Category: Motor Racing

Nico Rosberg has extending his title lead with a masterclass victory in the Japanese Grand Prix as another slow start affected Lewis Hamilton.

With his 30th career pole position, Rosberg led from the start and never looked back to record his 23rd victory in the sport and his ninth this season. This result means the Mercedes driver has a 33-point gap over Hamilton with four races left.

Hamilton could only manage third, with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen taking second as 5.7 seconds covered the top three at the chequered flag.

The Japanese Grand Prix sealed a third successive constructors’ championship for Mercedes after it failed to clinch it in Malaysia last weekend when Hamilton’s engine blew.

Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of a third successive win at Suzuka were over after the first few seconds.

Following overnight rain, come the start of the race there were still damp patches on the circuit, with one of those being Hamilton’s grid box, and the three-time champion showing some concern beforehand.

Once the five red lights went out Hamilton then bogged down and was swamped, slotting into eighth and apologising to his team shortly afterwards.

While Rosberg enjoyed the lead, what followed was damage limitation from Hamilton, who passed Nico Hulkenberg on lap seven before making up another two positions at his first pitstop to get ahead of Sergio Perez and Kimi Raikkonen.

Hamilton then soon cleared Ricciardo to leave him with Verstappen and Vettel in between him and Rosberg after all the opening pitstops in which the leaders took on the hard compound tyres.

Come the second round of stops Hamilton again made up lost ground, getting ahead of Vettel by pitting before the Ferrari.

Mercedes again gave Hamilton the hard tyre, while Ferrari switched Vettel to softs in an aggressive move, but despite a couple of laps of pressure from the latter he was unable to get close to make a move on the former.

Vettel’s irritation over backmarkers this season reached new heights in this race as the four-time champion was continually on the team radio bemoaning being held up, and by the end he could only claim fourth, 14.4 seconds behind Rosberg.

Hamilton did close to within a second of Verstappen on lap 44, and on lap 52 he made a move into the chicane, but was forced to take the escape road as the 19-year-old moved to the inside to defend as they hit the brakes.

Behind the leading top four, Raikkonen, who started the race with a five-place penalty for a gearbox change after qualifying third, and Ricciardo finished fifth and sixth.

Force India pair Perez and Hulkenberg were seventh and eighth, with the team ekeing out a 10-point gap over Williams whose drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished ninth and tenth on a one-stop strategy.

So the constructors’ title has been won by Mercedes for the third successive time. Top stuff to everybody at Silver Arrows.

As for the drivers’ championship, this is looking good for Nico Rosberg. 33-point advantage and 100 to play for. Rosberg can afford to finish second in the remaining four races and still win the title. Can Lewis Hamilton fight back? It’s going to be difficult and yet the pressure is on. Roll on the US Grand Prix.

Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka race results:
1    Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    53    1h26m43.333s
2    Max Verstappen    Red Bull-Renault    53    4.978s
3    Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    53    5.776s
4    Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari    53    20.269s
5    Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    53    28.370s
6    Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    53    33.941s
7    Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    53    57.495s
8    Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    53    59.177s
9    Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    53    1m37.763s
10    Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    53    1m38.323s
11    Romain Grosjean    Haas-Ferrari    53    1m39.254s
12    Jolyon Palmer    Renault    52    1 Lap
13    Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    52    1 Lap
14    Kevin Magnussen    Renault    52    1 Lap
15    Marcus Ericsson    Sauber-Ferrari    52    1 Lap
16    Fernando Alonso    McLaren-Honda    52    1 Lap
17    Carlos Sainz    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    52    1 Lap
18    Jenson Button    McLaren-Honda    52    1 Lap
19    Felipe Nasr    Sauber-Ferrari    52    1 Lap
20    Esteban Gutierrez    Haas-Ferrari    52    1 Lap
21    Esteban Ocon    Manor-Mercedes    52    1 Lap
22    Pascal Wehrlein    Manor-Mercedes    52    1 Lap

Drivers’ standings:
1    Nico Rosberg    313
2    Lewis Hamilton    280
3    Daniel Ricciardo    212
4    Kimi Raikkonen    170
5    Max Verstappen    165
6    Sebastian Vettel    165
7    Valtteri Bottas    81
8    Sergio Perez    80
9    Nico Hulkenberg    54
10    Felipe Massa    43
11    Fernando Alonso    42
12    Carlos Sainz    30
13    Romain Grosjean    28
14    Daniil Kvyat    25
15    Jenson Button    19
16    Kevin Magnussen    7
17    Jolyon Palmer    1
18    Pascal Wehrlein    1
19    Stoffel Vandoorne    1
20    Esteban Gutierrez    0
21    Marcus Ericsson    0
22    Felipe Nasr    0
23    Rio Haryanto    0
24    Esteban Ocon    0

Constructors’ standings:
1    Mercedes    593
2    Red Bull-Renault    385
3    Ferrari    335
4    Force India-Mercedes    134
5    Williams-Mercedes    124
6    McLaren-Honda    62
7    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    47
8    Haas-Ferrari    28
9    Renault    8
10    Manor-Mercedes    1
11    Sauber-Ferrari    0

Next race: United States Grand Prix, Circuit of the Americans. October 21-23.

Nico Rosberg won a thrilling duel against his Mercedes team-mate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton to claim pole position at Suzuka.

This was Rosberg’s third successive Japanese Grand Prix pole and the margin was a tiny 0.013 seconds.

The current title leader was fastest in every practice session, and topped the field again in qualifying, but only after a late rally against a Hamilton charge.

Hamilton was playing catch up compared to his team-mate in Q1 and Q2, but went ahead after the first runs in Q3.

Rosberg leapt back to the top of the times with a one minute, 30.647 seconds on his final lap, as Hamilton fell just 0.013 seconds short of taking P1 despite an improvement of his own at the end.

