Formula 1: Hamilton wins 2017 Belgian Grand Prix

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has won the 2017 Belgian GP at Spa Francorchamps. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel finished just 2.3 seconds after Hamilton in the second place followed by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo. 

Lewis Hamilton took his 68th career pole position on Saturday - equaling Michael Schumacher's pole tally. On Sunday, the Brit went on to register his 58th career victory in his 200th grand prix.

Hamilton took the lead from the start itself and was followed closely by Sebastian Vettel. The first yellow flag of the race was seen on lap 8 after the Red Bull of Max Verstappen suffered a power loss. Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen who started fourth was given a 10 second stop-go penalty for ignoring the yellow flags. 

Safety car was deployed on lap 30 after the two Force India cars of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez clashed heading down the hill to Eau Rouge. Perez's overly defensive maneuver resulted in a punctured right rear, as he clipped Ocon's front wing. While, the safety car gave the rest of the field a free pit stop opportunity, Mercedes failed to capitalize on it as Valtteri Bottas had a terrible restart and lost out to Raikkonen and Ricciardo. The Mercedes driver finished in 5th place behind Raikkonen.

Nico Hulkenberg's Renault crossed the finish line in 6th place ahead of Romain Grosjean in the Haas. Felipe Massa who started down in P16 for Williams grabbed 8th position. Despite the incident on 30th lap, Ocon salvaged 9th position for Force India, while Carlos Sainz completed the top 10. Fernando Alonso had to retire from the race, while his team mate- Stoffel Vandoorne finished fourteenth.

Despite being on the slower tyres during the final stint, Hamilton managed to stay out of Vettel's DRS range who was on the faster Ultra Soft tyres. Sebastian Vettel still leads the championship by a slender margin of 7 points from Hamilton. Mercedes leads Ferrari with 392 championship points in the constructors table.

World Driver Championship standings:

1. Sebastian Vettel - 220 points

2. Lewis Hamilton - 213 points

3. Valtteri Bottas - 179 points

World Constructor Championship standings:

1. Mercedes - 392 points

2. Ferrari - 348 points

3. Red Bull - 199 points

Next up is the Italian GP at Monza on September 3, 2017.