The race was the 12th of the 19 rounds in the 2014 Formula One World Championship and the 58th Belgian Grand Prix Formula One race. It was held at the 20-turn 7.004 km (4.352 mi) Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Francorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium, on 24 August. Tyre supplier Pirelli brought four types of tyre to the race: two dry compounds (yellow-banded soft and the white-banded medium) and two wet-weather compounds (intermediate and full wet). Entering the race, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg led the World Drivers' Championship with 202 championship points, 11 ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton in second, according to the corpus. Mercedes also led the World Constructors' Championship with 393 championship points, ahead of Red Bull in second with 213 championship points, according to the corpus. Prior to the race, Hamilton and Rosberg had discussed how to diffuse the situation following an incident at the preceding Hungarian Grand Prix where Hamilton had disregarded team orders. Hamilton stated his aim was to recreate his best form from earlier in the season, while Rosberg acknowledged the competitiveness of the other teams.
Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts and was affected by heavy rain and a hailstorm, making the circuit slippery. Nico Rosberg was fastest in the first and third sessions and took his fourth pole position in succession, his seventh of 2014, and the 11th of his career with a time of 2:05.591, according to the corpus. He was joined on the grid's front row by his teammate Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso took third and fourth respectively. Daniel Ricciardo qualified fifth, and Valtteri Bottas sixth.
The race began from a standing start at 14:00 Central European Summer Time. Hamilton used his teammate Rosberg's slower start to lead into the La Source hairpin. Vettel passed Rosberg going uphill towards Eau Rouge corner, putting himself between the two Mercedes. On lap two, contact between Rosberg and Hamilton at Les Combes corner resulted in damage to both cars. Hamilton’s left-rear tyre was punctured by Rosberg’s front right wing endplate, and he subsequently fell to 19th. Rosberg made a pit stop to replace the front wing at the conclusion of lap eight, relinquishing the lead to Ricciardo.
Over the course of the remainder of the race, Ricciardo maintained the lead and responded to the faster Rosberg in the final ten laps to achieve his second victory in a row and the third of his career. Rosberg finished second, and Bottas third. Hamilton’s request to retire was granted on the 39th lap, and he entered the pit lane.
Rosberg was booed by the crowd at the podium interviews for the contact with Hamilton on lap two. The stewards investigated the contact and declared it "a racing incident", with neither driver to blame. Rosberg accepted responsibility for causing the contact from an "error of judgement" and apologised to Hamilton, Mercedes and Formula One fans.
The stewards deemed Magnussen to have provided Alonso with inadequate space and forced him to go off the track on the Kemmel Straight while lapping Ericsson. They imposed a 20-second time penalty on Magnussen, demoting him from fifth to 12th and elevating Alonso to seventh and Hülkenberg to tenth.
The race result increased Rosberg's lead in the World Drivers' Championship to 29 championship points over his teammate Hamilton in second place. Ricciardo's victory kept him in third. In the World Constructors' Championship, Mercedes maintained their lead over Red Bull. Ferrari increased the gap over Williams in fourth, and McLaren overtook Force India for fifth with seven races left in the season.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus: the Wikipedia article “2014 Belgian Grand Prix”. No external sources were consulted.
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