongside his team-mate.