Kimi Raikkonen produced a strong lap to qualify third quickest for Ferrari, the only other driver to make it below the one minute, 31 seconds target.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was less than a tenth slower in fourth, but he faces a three-place drop on the grid thanks to his penalty for hitting Nico Rosberg at the first corner at last Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen beat his Red Bull Racing team-mate Daniel Ricciardo to the fifth fastest time, also by less than a tenth of a second.

Haas got both cars through to Q3 for the first time, and was best of the rest behind the top six cars in Q2.

Romain Grosjean set an identical time to Force India’s Sergio Perez in Q3, but ended up eighth quickest, just ahead of the second Force India of Nico Hulkenberg.

Grosjean’s Haas team-mate Esteban Gutierrez was seventh fastest in Q2, but ended up cut adrift at the bottom of the top ten in Q3, over half a second slower than Grosjean.

The Williams pairing of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa made only one run each in Q2, and were just edged out of the top ten by the Force Indias.

Bottas missed the cut by less than a tenth, while Massa was only 0.165 seconds further back and will start P12.

Daniil Kvyat felt he did the best he could to put his Toro Rosso with P13, fractionally faster than team-mate Carlos Sainz, who spun at Spoon Curve on his second run in Q2.

Fernando Alonso’s McLaren-Honda was only 0.004 seconds slower than Sainz in P15, 0.118 seconds ahead of the leading Renault of Jolyon Palmer.

Jenson Button failed to escape Q1 at Honda’s home circuit, ending up just 0.032 seconds shy of beating McLaren team-mate Alonso to the draw.

Renault’s Kevin Magnussen was P18, ahead of the Sauber pairing of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr and the Manors.

Ericsson was slowest of all after the first runs in Q1, but ended up just over a tenth ahead of his team-mate after Nasr failed to go faster on his second run.

Esteban Ocon out-qualified Manor team-mate Pascal Wehrlein for the second race in a row. On this occasion, by more than two tenths of a second, feeling he couldn’t have got much more out of his car.

The fact Wehrlein qualified last renders his five-place grid penalty for an illegal gearbox change potentially irrelevant.

So a very close and competitive qualifying session. Just 0.013 seconds the difference between the Mercedes drivers.

Great to see Haas making the top ten for the first time and yet all focus is on Mercedes. Can the team wrap up the constructors’ title in Japan? Signs point to yes thanks to Rosberg and Hamilton’s pace.

Japanese Grand Prix, qualifying standings:

1    Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1m30.647s
2    Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    1m30.660s
3    Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1m30.949s
4    Max Verstappen    Red Bull-Renault    1m31.178s
5    Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    1m31.240s
6    Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m31.961s
7    Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari    1m31.028s*
8    Romain Grosjean    Haas-Ferrari    1m31.961s
9    Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m32.142s
10    Esteban Gutierrez    Haas-Ferrari    1m32.547s
11    Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m32.315s
12    Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m32.380s
13    Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m32.623s
14    Carlos Sainz    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m32.685s
15    Fernando Alonso    McLaren-Honda    1m32.689s
16    Jolyon Palmer    Renault    1m32.807s
17    Jenson Button    McLaren-Honda    1m32.851s
18    Kevin Magnussen    Renault    1m33.023s
19    Marcus Ericsson    Sauber-Ferrari    1m33.222s
20    Felipe Nasr    Sauber-Ferrari    1m33.332s
21    Esteban Ocon    Manor-Mercedes    1m33.353s
22    Pascal Wehrlein    Manor-Mercedes    1m33.561s

*Grid penalty for colliding into Roberg at Sepang

Daniel Ricciardo finally wins his first race of the season after fending off his Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen in a thrilling Malaysian Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton retired from the lead.

Hamilton was on course to win and reclaim the championship lead as he built up a 22.7 seconds lead over Ricciardo but his engine expired on the approach to Turn 1 with 15 laps to go.

The reigning world champion cried “Ah, no, no, no!” as he pulled to a stop at the side of the track, climbing out of the Mercedes, squatting down and placing his head in his hands.

The virtual safety car was called with Ricciardo, who was running nose-to-tail with Verstappen at the time, pitting along with his Red Bull team-mate for soft tyres as they had a 40-second gap back to Nico Rosberg.

They rejoined comfortably ahead of the Mercedes driver and though Verstappen ran close behind, Ricciardo absorbed the pressure to take his first victory of the season.

It was the honey badger’s first win for over two years and Red Bull Racing’s first one-two finish since the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Prior to Hamilton’s failure, Verstappen had caught Ricciardo with fresher tyres, asking to be let through to fight for the win.

But Ricciardo defended hard, and the pair went side-by-side through the high-speed Turns 5 and 6, with Ricciardo winning the battle on the brakes into Turn 7 to hold what would turn out to be crucial track position.

It was like an action replay of Sepang 2013 with Sebastian Vettel fighting against Mark Webber for the victory. With the infamous Multi-21 radio call to hold formation…

Rosberg completed an impressive recovery drive after being pitched into a spin by Sebastian Vettel at Turn 1 to finish third and extend his championship lead to 23 points with five races remaining.

There was drama from the start as Vettel tried an ambitious pass down the inside of Verstappen, only to lock up and slide into Rosberg, breaking the Ferrari’s front-left suspension and pitching him into retirement.

Rosberg got going again and began a fight back through the field, rising up to fourth place and then barging passed Raikkonen into Turn 2 for third position.

The race stewards took a dim view of that and awarded Rosberg a 10-second penalty for causing a collision but the Mercedes driver had sufficient pace to build a gap from The Iceman and hold onto third.

Hamilton had driven the perfect race up until his retirement, going long on the softs and then taking the hards before building a gap to the rest to allow the opportunity for a second stop.

But “an unexpected mechanical failure of the internal combustion engine with no prior warning” according to Mercedes ended his hopes of a first victory since before the summer break.

