How much Formula 1 was missed during its self imposed 'summer break' was made crystal clear with the events of a fantastic Belgian Grand Prix at the classic F1 venue of Spa-Francorchamps.
From seeing drivers struggling to take the correct line through the mighty Eau Rouge again from the practice sessions on Friday to the race on Sunday that saw the title fight between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton intensify even more than it did at the Hungarian GP. It has come to the point that one can now imagine the two falling over each other while Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo steals wins - he has three now, following Spa - and the F1 title while leaving teammate and former four-time champion Sebastian Vettel sour faced.
HIGH PRAISE FOR 'HONEYBADGER'
In all fairness, praise and attention should rightfully be heaped on Ricciardo, whose thousand watt - and thousand yard wide - smile has become a feature on the F1 podium this year. In the last six races, he has been on the top step thrice. And he has done so by overtaking Vettel (among others) on track and leaving him for dead.
And to think that at the 2011 Indian Grand Prix, Narain Karthikeyan got within 0.022 seconds of Ricciardo in equal machinery in qualifying and beat him to the finish line. But the subject of what might have been for Karthikeyan's F1 career is a subject for another day. As is Ricciardo's stellar performance at Spa, unfortunately that helped Red Bull register their 50th win in F1.
THE MEAT OF THE MATTER
Thanks to the ramifications to the race for the drivers' world championship, attention must be focused on Rosberg and Hamilton's coming together - had it been any other two drivers the minimal contact would have been shrugged off - on the second lap of the 44 lap race.
The short story was that Hamilton had gotten the jump on Rosberg at the start of the race while Vettel from third on the grid got the jump on Rosberg and then lost out to his compatriot while attempting to pass Hamilton and running wide at Les Combes.
It was Rosberg's attempt to pass Hamilton on lap two that turned out to be the talking point of the race and possibly the season.
As Hamilton was tailed by the German through Eau Rouge and the Kemmel straight, he covered the inside line going into Les Combes, which made Rosberg take to the outside going into the first part of the corner, a right hand turn.
Knowing that the left hand turn that would immediately follow would make his outside line the inside line, Rosberg kept his car stuck on the inside of Hamilton. Some would say a bit pigheadedly as it was only the second lap of a long race and he had the pace to pass him later.
Hamilton proceeded to turn left to shut the door and take the normal racing line and in doing so grazed the outside of Rosberg's right front wing causing damage and suffering a puncture on his left rear tyre.
Hamilton immediately got on the radio while heading to the pits and accused Rosberg of hitting him while the latter stayed out till the point that the loss of downforce hurt his front tyres.
From that point on it was a matter of how far up Rosberg could advance in order to widen his lead in the championship over Hamilton who languished around 16th place after suffering damage to the bodywork of his car while dragging his three wheeled W05 back to the pits.
THE AFTERMATH
Following the end of the race and Rosberg being booed on the second step of the podium - by who he claimed were British F1 fans - the war of words went into overdrive as Hamilton created a storm within a storm by not being particularly accurate, according to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, in relaying what Rosberg had said in the post race debrief.
Rosberg had admitted to purposely not backing off from the optimistic attempt to pass and not taking to the run off area to avoid a collision, putting the onus on Hamilton to avoid him while turning left into the second part of Les Combes.
Hamilton relayed Rosberg's admission to members of the print media as "he basically admitted to hitting me on purpose". A world of difference in what was actually said and what was reported to be said by Hamilton, who has previously been caught lying to F1 stewards at the 2009 Australian Grand Prix.
The fact that Rosberg's pig headedness caused an avoidable collision very early in the race is not in dispute but Hamilton's demeanour following the incident - not to mention his constant pleas to the team to let him retire from the race - paints a skewed picture of a tense situation at the team that Wolff and non-executive director Niki Lauda will now have to manage more sternly.
Wolff has already strongly indicated that team orders will now have to be imposed, something that Lauda remains opposed to and that Rosberg will face consequences for the collision that cost the team a near certain 1-2 finish.
THE RISE AND RISE OF BOTTAS
Away from the Mercedes drivers throwing their handbags at one another, Martini Williams Racing's Valtteri Bottas scored his fourth podium position in the last five races with third place. The form of Williams - the next best Mercedes powered team - and Bottas has led many to expect the Finn to be a serious contender for a race win at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, which will be up next on the F1 calendar in two weeks time.
Bottas proved himself to be a more than capable driver last year as Williams struggled but the combination seemingly stands on the brink of the third most successful team in F1 becoming a championship contender again.
FIFTH PLACE FIGHT
While Rosberg closed in by almost 2.5 seconds a lap to Ricciardo at the front and Bottas secured third and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen - the current 'king of Spa' - had a rare victory over teammate Fernando Alonso, a furious battle for fifth place ensued between McLaren's Kevin Magnussen, Vettel, Jenson Button, Alonso and Force India's Sergio Perez.
The five swapped positions and flirted with good conduct in the defence of their positions repeatedly until Magnussen crossed the line first only to be demoted to 12th with a 20 second post race penalty while Vettel took fifth to complete a double points finish for Red Bull.
ADVANTAGE RICCIARDO?
The Australian who has caused Vettel so much grief this year must be trying hard to not think of his disqualification from the season opening Australian Grand Prix where he finished second.
Adding those 18 points to his tally would have put him just 17 points behind Hamilton and 46 behind Rosberg, who leads Hamilton by 29 points with seven races to go and with the controversially idiotic double points rule in place for the season ending race in Abu Dhabi.
It's a bit of a stretch for now but one can't help but imagine a 2007-esque situation where McLaren's pair of Hamilton and Alonso tripped over themselves and allowed Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen to storm to the title.
All it takes is a bit of bad luck and stupidity from the championship contenders. Although even without such a scenario the race for the title is likely to have fans cheering and cursing all at once.
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