MOTORSPORT: Ricciardo flies to fourth at Spa

Aussie hero Daniel Ricciardo has equalled his best performance for Renault, finishing a strong fourth in the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix last night.

Meanwhile, Ferrari endured a horror show down the back of the grid at the famed Spa-Francorchamps, while Mercedes-AMG and Red Bull displayed their usual domination at the front of the field.

For once the Renault factory team lived up to its aspiration of being the bridge between the Formula 1 front-runners and the midfield pack and Ricciardo was closing on the top three finishers as the chequered flag flew.

Those top three? Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes-AMG and Max Verstappen of Red Bull. Of course.

They qualified and finished in that order, only late concerns about tyre durability injecting any interest into a processional race for the podium places.

It was Hamilton’s 89th F1 race win, preceded by his 93rd pole position on Saturday. He now leads Verstappen by 47 points as he pursues a record-equalling seventh driver’s championship.

“Today was a different kind of race, it was all about managing the tyres and the gap to the cars behind,” said Hamilton. “I was slightly nervous at the end that we might see a repeat of the tyre issue we had in Silverstone, but thankfully it held in there.”

While Mercedes looked unbeatable, old foe Ferrari endured its worst performance in seasons, its underdone powertrain and average chassis exposed by the long straights varied turns of Spa.

Charles Leclerc and the out-of-favour Sebastian Vettel barely made it out of the bottom five cars on Saturday and never looked like making it into the top 10 shootout.

After a brief, brave showing from Leclerc in the early laps, he faded to finish 14th, a position behind Vettel.

"On a track that requires aerodynamic efficiency and power, we were severely lacking in both. Charles and Sebastian did their very best, both yesterday in qualifying and today in the race, but we couldn't even get into the points,” said Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto.

“We are disappointed and angry, as indeed are our fans and with good reason. It’s a difficult moment in a season that we knew from the start would be a tough one, but it’s at times like this that we need to stand firm and look ahead in order to get over this difficult period. It’s the only way we will get out of this situation."

Ricciardo finished where he qualified, but had to work hard to do it. After challenging Verstappen for third on the first lap, he dropped into a secure fourth.

However, a big crash on lap 10 of the 44-lap race by Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi that also took out George Russell’s Williams triggered a safety car that prompted most of the field to pit for fresh tyres.

Unfortunately for Ricciardo, the two that stayed out were Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly and Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and they separated him from the top three at the restart. By the time he got by the two running ‘off strategy’, Hamilton and co had disappeared up the road.

Ricciardo clawed the gap to Verstappen down from 16 seconds to three seconds in the final laps and even picked up the point for fastest race lap on the final lap.

“We had a lot of pace today and fourth is a strong result,” the carsales global ambassador said. “It’s been a while since I’ve had the fastest lap of the race, so that was also nice. My engineer told me what the current fastest was and I thought ‘I got this’! It was a proper big lap; I used all the track and went for it.”

Making Renault’s best day in F1 since it returned to the championship in 2016, Ricciardo’s teammate Esteban Ocon came through for fifth place with a last-lap pass of Red Bull’s Alex Albon.

The Renault R.S.20 clearly relished the low downforce set-up employed at Spa, which bodes well for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza next weekend, where Ricciardo also finished fourth in 2019.

Rounding out the points positions were McLaren’s Lando Norris, Gasly, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll and Perez.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz qualified seventh but failed to start because of an exhaust failure.

In Formula 3, Australian Oscar Piastri both regained and lost the championship lead after two hectic days of high-speed racing.

Piastri was fifth in his first time out at Spa, a result good enough to move back into the top position ahead of Prema teammate Logan Sargeant, who could manage only eighth because of a mechanical issue.

But in Sunday’s reverse top 10 race, Sargeant was a clear winner while Piastri could only finish sixth. He was fifth on the road but copped a five-second penalty for a track limits infringement.

Sargeant now leads Piastri by seven points, with the title chase resuming at Monza next weekend. The final round is at Mugello on September 11-13.

There were no points finishes for the other Aussies in the F3 field. Alex Peroni went 14-22, Jack Doohan 12-DNF and Calan Williams 16-25.

However, there were promising signs for rookie Doohan, who was fastest in practice and rose as high as 10th in his HWA Racelab entry in race one. He was out in race two on the opening lap after contact.

Peroni was also in the points on Sunday until contact sent him spinning.