Verstappen had looked in contention for at least second and possibly victory when he pitted early for a second set of stops while Ricciardo stayed out in second, but that advantage was neutralised when both pitted following Hamilton’s retirement.

Raikkonen finished fourth with Valtteri Bottas, who completed an impressive opening stint on the mediums to make a one-stop strategy work, fifth and Sergio Perez sixth.

Fernando Alonso battled his way up the field from last on the grid, having had a 45-place grid penalty for changing engine components, to take seventh ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Jenson Button.

Jolyon Palmer recovered from what he described as a “pretty depressing” qualifying to finish tenth and score his first point of the season.

However, Renault decided to retire Kevin Magnussen’s car midway through the race because of damage sustained when he was hit from behind by Daniil Kvyat as the field bunched up at the first corner.

It was a miserable day for Haas with Romain Grosjean pitched into the gravel after suffering brake failure while Esteban Gutierrez retired when his front left wheel flew off the car when he was out on track.

So a crazy start with previous Malaysian Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel knocked out with bold move. Reigning champion Lewis Hamilton leading comfortably until a fire exit… And yet a popular win for Daniel Ricciardo.

As for Nico Rosberg. Get bashed from Vettel at Turn 1 on opening lap. Recovered from the back to finish third and extends his lead in the drivers’ standings to 23 points. The battle for the title continues with five races left.

Malaysian Grand Prix, race results after 56 laps:
1    Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault   56    1h37m12.776s
2    Max Verstappen    Red Bull-Renault    56    2.443s
3    Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    56    25.516s
4    Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    56    28.785s
5    Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    56    1m01.582s
6    Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    56    1m03.794s
7    Fernando Alonso    McLaren-Honda    56    1m05.205s
8    Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    56    1m14.062s
9    Jenson Button    McLaren-Honda    56    1m21.816s
10    Jolyon Palmer    Renault    56    1m35.466s
11    Carlos Sainz    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    56    1m38.878s
12    Marcus Ericsson    Sauber-Ferrari    55    1 Lap
13    Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    55    1 Lap
14    Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    55    1 Lap
15    Pascal Wehrlein    Manor-Mercedes    55    1 Lap
16    Esteban Ocon    Manor-Mercedes    55    1 Lap
–    Felipe Nasr    Sauber-Ferrari    46    Retirement
–    Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    40    Engine
–    Esteban Gutierrez    Haas-Ferrari    39    Retirement
–    Kevin Magnussen    Renault    17    Retirement
–    Romain Grosjean    Haas-Ferrari    7    Brakes
–    Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari    0    Collision

Drivers’ standings:
1    Nico Rosberg    288
2    Lewis Hamilton    265
3    Daniel Ricciardo    204
4    Kimi Raikkonen    160
5    Sebastian Vettel    153
6    Max Verstappen    147
7    Valtteri Bottas    80
8    Sergio Perez    74
9    Nico Hulkenberg    50
10    Fernando Alonso    42
11    Felipe Massa    41
12    Carlos Sainz    30
13    Romain Grosjean    28
14    Daniil Kvyat    25
15    Jenson Button    19
16    Kevin Magnussen    7
17    Jolyon Palmer    1
18    Pascal Wehrlein    1
19    Stoffel Vandoorne    1
20    Esteban Gutierrez    0
21    Marcus Ericsson    0
22    Felipe Nasr    0
23    Rio Haryanto    0
24    Esteban Ocon    0

Constructors’ standings:
1    Mercedes    553
2    Red Bull-Renault    359
3    Ferrari    313
4    Force India-Mercedes    124
5    Williams-Mercedes    121
6    McLaren-Honda    62
7    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    47
8    Haas-Ferrari    28
9    Renault    8
10    Manor-Mercedes    1
11    Sauber-Ferrari    0

Next race: Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka. October 7-9.

Lewis Hamilton achieved his 100th front row appearance with his eight pole position of this season. His speed in the Mercedes was incredible, breaking the lap record at the Sepang International Circuit. The pole time was an impressive one minute, 32. 850 seconds.

Championship rival and Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg was under pressure and yet was able to recover to grab second position from the Red Bulls. Although he was 0.414 seconds adrift from Hamilton.

Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo will form row two with the birthday boy – just turned 19 years old – ahead of the honey badger by a margin of four tenths of a second.

It’s a Ferrari row three with four-times Sepang winner Sebastian Vettel ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.

Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg represents a Force India row four.

As for Jenson Button – celebrating his 300th Grand Prix at Malaysia – ninth position is a solid result for the McLaren ace.

Button made it through to Q3 with a fine late effort that, along with improvements from the Force India pair, meant the Williams of Valtteri Bottas missed the cut by just 0.039 seconds, as Bottas failed to improve on his second Q2 run.

Romain Grosjean beat Haas team-mate Esteban Gutierrez to the 12th fastest time by less than a tenth, while Kevin Magnussen did an excellent job to qualify his Renault P14, having missed most of Friday practice after his car caught fire in the pits in FP1.

A late improvement from Daniil Kvyat meant he beat Toro Rosso team-mate Carlos Sainz to P15 on the grid by just 0.005 seconds.

This was the first time Kvyat has out-qualified Sainz since June’s European Grand Prix in Azerbaijan.

Jolyon Palmer’s Renault and Fernando Alonso’s McLaren-Honda joined the Saubers and Manors after Q1.

Given Magnussen’s performance Palmer had a realistic shot at making Q2, but his final lap of the session was scrappy and he ended up dropping behind the Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr into P19.

Esteban Ocon out-qualified Manor team-mate Pascal Wehrlein for the first time, beating him to the P20 by 0.136 seconds.

Alonso completed a cursory run on medium tyres in his McLaren, knowing he will start at the back of the grid regardless owing to a 45-place grid penalty for various illegal engine component swaps.

