Hamilton's Race Ferrari's 'Victory'

Why Vettel's Spa pace scares Mercedes

- Ben Anderson

IN THE END THIS WAS THE PERFECT OUTCOME FOR LEWIS HAMILTON’S hopes of overhauling Sebastian Vettel to win the 2017 Formula 1 World Championship. Hamilton converted his Michael Schumacher-equalling 68th pole position into victory at the Belgian Grand Prix, and slashed Vettel’s 14-point championship lead in half. But Hamilton had to fight tooth and nail to get the job done. He said it took “absolutely everything of me” to beat Vettel at Spa, and feels it will take a mighty effort from now until the end of the season for Mercedes to keep him in the title fight.

“I’ve read lots of stories or heard lots of comments about our car being the best, or we have the fastest car,” Hamilton said. “But I think it’s very difficult for anyone to truly say that, because there are definitely areas where we’re faster and areas where they’re faster, and it varies from race to race.

“They’ve have the most consistent season, hence why they have been in a clear lead in the championship. While we’ve had a very, very solid, well-put-together weekend, it was only just enough to stay ahead. I hope we have more to come, and we need more to come in order to win this thing for sure.”

This was not the way it was supposed to play out here. Spa should have been nailed-on Mercedes territory, the sort of fast and-flowing track where Hamilton – armed with a new, more powerful, Mercedes engine – should have rammed home the sort of advantage he enjoyed while dominating the British GP in July. There, on the high-speed sweeps of Silverstone, Hamilton was on pole by more than half a second, and could stretch away from Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari seemingly at will in the race. The Ferraris had to work so hard trying to keep up, their front-left Pirelli tyres exploded.