Lewis Hamilton overcame a determined effort by Sebastian Vettel at the Belgian Grand Prix to take a narrow victory over Ferrari as Sebastian Vettel hounded the Mercedes from the first lap to the last. Vettel’s Ferrari had the pace to keep within touching distance of the Mercedes but Hamilton had enough of an advantage on the main Kemel Straight to keep the Ferrari at bay. Nevertheless, it was close and only a mistake by Hamilton would have handed victory to Ferrari.

Hamilton scorched to pole during Saturday while Vettel made a last gasp push to secure second on the grid after seemingly being stranded in fifth. He was helped in part by getting a tow on his final run from his team mate, Kimi Raikkonen. While Mercedes is quick in qualifying Ferrari has better race pace. But the margins are small.

In truth it was a largely processional race at the front, Vettel kept a watching brief, at one point in the Vettel got a tow from Hamilton out of Eau Rouge and on the Kemel straight momentarily slipped streamed past the Mercedes.

This brief flurry of a battle was sparked by a safety car period, brought out on lap 30 after a collision between Force India team mates, Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, caused debris to be strewn on track. This bunched the field up and at the restart, Vettel saw his chance to pounce out of Eau Rouge.

However, Hamilton’s Mercedes had superior straight line speed and he simply drove past Vettel before the approach into Les Combes. That’s as close as Vettel could get, a lesser driver than Hamilton would have eventually conceded victory to Vettel.

Daniel Ricciardo finished a surprise 3rd, his Red Bull Renault is no match for the Mercedes or Ferrari powerplant. He was helped by Kimi Raikkonen picking up a 10 second penalty late on in the race and by an off the pace Valtteri Boattas who finished 5th.

Perez would eventually retire late on he joined Alonso, Verstappen and Sauber’s Pascal Wherlein as the other race retirees. But as Hamilton crossed the line to secure victory he marked a small step forward to closing the gap between himself and championship leader, Vettel.

2017 Belgian Grand Prix Race Results