Malaysian Grand Prix, qualifying times:

1    Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    1m32.850s
2    Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1m33.264s
3    Max Verstappen    Red Bull-Renault    1m33.420s
4    Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    1m33.467s
5    Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari    1m33.584s
6    Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1m33.632s
7    Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m34.319s
8    Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m34.489s
9    Jenson Button    McLaren-Honda    1m34.518s
10    Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m34.671s
11    Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m34.577s
12    Romain Grosjean    Haas-Ferrari    1m35.001s
13    Esteban Gutierrez    Haas-Ferrari    1m35.097s
14    Kevin Magnussen    Renault    1m35.277s
15    Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m35.369s
16    Carlos Sainz    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m35.374s
17    Marcus Ericsson    Sauber-Ferrari    1m35.816s
18    Felipe Nasr    Sauber-Ferrari    1m35.949s
19    Jolyon Palmer    Renault    1m35.999s
20    Esteban Ocon    Manor/Mercedes    1m36.451s
21    Pascal Wehrlein    Manor-Mercedes    1m36.587s
22    Fernando Alonso    McLaren-Honda    1m37.155s

Nico Rosberg celebrated his 200th Grand Prix with race victory for Mercedes. Rosberg resisted the late pressure from Daniel Ricciardo to score his eighth win this season.

By winning the Singapore Grand Prix, the Mercedes driver has retaken the championship lead from rival and team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Rosberg now has an eight-point advantage with six races left this season.

Despite both Mercedes drivers being warned about brake management from the early laps, Rosberg controlled most of the Singapore Grand Prix.

After a safety car for a startline crash and a hair-raising moment as a marshal had to run off the track with the leaders approaching at the restart, Rosberg established a comfortable gap over Ricciardo and Hamilton.

Mercedes’ choice of softs for its second stint, when Ricciardo stayed on super-softs, left Hamilton moaning at his team over the radio.

Hamilton then found himself under pressure from Kimi Raikkonen’s super-soft compound Ferrari, which got past just after half-distance after a lock-up from the Mercedes.

The second round of pit-stops followed soon after, with the gap between Rosberg and Hamilton in fourth out to 18.9 seconds.

Mercedes then switched Hamilton to “plan B”, and he charged up behind Raikkonen and then made an unexpected third pit-stop for a set of ultra-softs with 16 laps to the flag.

Ferrari was left in two minds on whether to react, and though it hauled Raikkonen in, a superb lap from Hamilton allowed him to pull off the undercut and reclaim third. He then held off Raikkonen to the finish.

Red Bull Racing covered off both those drivers by bringing in Ricciardo for new super-softs, while Mercedes left Rosberg out on his softs.

The honey badger started hunting down Rosberg, a 24 seconds gap becoming 5 seconds within seven laps.

But some traffic, fading tyres and Mercedes giving Rosberg the green light to push his brakes harder halted Ricciardo’s charge and he ran out of time to pass.

The dramatic finish matched the start, when Max Verstappen’s slow getaway from fourth triggered mayhem.

Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg tangled as they tried to dodge around the Red Bull, sending Hulkenberg spinning into the pitwall and triggering the safety car.

That proved to be the only caution period, but Sebastian Vettel did not need too much help to make it through the field from the back of the grid.

Rapid overtaking in the midfield and a long first stint on softs set up his determined drive to a fifth place finish.

Verstappen ended up sixth via a late move on Fernando Alonso’s McLaren, having had a big battle with his Red Bull predecessor Daniil Kvyat along the way.

Sergio Perez’s eighth nudged Force India a point ahead of Williams in their battle for fourth in the constructors’ championship as the latter failed to score.

Felipe Massa was only P12, while Valtteri Bottas picked up damage in the first-lap incident, had to pit with a seatbelt problem and eventually retired.

Kvyat claimed ninth, with Kevin Magnussen tenth for only Renault’s second points-scoring finish of the season.

Romain Grosjean’s nightmare weekend, which already included two crashes and a gearbox-change penalty, resulted in a brake failure on his Haas that prevented him from even taking the start.

Singapore Grand Prix, race results after 61 laps:

1    Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1h55m48.950s
2    Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    0.488s
3    Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    8.038s
4    Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    10.219s
5    Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari    27.694s
6    Max Verstappen    Red Bull-Renault    1m11.197s
7    Fernando Alonso    McLaren-Honda    1m29.198s
8    Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m49.146s
9    Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m49.867s
10    Kevin Magnussen    Renault    1m51.843s
11    Esteban Gutierrez    Haas-Ferrari    1 Lap
12    Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1 Lap
13    Felipe Nasr    Sauber-Ferrari    1 Lap
14    Carlos Sainz    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1 Lap
15    Jolyon Palmer    Renault    1 Lap
16    Pascal Wehrlein    Manor-Mercedes    1 Lap
17    Marcus Ericsson    Sauber-Ferrari    1 Lap
18    Esteban Ocon    Manor-Mercedes    2 Laps
–    Jenson Button    McLaren-Honda    Retirement
–    Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    Retirement
–    Romain Grosjean    Haas-Ferrari    Not started
–    Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    Collision

Drivers’ standings:

1    Nico Rosberg    273
2    Lewis Hamilton    265
3    Daniel Ricciardo    179
4    Sebastian Vettel    153
5    Kimi Raikkonen    148
6    Max Verstappen    129
7    Valtteri Bottas    70
8    Sergio Perez    66
9    Nico Hulkenberg    46
10    Felipe Massa    41
11    Fernando Alonso    36
12    Carlos Sainz    30
13    Romain Grosjean    28
14    Daniil Kvyat    25
15    Jenson Button    17
16    Kevin Magnussen    7
17    Pascal Wehrlein    1
18    Stoffel Vandoorne    1
19    Esteban Gutierrez    0
20    Jolyon Palmer    0
21    Marcus Ericsson    0
22    Felipe Nasr    0
23    Rio Haryanto    0
24    Esteban Ocon    0

Constructors’ standings:

1    Mercedes    538
2    Red Bull-Renault    316
3    Ferrari    301
4    Force India-Mercedes    112
5    Williams-Mercedes    111
6    McLaren-Honda    54
7    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    47
8    Haas-Ferrari    28
9    Renault    7
10    Manor-Mercedes    1
11    Sauber/Ferrari    0

Next race: Malaysian Grand Prix, Sepang. September 30-October 2.

