Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo clinched his third victory of the season, but the real story of the Belgian Grand Prix will focus on the fall-out from the first major collision between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
The unfortunate Hamilton came off the worst as a left-rear puncture effectively ended his race, ultimately retiring on lap 39 with damage to his Mercedes, while Rosberg went on to claim second place and stretch his lead over the Briton to 29 points.
For all of Hamilton's positivity coming into the race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, believing his luck had finally turned, the 29-year-old will need some consoling given his disconsolate nature from his radio messages.
Rosberg – who finished second – heard loud booing from spectators as he took his place on the podium before saying: "I got a good run on Lewis and tried to go around the outside.
"But we touched, which hurt both of our races, which from a team point of view is very disappointing."
Off the line, Hamilton conjured a flying start and was past Rosberg into the opening corner at La Source. Although Hamilton came under attack along the Kemmel Straight from Sebastian Vettel, who had also passed Rosberg, the reigning four-times champion outbraked himself into Les Combes.
For a second Vettel had his nose in front of Hamilton, but in cutting across the corner he dropped into third behind the Mercedes duo.
A lap later and Rosberg had a look at Hamilton towards the end of the Kemmel Straight, but in filing back in behind the Briton into Les Combes there was serious contact between the two for the first time. Rosberg lost his right front-wing endplate in clipping Hamilton's left-rear tyre, creating a puncture that resulted in a long three-mile return back to the pits.
On the way, Hamilton's car sent delaminating rubber flailing across the circuit, as well as causing damage to the floor of the car, and balance issues, forcing him to the back of the pack from where he barely made any recovery before ultimately retiring on lap 39.
Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda pulled no punches when it came to declaring who he felt was in the wrong as he said: "I said sorry to (Hamilton). It's bad, no question about it.
"Lewis was clearly in the lead, and maybe you do this at the end, but not on the second lap. These things can happen, but why on the second lap?
"We will have a meeting and decide what we will do, but it's a bad result for Mercedes and Lewis."
