August 28, 2016 – Mercedes’s Nico Rosberg scores his first ever win at the Belgian GP this afternoon closing the gap to his team-mate & championship leader Lewis Hamilton with just 9 points between the duo now.
Lewis Hamilton was able to secure the third podium spot after a thrilling performance starting 21st on the grid due to the penalties he had to assume which were accrued for three power unit changes.
2nd podium spot was taken by RedBull’s Daniel Ricciardo after a consistent drive all over the race solidifying his 3rd place ahead of Ferrari drivers in the championship standings.
His young team-mate Max Verstappen was slow away at start from second and swallowed up on the short run down to the La Source hairpin by both Raikkonen and Vettel with the trio colliding, Vettel had to back off while Raikkonen & Verstappen were forced to box in due to damages caused by this contact.
Several accidents occured during the race, one of them involving Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein who ran into the back of Jenson Button’s McLaren coming out of Les Combes, with both retiring. The other one involved Renault’s Kevin Magnussen at the famous eau rouge corner with Magnussen loosing the control of his car at the corner exit and eventually crashing into the wall.
Two other retirements during the race for Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz & Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson.
| POS | DRIVER | CAR | GAP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Gearbox |
| – | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | Tyre |
| – | Jenson Button | McLaren/Honda | Collision |
| – | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor/Mercedes | Collision |