Nico Rosberg claimed his seventh pole position this season for Mercedes at Marina Bay, as championship rival and team-mate Lewis Hamilton could only record third fastest time.

Hopes of a tight, multi-team battle for pole were dashed in Q2, as Red Bull and Ferrari – down to one car already after early problems for Sebastian Vettel – struggled to get within a second of Rosberg’s benchmark.

Rosberg was the only driver to make it below the one minute, 43 seconds time around the Singapore Grand Prix street circuit in Q3, and his first run proved enough to get the job done as he lapped in one minute, 42.584 seconds to claim P1 by over half a second.

Hamilton lost track time to a hydraulic valve problem in Friday’s practice session and has struggled under braking all weekend so far, and he endured a difficult time again in qualifying.

The two-time race winner trailed Rosberg by more than seven tenths of a second after his first run in Q3 and failed to improve on his second run.

That gave Daniel Ricciardo an opportunity to steal a front row start for Red Bull Racing, as the honey badger leapt to second with a superb one minute, 43.115 seconds effort at the end.

His team-mate Max Verstappen was fourth quickest, just 0.040 seconds down on Hamilton.

Kimi Raikkonen qualified his Ferrari fifth fastest, over six tenths down from Verstappen, while team-mate Sebastian Vettel was knocked out in Q1 after his Ferrari appeared to suffer a suspension failure.

Vettel initially tried to press on and drag a lap time out of the car anyway, before pitting for repairs but the team had no time to complete.

Ferrari revealed later on that it was an anti-roll bar problem which affected Vettel’s qualifying. The four-time Singapore Grand Prix winner and last year’s pole man will start the race last on the grid…

Carlos Sainz claimed a superb sixth for Toro Rosso, ahead of team-mate Daniil Kvyat (who only made one run in Q3) and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.

Fernando Alonso qualified his McLaren-Honda ninth quickest, fractionally ahead of Sergio Perez.

Force India’s Perez may yet face sanction for overtaking Esteban Gutierrez under yellow flags in Q2.

Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were P11 and P12, Bottas missing the Q3 cut by just 0.003 seconds, and both affected badly by those yellow flags after Romain Grosjean crashed his Haas at the Turn 10 left-hander.

Jenson Button damaged his McLaren-Honda’s left-rear wheel against the wall at Turn 14 on his final flying lap, so failed to improve and ended up P13.

Esteban Gutierrez was P14, just ahead of Haas team-mate Grosjean, whose crash also hindered Hulkenberg and Gutierrez at the end of Q2.

Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber rounded out the top 16, electing to save tyres knowing he could do no better after Vettel’s misfortune allowed him passage to Q2.

Ericsson made it through to Q2 with what he described as a “nice lap” at the end of Q1.

That put him almost four tenths clear of the Q1 dropouts, headed by Kevin Magnussen’s Renault, Felipe Nasr, and Jolyon Palmer, these three all covered by just 0.135 seconds.

Pascal Wehrlein was P20 for Manor, over six tenths up on team-mate Esteban Ocon, while Vettel’s broken Ferrari trailed the entire field, almost a second further back.

Qualifying standings, Singapore Grand Prix:

1    Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1m42.584s
2    Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    1m43.115s
3    Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    1m43.288s
4    Max Verstappen    Red Bull-Renault    1m43.328s
5    Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1m43.540s
6    Carlos Sainz    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m44.197s
7    Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m44.469s
8    Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m44.479s
9    Fernando Alonso    McLaren-Honda    1m44.553s
10    Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m44.582s
11    Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m44.740s
12    Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m44.991s
13    Jenson Button    McLaren-Honda    1m45.144s
14    Esteban Gutierrez    Haas-Ferrari    1m45.593s
15    Romain Grosjean    Haas-Ferrari    1m45.723s
16    Marcus Ericsson    Sauber-Ferrari    1m47.827s
17    Kevin Magnussen    Renault    1m46.825s
18    Felipe Nasr    Sauber-Ferrari    1m46.860s
19    Jolyon Palmer    Renault    1m46.960s
20    Pascal Wehrlein    Manor-Mercedes    1m47.667s
21    Esteban Ocon    Manor-Mercedes    1m48.296s
22    Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari    1m49.116s

Nico Rosberg scored a comfortable Italian Grand Prix victory for Mercedes as his team-mate and challenger suffered a bad start but recovered to finish second.

This was an easy, Sunday afternoon drive for Rosberg. Benefitted from a slow start from Lewis Hamilton, who qualified on pole and bang in the lap times consistently to stay ahead of the pack. In the end, recorded his first victory at Monza.

Mercedes recorded their fourth one-two of the season in the process. Win number of seven for Rosberg in 2016 and his 21st of his Formula 1 career. This result means Nico is just two points behind Lewis in the drivers’ championship with seven races remaining.

Sebastian Vettel gave the Tifosi something to cheer about by finishing third, 20.9 secondss adrift, with Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen fourth.

While Hamilton was swallowed up by the pack and dropped to sixth at the start, Rosberg held off a challenge from Vettel to take the lead into Turn 1.

The Mercedes driver set a series of fastest laps to build a gap as Vettel and Raikkonen struggled to keep pace.

Hamilton, meanwhile, passed Daniel Ricciardo through Curve Grande to move into fifth and then got a good run out of Parabolica to slingshot past Valtteri Bottas for fourth.

