5 things we learned from the Belgian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton(C), winner of the Belgian GP with runner-up Nico Rosberg (L) and Romain Grosjean in 3rd The second half of the Formula One season commenced at Spa Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix this Sunday.The race saw Lewis Hamilton eased his way to victory ahead Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg and secured his 80th podium to equal the legendary Ayrton Senna in the all-time podium finishers list.Pirelli made headlines as Vettel's tyre exploded dramatically in the penultimate lap, in a similar fashion to Rosberg's tyre failure at second practice. The issue handed third place to Lotus' Romain Grosjean. Meanwhile, McLaren's newly updated engines proved to be unsuccessful in bringing the performance needed to close the gap to the midfield runners.Here are five interesting talking points from the race in Belgium that could set the tone for the rest of the season.

#1 Hamilton is on top of the world

Hamilton with the winners’ trophy at the Belgian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton demonstrated what he can do once again in a mighty fast Mercedes W06 car at the Belgian GP, with a commanding win over teammate Nico Rosberg. It did seem as if he had something more to offer whenever Rosberg tried to reel in a persistent gap.

With a slow start to the weekend by setting pace only in the final practice before an astounding late lap that reassured him 10th pole position in the final part of qualifying, the reigning world champion’s nearly half second advantage over Rosberg was a glimpse of what could he accomplish on Sunday.

Though the uncertainty over the effect of clampdown on race start procedures loomed large ahead of the race, there was no stopping the flying Briton. His start was not spectacular but he did hold on to the racing line at Les Combes to defend from a charging Sergio Perez, who had a lightning getaway off the line.

Rosberg’s dismal start at lights continued, and that was where he lost the Grand Prix to his Mercedes teammate as well. Hamilton knew the only driver who could take the fight to him was none other than Rosberg.

With the clear air in front and Perez bunching the pack up behind him, the championship leader hustled on despite Rosberg managing to come closer towards him but, in the end, not close enough. It was a dominant victory of all sorts that put him in a firm contention to retain the championship.

Only 28 points separate the Mercedes pair, with eight races remaining. Rosberg admitted after the heavy shunt caused by the tyre blowout that “his confident had been dented,” as Pirelli’s exhaustive probe on the case yield nothing but a speculated influence from an “external source”. This may have had an impact on his race outcome, but in order to claw back the points deficit he must reflect on his qualifying performances, which were instrumental in his success last season.

#2 Ferrari lack consistency

Kimi Raikkonen (L) and Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Ferrari

One could argue that Ferrari have attained their pre-season expectation of two victories during the course of this season already. But for a driver of Sebastian Vettel’s calibre and with all the summer-break build up that portrayed them as the dark horse for the title in the second half, the Belgian GP was apparently a sub-standard weekend in every conceivable way. Looking to do a one-stopper, Vettel’s right-rear gave away in the penultimate lap and failed dramatically to ruin his stronghold on the bottom step of podium from Lotus’ Grosjean.

Despite winning in Malaysia, it took them until Hungary to replicate a high-standard performance. The works Maranello team and Ferrari-powered Sauber were in no match to their Mercedes and Renault rivals.

Qualifying was met with disappointment as Vettel could only manage a ninth while his team-mate Raikkonen endured another technical gremlin to get knocked out of Q2. Although Vettel reckoned he could’ve done a better final flying lap improving by two-tenths to his original time, he would’ve ended up only in the third row. The one-stop strategy came to light as Ferrari were in a sizeable disadvantage to Mercedes in terms of pace.

If anything, Spa suggests the Italian outfit’s home race at Monza is all set to be yet another subdued weekend.

#3 Pirelli on the firing line

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel suffered a tyre blowout with two laps to go in the race

Sebastian Vettel’s hopes of a podium finish curtailed when his right rear tyre exploded just one lap before the end of the Belgian Grand Prix. In consultation with the Pirelli engineer who works with the team, Ferrari had decided to go for a single pitstop strategy whilst others were likely to adapt to a two-stopping race.

Vettel started eighth and made his first pit stop at the end of 14 laps to change from soft to durable medium rubber. Lasting for 28 laps, his rear tyre shredded while fending off Grosjean. The incident would’ve been catastrophic if the tyres blasted 200 metres before on top of the ultra-fast Eau Rogue.

Pirelli analyzed the crash only to come up with an answer that it was just a matter of tyre wear and end of the tyre life after 28 laps. The Italian tyre manufacturer argued that they requested to sanction rules to govern the maximum number of laps that can be driven on the same set of tyres, among other parameters to do with correct tyre usage but they have been declined before the 2014 season by the rule makers of the sport.

Pirelli have expressed the significance of wanting more on-track testing to improve the capability of their rubber more often than not but they were mostly denied. Off the back of the two tyre controversies in a single race, their future in F1 beyond the contract that culminates at the end of 2016 has come under scrutiny one more.

#4 Grosjean gets wiser

Lotus’ Romain Grosjean celebrates his podium finish at the Belgian Grand Prix

The Frenchman has come leaps and bounds since his crash-strewn 2012 season that earned him a race ban. Former F1-racer Mark Webber portrayed him as a “first lap nutcase” and some experts predicted that he even had spacial awareness issues in the wake of many first lap incidents. Three years later, he returned to the place where his career plunged to the lowest point, yet came out of it in flying colours. Grosjean qualified on an impressive fourth in his Lotus before receiving a five place grid penalty for gearbox change.

He was hot on the tail of Vettel’s Ferrari in the later stages of the race with a stunning recovery drive after the initial round of stops. Some of his moves were cautious yet convincing on his way to fourth while keeping his tyres in good stead. The third-place finish was a timely reminder of what Grosjean could achieve provided the right equipment and that he deserves to be among some of the elite drivers in the world.

#5 McLarens progress stagnates

Repeated problems for McLaren this season

McLaren and Honda’s renewed relationship has so far been nothing but tumultuous. Having spent three development tokens to bring an upgraded engine, the MK3, to Spa, the Japanese manufacturer dealt with reliability issues on Friday and Saturday. To top this off, they were the second-worst performing team next to Marussia as the gap between Button’s 17^th place to the car ahead was over a second in qualifying.

Speed traps did show the extent to which McLaren were suffering as Button found himself over 10kph off Mercedes’ straight line speed. Honda confirmed that they did have engine power but somehow in the high-speed circuit of Spa their issues were only exacerbated.

Either way, it will not take long before both reputed companies blame each other if the results do not come along before the end of this season. Accumulating a shameful 105-place grid penalty for Sunday, thanks to the rules change they were not punished beyond the back of the grid, Alonso summed up the situation sardonically, saying “we should get a cake”.

Button was immediately on the back-foot after struggling to deploy ERS at the start of the race. That meant the 2009 world champion was missing upwards of 160bhp on every lap from the outset. He endured a lonely race at the back of the field with only the Manor cars finishing behind him. However, even without those issues, Button said that the race wouldn’t have gone any different as he simply had no pace to be in the mix with the midfield competitors.