8 Big Moments From The Belgian Grand Prix

After a painful, month-long summer break, F1 returned to action at the historic Spa-Francorchamps. Lewis Hamilton put in a stunning drive from pole position to win the Belgian Grand Prix, with Nico Rosberg following him home in second.

Romain Grosjean battled up the order to score his first podium in almost two years, moving up to third after drama on the penultimate lap. Here are the highlights from round 11 of the 2015 season:

1. Lightning starts

Hamilton had a decent start and led into Turn 1, but a sluggish getaway for Rosberg dropped him to fifth. Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo flew past the German and Valtteri Bottas to run second and third, but soon fell behind the recovering Rosberg.

2. A bad spot

After his FP1 crash, Pastor Maldonado actually qualified well. However his race did not go to plan. He lost power on the Kemmel Straight on lap two – a scary place to dramatically slow. Drivers behind had to react quickly, fortunately no one collected him.

In case you didn’t know, it is against the rules to fit two different tyre compounds in a pit stop. That’s exactly what happened for Valtteri Bottas after a hilariously bad error by Williams. He was sent out with three soft tyres and one medium compound. Awkward…

Max Verstappen has balls of steel, which explains why he started to pass Felipe Nasr around the outside of the Blanchimont corner at 190mph. He completed the move at the next turn.

Ricciardo had a few slides through Eau Rouge and Raidillon, but this one during the race was probably the scariest. He later retired after his whole car just switched off.

Sebastian Vettel had quickly been caught by Grosjean as he tried to make it to the finish on a one-stop strategy. However, Ferrari’s risk didn’t pay off, and the German’s tyre exploded in dramatic fashion on the penultimate lap.

He vented his frustration in the post-race media pen. This is what he had to say to BBC Sport, who basically got the only decent quote from him.

8. Hamilton triumphs

At the front, Hamilton’s lead was cut to just two seconds in the final laps but he had it all under control. The Belgian Grand Prix win was his sixth of the season and second at Spa. Rosberg and Grosjean were next up, and it was the latter’s first podium since the 2013 US GP.

Daniil Kvyat, Sergio Perez and Felipe Massa completed the top six. Kimi Raikkonen and Verstappen battled late on and the Finn emerged ahead, with Bottas and Marcus Ericsson scoring the final points. McLaren’s dismal 2015 season continued with Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button in 13th and 14th. F1 returns next month at the epic Monza circuit for the Italian Grand Prix.