The reigning world champion inherited second when the Ferraris pitted for fresh sets of super-soft tyres.

Hamilton began closing the gap to Rosberg before both Mercedes pitted for the first and only time, taking the mediums.

He dropped back to fourth but reclaimed second when the Ferraris pitted for the second time.

Though Hamilton pushed to catch his title rival, he locked up at the first chicane, bouncing across the speed bumps in the middle before rejoining.

He was then warned by his team to build a gap to the Ferraris behind and his challenge faded.

Ricciardo, on fresh super-soft tyres, launched an attack from a long way back to pass Bottas into the first chicane to take fifth.

That overtake was the highlight of the Italian Grand Prix. It was a brave and superb move by the honey badger. So far back and yet Ricciardo pulled it off in passing Bottas.

His Red Bull team-mate also made a great overtake. Max Verstappen got a good run through Curva Grande and then passed Sergio Perez into the second chicane for seventh.

Felipe Massa and Nico Hulkenberg completed the top ten.

The result means Williams moves back ahead of Force India into fourth place in the constructors’ championship with a three-point lead.

In a race of little drama, Jolyon Palmer and Felipe Nasr collided on lap two with the Sauber driver being handed a 10s penalty by the stewards. Both retired with damage.

Not the most exciting Italian Grand Prix but in terms of the championship, this battle between the Mercedes drivers is getting more tense and dramatic. Two points the difference. Game on as Formula 1 departs Europe for the faraway races.

Italian Grand Prix, race results after 53 laps:

1    Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1h17m28.089s
2    Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    15.070s
3    Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari    20.990s
4    Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    27.561s
5    Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    45.295s
6    Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    51.015s
7    Max Verstappen    Red Bull-Renault    54.236s
8    Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m04.954s
9    Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m05.617s
10    Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m18.656s
11    Romain Grosjean    Haas-Ferrari    1 Lap
12    Jenson Button    McLaren-Honda    1 Lap
13    Esteban Gutierrez    Haas-Ferrari    1 Lap
14    Fernando Alonso    McLaren-Honda    1 Lap
15    Carlos Sainz    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1 Lap
16    Marcus Ericsson    Sauber-Ferrari    1 Lap
17    Kevin Magnussen    Renault    1 Lap
18    Esteban Ocon    Manor-Mercedes    2 Laps
–    Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    Retirement
–    Pascal Wehrlein    Manor-Mercedes    Retirement
–    Jolyon Palmer    Renault    Retirement
–    Felipe Nasr    Sauber-Ferrari    Retirement

Drivers’ standings:

1    Lewis Hamilton    250
2    Nico Rosberg    248
3    Daniel Ricciardo    161
4    Sebastian Vettel    143
5    Kimi Raikkonen    136
6    Max Verstappen    121
7    Valtteri Bottas    70
8    Sergio Perez    62
9    Nico Hulkenberg    46
10    Felipe Massa    41
11    Fernando Alonso    30
12    Carlos Sainz    30
13    Romain Grosjean    28
14    Daniil Kvyat    23
15    Jenson Button    17
16    Kevin Magnussen    6
17    Pascal Wehrlein    1
18    Stoffel Vandoorne    1
19    Esteban Gutierrez    0
20    Jolyon Palmer    0
21    Marcus Ericsson    0
22    Felipe Nasr    0
23    Rio Haryanto    0
24    Esteban Ocon    0

Constructors’ standings:

1    Mercedes    498
2    Red Bull-Renault    290
3    Ferrari    279
4    Williams-Mercedes    111
5    Force India-Mercedes    108
6    McLaren-Honda    48
7    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    45
8    Haas-Ferrari    28
9    Renault    6
10    Manor-Mercedes    1
11    Sauber/Ferrari    0

Next race: Singapore Grand Prix, Marina Bay. September 16-18.

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton was unbeatable in qualifying, setting impressive lap times in the Mercedes W07 Hybrid at the temple of speed.

Championship challenger and team-mate Nico Rosberg tried his best but had to settle with second position. Although the gap to Hamilton was telling… 0.478 seconds.

Sebastian Vettel leads division two, giving the Tifosi a little cheer at Ferrari’s home race. Kimi Raikkonen joins his team-mate with a red row two.

The Iceman was quicker than Vettel after their first runs in Q3, but failed to improve on his second set of tyres so slipped to fourth.

Valtteri Bottas was in fine form for Williams and pipped Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull to fifth by just a tiny margin of 0.001 second.

Max Verstappen rounded out the top seven, ahead of the Force India pairing of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.

Esteban Gutierrez impressively got Haas into the top ten in qualifying for the first time, but then endured a scrappy Q3 session.

He ran off track at the Lesmos on his first Q3 run and failed to better his Q2 time on his second, which left him P10.

Felipe Massa failed to improve on his final run in Q2, so was bumped out of the top ten by a fine lap from Gutierrez, plus marginally better times by both Force India drivers, and the Red Bulls abandoning plans to progress on the soft tyre and then turning in quicker super-soft laps at the death.

Massa wounded up P11 in a car fast enough for the top six, while Romain Grosjean found nearly half a second on its second Q2 run but this was only good enough for P12.

The Haas driver will drop a further five places on the grid thanks to a penalty for changing his gearbox after the final practice session.

Pascal Wehrlein impressively split McLaren-Honda’s past world champions with P14, just 0.042 seconds slower than Fernando Alonso and 0.044 seconds quicker than Jenson Button.

Carlos Sainz managed to drag a sub-one minute, 23.5 seconds lap out of his underpowered Toro Rosso, but this was only good enough to make him the slowest driver in Q2, just under a tenth back from Button.

Daniil Kvyat joined the Saubers, Renaults and Esteban Ocon’s Manor in failing to escape Q1.

Kvyat swore furiously over team radio after missing the cut by just 0.042 seconds, as Toro Rosso team-mate Sainz, both McLarens and Wehrlein’s Manor all made it through with last efforts.

