Ricciardo Claims Third F1 Victory

But tensions in Mercedes hog headlines...again.

Starting with his maiden win in Canada and then his thrilling victory in Hungary, Daniel Ricciardo raced to his third victory in Belgium yesterday, in his debut Red Bull season, while being cheered on by a crowd filled with supporters waving the Australian flag.

Lewis Hamilton was leading at the start, but a collision with teammate Nico Rosberg on lap two caused him to lag behind as he failed to regain momentum and was eventually forced to retire. Ricciardo, meanwhile, who started from fifth position on the grid, moved quickly to the lead.

“When you are leading the first thing is you hope everything holds together, mechanically you hope everything gets you to the finish line but certainly when you are in the lead the chequered flag can’t come soon enough," Ricciardo said.

While Ricciardo took to the podium amidst cheers like a hero's welcome, Rosberg, who survived the collision, stepped up to the second place only to be booed by the crowd. Ouch.

"Completely unacceptable" was Mercedes' team boss Toto Wolff's comment about the incident. "You don't try to overtake with the knife between your teeth in lap number two and damage both cars."

Rosberg, however, denies that it was intentional and blames it on misjudgement: "I got a good run on Lewis and tried to go round the outside and we just touched in the end, unfortunately, and it hurt both of our races, but that's just how it goes." His second place victory extends his lead to win the world championship with 220 points, 29 points ahead of Hamilton.

Ricciardo remains in third with 156 points, although fans who are now weary of the internal squabbling in Mercedes are hoping against hope that the likeable 25-year-old Ozzie will fight his way to the top with the seven more races left in this season.

image: bbc.co.uk