Hamilton wins Belgian GP, now 2 behind Schumacher’s record

The only thing to elude him was the extra point for the fastest lap, which he had until Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo took it on the final lap on his way to fourth place.

Montreal’s Lance Stroll of Racing Point finished ninth, while Williams’ Nicholas Latifi of Toronto was 16th.

Hamilton’s fifth win from seven races also extended his championship lead over Verstappen to 47 points with Bottas drifting 50 back in third. Hamilton is favourite to win a seventh title to tie Schumacher’s record.

“I do feel that I’m driving at my best … I am 35 going towards 36 but I feel better than ever,” Hamilton said. “Last year was one of my best years, if not the best year, but in qualifying I had a bit of a slump. Every year the goal is to improve physically and mentally.”

Bottas vowed, before this season and last, that he could take Hamilton’s crown.

Yet he’s won only one race.

“It’s not over, there are 10 left. I had a puncture in Silverstone, lost a lot of points with that,” Bottas said. “If I gave up now, I’d rather stay home.”

Schumacher won five of his F1 titles consecutively during a glorious era for Ferrari, but the proud Italian team is struggling badly now. Sebastian Vettel finished 13th and Charles Leclerc 14th.

They are not anywhere close to Hamilton in terms of speed, let alone challenging him.

Having secured a record-extending 93rd career pole, which he dedicated to American actor Chadwick Boseman, Hamilton made a clean start and Bottas was unable to exert pressure on the long straight up to Turn 2.

Verstappen, meanwhile, would love a faster car to take the fight to Hamilton, but Red Bull has yet to bridge the gap with Mercedes.

“It was pretty boring to be honest, not much to do,” Verstappen said. “It was not really enjoyable out there.”

Early into the 44-lap race, Williams driver George Russell and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi crashed heavily but were both unharmed.

A minute’s silence was held before the race in memory of French driver Anthoine Hubert, who died here last year following a horrific crash during an F2 race.

F1 driver Pierre Gasly, who was close friends with Hubert, and other drivers gathered solemnly around a picture of Hubert on the grid. His racing helmet was placed on a stand.

Giovinazzi lost control of his car and Russell swerved into the barriers to avoid a loose tire from Giovinazzi’s car bouncing across the track. Both climbed out unhurt, while other drivers crawled at snail-like pace slowly over the debris on their way into the pits for new tires while the safety car was deployed.

“Feeling unlucky and lucky right now,” Russell said. “Gutted, as we were having a great race, but really glad we have the halo on these cars now or it could have been much worse.”

Ferrari’s mechanics were not even ready to fit tires onto Leclerc’s car.

Inefficiency from Ferrari, and muddled messages too.

“Why do we need to keep doing these stops?” Leclerc asked after being asked to pit again.

“We’ll let you know after the race,” his engineer replied evasively.

Vettel is a four-time champion but has not even finished in the top five this season — and has been 10th or lower in four races — heading into next weekend’s race at Italy’s famed Monza circuit.

Influential Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport ran a scathing headline on the team’s ongoing shortcomings, saying: “Ferrari deserves no fans at Monza” in reference to the fact no spectators have been allowed at races because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Last year, 90,000 fans turned up each day to the Spa-Francorchamps track in the Ardennes forest, with the area turned into makeshift campsites and stands jam-packed with raucous fans.

When Hamilton crossed the line, the forest was eerily silent and the only sound was his engine.

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More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Jerome Pugmire, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Hamilton wins Belgian GP, now 2 behind Schumacher’s record

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