Felipe Nasr was P18 in the best of the Saubers, complaining an engine misfire cost him a shot at finding the two tenths he needed to make it through to Q2.

Team-mate Marcus Ericsson was just over a tenth slower in P19, ahead of Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen, who survived a big moment exiting the Ascari chicane on his final run.

Ocon’s car broke down on track for the second time this weekend, before he could set a time.

So a pure domination from Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton on pole position at the temple of speed. Can Nico Rosberg fight back? What about Ferrari? Can Sebastian Vettel or Kimi Raikkonen raise a cheer for the Tifosi? We shall find out on race at the legendary Monza circuit.

Qualifying positions, Monza:

1    Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    1m21.135s
2    Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1m21.613s
3    Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari    1m21.972s
4    Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1m22.065s
5    Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m22.388s
6    Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    1m22.389s
7    Max Verstappen    Red Bull-Renault    1m22.411s
8    Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m22.814s
9    Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m22.836s
10    Esteban Gutierrez    Haas-Ferrari    1m23.184s
11    Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m22.967s
12    Fernando Alonso    McLaren-Honda    1m23.273s
13    Pascal Wehrlein    Manor-Mercedes    1m23.315s
14    Jenson Button    McLaren-Honda    1m23.399s
15    Carlos Sainz    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m23.496s
16    Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m23.825s
17    Romain Grosjean    Haas-Ferrari    1m23.092s
18    Felipe Nasr    Sauber-Ferrari    1m23.956s
19    Marcus Ericsson    Sauber-Ferrari    1m24.087s
20    Jolyon Palmer    Renault    1m24.230s
21    Kevin Magnussen    Renault    1m24.436s
22    Esteban Ocon    Manor/Mercedes    No time

Nico Rosberg scored his first victory at Spa-Francorchamps while his title rival Lewis Hamilton claimed a podium finish from P21 on the grid in a chaotic Belgian Grand Prix.

By winning the race, Rosberg has now reduced the gap to his Mercedes team-mate Hamilton to nine points. But would have been hoping for more given the reigning champion’s back-row start due to numerous penalties accrued for three power unit changes.

Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo finished in a Silver Arrows sandwich on track while in the points standings, the money badger is third place ahead of the Ferrari pair of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, who could only manage sixth and ninth following numerous incidents.

The field was reduced to 17 cars within just five laps and was red-flagged on lap nine for barrier repairs after a massive crash that sent Renault’s Kevin Magnussen to hospital.

At the start, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was slow away from second and was swallowed up on the short run down to the La Source hairpin by both Raikkonen and Vettel.

As Vettel dived down the inside of Raikkonen and Vettel turned in, Raikkonen was left with nowhere to go in the middle and the trio made contact.

Vettel spun to the back, while Verstappen and Raikkonen were forced to pit due to damage sustained, with the Ferrari developing a small underside fire to add to the drama.

Later on the opening lap Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein ran into the back of Jenson Button’s McLaren coming out of Les Combes, with both retiring.

Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz was next out on lap two after sustaining a puncture along the Kemmel straight, and although he tried to continue, Sainz only succeeded in further damaging the car before pulling off track.

Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, who had started the race from the pitlane due to the team working on cooling issues, also soon retired after losing sixth gear.

Penalised tail-end starters Fernando Alonso and Hamilton had reached P10 and P11 by lap six, when Magnussen ploughed into the Raidillon barrier.

Racing up through Eau Rouge, Magnussen appeared to take too much kerb on the exit, sending the Renault into a high-speed spin across the track before ramming into the wall, resulting in a Safety Car period.

A flurry of pit stops for fresh tyres followed over the first two laps under yellow, promoting Alonso and Hamilton up to fourth and fifth as they had no need to change rubber given they had started on the mediums at the back.

But with the barriers severely damaged, race director Charlie Whiting took the decision to red flag the race for 17 minutes to allow repairs to be carried out.

The running order at that stage was Rosberg ahead of Ricciardo, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, Alonso and Hamilton, with Vettel P11, Verstappen P16 and Raikkonen P17.

Raikkonen and Verstappen would make contact again soon after the race restart.

When Verstappen blocked Raikkonen on the following lap at high speed down the Kemmel straight, The Iceman again expressed expletive-laden anger.

Up front, Hamilton moved up to third on lap 18 of the 44 by passing Hulkenberg into Les Combes.

A slow pitstop three laps later dropped Hamilton to ninth, but as those ahead made their stops soon afterwards he rose back into the top three behind Rosberg and Ricciardo.

The out-of-sequence championship leader then had to overtake Force India’s Sergio Perez and Hulkenberg again after his third stop to clinch the final podium position, as Rosberg took the chequered flag by 14.1 seconds from Ricciardo.

Hulkenberg and Perez finished fourth and fifth, bringing Force India ahead of Williams to fourth in the constructors’ championship by one point.

The recovering Vettel and Alonso were sixth and seventh, with Williams pair Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa eighth and tenth either side of Raikkonen.

Verstappen tried a different strategy for his comeback drive but could only reach 11th.

On his F1 debut, Esteban Ocon held off Felipe Nasr to claim P16.

