Spa stats - Ricciardo hands Red Bull 50th F1® victory

Early contact between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes on the back foot in Belgium, and once again, just as in Canada, it was Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who was there to take advantage.

The 25-year-old took his third victory of the year - just one fewer than Rosberg - and, having won last time out in Hungary, he’s now done something the German hasn’t done this season - win two races in a row.

Ricciardo is the first Australian to win in Belgium since the late Jack Brabham triumphed at Spa-Francorchamps in 1960.

More importantly for Red Bull, Ricciardo’s success handed them their 50th victory in Formula One racing, just five years - and 103 races - after they won their first in China in 2009 with Sebastian Vettel at the wheel.

Adrian Newey, who contributed to 100 wins with Williams and McLaren before joining Red Bull as chief technical officer in 2006, has now been directly involved in 150 Grand Prix victories.

Rosberg’s second place finish - the 21st podium of his career and his tenth rostrum of the season - enabled him to extend his points lead to 29 points over Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton, who retired for the third time this season.

Behind Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas scored his fourth podium finish in the last five races and Williams’ first rostrum at Spa since Juan Pablo Montoya came home third in 2002. Bottas now has as many podium finishes in 2014 as Williams managed in total between 2007 and 2013.

Bottas’ gain was fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen’s loss as the Ferrari man narrowly missed out on his first podium finish of the year at a circuit on which he’s won on four previous occasions. Still, fourth place represents Raikkonen’s best result of the season and he also finished ahead of team mate Alonso for the first time this year.

Elsewhere, Alonso kept up his record of finishing in the top ten at every race so far, Lotus saw both of their cars retire for the third time this season and the first time since Canada, Daniil Kvyat finished in the points for the fifth time this year, Kevin Magnussen’s post-race penalty handed Nico Hulkenberg a solitary point for tenth, and Andre Lotterer suffered one of the shortest Grand Prix debuts ever, lasting barely a lap before his Caterham gave up the ghost.