Reigning Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton has cruised to a comprehensive victory in the Belgian Grand Prix to further extend his lead at the top of standings.
The Mercedes driver capitalised on his sixth consecutive pole position to storm to his sixth campaign victory in one hour 23 minutes 4.387 seconds around the 43 laps of the 7.004-kilometre Spa-Francorchamps circuit on Sunday.
Teammate Nico Rosberg followed 2.058 seconds behind, while Romain Grosjean took surprise third for Lotus.
Hamilton now leads the standings on 227 points, with Rosberg on 199.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel remains third on 160 after a bold move to complete the race on just one pit stop failed on the penultimate lap.
"An amazing weekend again, it was an incredible job done by the team," Hamilton said on the podium after his 39th career win.
"Today was a dream and the car was fantastic all weekend."
Australia's Daniel Ricciardo started fifth and looked on track for success in the early stages of the race, battling with Sergio Perez in Force India for second.
However, a sudden power failure on the 21st lap put paid to the Red Bull driver's hopes as he was forced to retire.
Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat finished fourth ahead of Perez, Felipe Massa took sixth in a Williams and Kimi Raikkonen in Ferrari finished seventh despite starting 16th due to a gearbox change penalty.
Bottas's chance of a truly high finish vanished on lap 13 when his team fitted a mixture of tyres during a stop. He was given a drive-through penalty for the violation and failed to trouble the podium places from then on though recovered to claim ninth behind Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen.
Sauber's Marcus Ericsson completed the points placings in 10th.
The next race is the Italian Grand Prix on September 6.
Share