Belgian Grand Prix, race results after 44 laps:

1    Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1h44m51.058s
2    Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    14.113s
3    Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    27.634s
4    Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    35.907s
5    Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    40.660s
6    Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari    45.394s
7    Fernando Alonso    McLaren-Honda    59.445s
8    Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m00.151s
9    Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1m01.109s
10    Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m05.873s
11    Max Verstappen    Red Bull-Renault    1m11.138s
12    Esteban Gutierrez    Haas-Ferrari    1m13.877s
13    Romain Grosjean    Haas-Ferrari    1m16.474s
14    Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m27.097s
15    Jolyon Palmer    Renault    1m33.165s
16    Esteban Ocon    Manor-Mercedes    1 Lap
17    Felipe Nasr    Sauber-Ferrari    1 Lap
–    Kevin Magnussen    Renault    Spun off
–    Marcus Ericsson    Sauber-Ferrari    Retirement
–    Carlos Sainz    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    Retirement
–    Jenson Button    McLaren-Honda    Collision
–    Pascal Wehrlein    Manor-Mercedes    Collision

Drivers’ standings:

1    Lewis Hamilton    232
2    Nico Rosberg    223
3    Daniel Ricciardo    151
4    Sebastian Vettel    128
5    Kimi Raikkonen    124
6    Max Verstappen    115
7    Valtteri Bottas    62
8    Sergio Perez    58
9    Nico Hulkenberg    45
10    Felipe Massa    39
11    Fernando Alonso    30
12    Carlos Sainz    30
13    Romain Grosjean    28
14    Daniil Kvyat    23
15    Jenson Button    17
16    Kevin Magnussen    6
17    Pascal Wehrlein    1
18    Stoffel Vandoorne    1
19    Esteban Gutierrez    0
20    Jolyon Palmer    0
21    Marcus Ericsson    0
22    Felipe Nasr    0
23    Rio Haryanto    0
24    Esteban Ocon    0

Constructors’ standings:

1    Mercedes    455
2    Red Bull-Renault    274
3    Ferrari    252
4    Force India-Mercedes    103
5    Williams-Mercedes    101
6    McLaren-Honda    48
7    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    45
8    Haas-Ferrari    28
9    Renault    6
10    Manor-Mercedes    1
11    Sauber-Ferrari    0

Next race: Italian Grand Prix, Monza. September 2-4.

After a long summer break, Formula 1 returns with a positive feeling with Nico Rosberg taking pole position at Spa-Francorchamps while Max Verstappen achieved his best-ever grid slot with second place.

Pole position for Rosberg was expected considering the speed of the Silver Arrows while his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton choosing not to try for pole, on account of a 55-place grid penalty for multiple engine changes, Rosberg looked set to face a relatively unchallenged run to pole.

And yet, Max Verstappen became the challenger for P1. The fight for the top spot was exciting but in the end, second quickest time for Red Bull is still impressive. Verstappen becomes the youngest driver since Ricardo Rodriguez back in 1961 to start from the front row.

As for championship leader Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes driver will run a new power unit but thanks to the penalties applied to changing parts with tokens, he will start the Belgian Grand Prix in last place.

Joining Hamilton will be another champion, in the shape of Fernando Alonso. The McLaren also received penalties due to the power unit. Pure irony that the Honda engine let go even before the start of his qualifying lap…

Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest for Ferrari, almost two tenths clear of team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who lost time to a big oversteer moment at the Bus Stop chicane on his final flying lap. Raikkonen also dropped time at the end of his lap, and felt that cost him a shot at pole.

Daniel Ricciardo was fifth for Red Bull, just over three tenths down on his team-mate Verstappen.

Ricciardo endured a poor first run in Q3, but improved enough on his second to make the top six.

Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg took sixth and seventh places respectively for Force India, while fellow Mercedes customer team Williams suffered software problems with both cars in Q3.

This meant it couldn’t run full qualifying mode on the engines, restricting Valtteri Bottas to eighth and Felipe Massa to tenth.

Massa also locked his brakes heavily at La Source on his single Q3 run, and Jenson Button’s McLaren-Honda was able to squeak ahead of him into ninth position.

Button’s place in Q3 came at the expense of Romain Grosjean’s Haas, which ended up missing the cut by 0.265 seconds.

Renault delivered its best qualifying performance of the season so far with Kevin Magnussen P12 and team-mate Jolyon Palmer P14.

They were split by Esteban Gutierrez, who faces a five-place grid penalty for impeding Pascal Wehrlein’s Manor at Raidillon in final practice.

Wehrlein made it through to Q2 was a solid effort, but wound up last in that segment, after a disappointing run in which he went slower than he did in Q1.

Carlos Sainz was just ahead of him for Toro Rossos, also unable to improve on his Q1 best.

Felipe Nasr failed to escape Q1 in the heavily revised Sauber by just 0.048 seconds and wound up P17, a tenth ahead of Manor debutant Esteban Ocon.

Daniil Kvyat endured yet another Q1 exit for Toro Rosso, ending up P19, fractionally ahead of Marcus Ericsson.

Reigning world champion Hamilton recorded P20, completing a lap within the 107% qualifying rule knowing he will start at the back of the grid.

Fernando Alonso’s McLaren-Honda broke down before he could complete an out-lap in qualifying, so he failed to set a time.

Honda found what it described as a “data anomaly” with Alonso’s engine after the final practice session, but elected to send him out without making an engine change.

Belgian Grand Prix, qualifying positions:

1    Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1m46.744s
2    Max Verstappen    Red Bull-Renault    1m46.893s
3    Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1m46.910s
4    Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari    1m47.108s
5    Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    1m47.216s
6    Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m47.407s
7    Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m47.543s
8    Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m47.612s
9    Jenson Button    McLaren-Honda    1m48.114s
10    Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m48.263s
11    Romain Grosjean    Haas-Ferrari    1m48.316s
12    Kevin Magnussen    Renault    1m48.485s
13    Jolyon Palmer    Renault    1m48.888s
14    Carlos Sainz    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m49.038s
15    Pascal Wehrlein    Manor-Mercedes    1m49.320s
16    Felipe Nasr    Sauber-Ferrari    1m48.949s
17    Esteban Ocon    Manor-Mercedes    1m49.050s
18    Esteban Gutierrez    Haas-Ferrari    1m48.598s
19    Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m49.058s
20    Marcus Ericsson    Sauber-Ferrari    1m49.071s
21    Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    1m50.033s
22    Fernando Alonso    McLaren-Honda     No time