Lewis Hamilton, Marcus Ericsson and Fernando Alonso took grid penalties for exceeding their season allocation of engine components Hamilton received fifteen places for using his sixth turbocharger and associated Motor Generator Unit, while Ericsson was demoted ten places for replacing his turbocharger, and Alonso thirty-five places for introducing his sixth complete power unit. The prototype tyres were introduced to allow Pirelli to gain data on their performance ahead of their competitive début in Malaysia, where they will replace the existing soft compound.īoth Honda and Mercedes introduced upgrades to their power units for the race, while Sauber brought their first updates of the season for the C35 chassis. Drivers were also supplied with two sets of 'prototype' soft tyres for use in the Friday practice sessions, which were designed to provide similar lap times and performance to the existing soft compound whilst being more durable when striking kerbs and going beyond track limits. Tyre supplier Pirelli provided teams with the super-soft, soft and medium compounds for the races. Haryanto stayed with the team, filling a testing and reserve role.

4 Championship standings after the raceīackground Driver changes Įsteban Ocon made his Formula One début, replacing Rio Haryanto at MRT.

Magnussen suffered a cut on his ankle but no serious injury. The race was stopped on lap 9 after Kevin Magnussen crashed heavily at Raidillon, suffering a 12.5G impact, causing structural damage to the armoured collision barrier and tyre wall which required repairs, before the race could resume under green flag conditions. Red Bull's Max Verstappen and both Ferraris were involved in an incident at the start of the race. Hamilton retained the championship lead, with Rosberg closing the gap to nine points. Hamilton received a multi-grid penalty before the start of the race. Nico Rosberg won this Grand Prix, with Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton, second and third respectively.

Red Bull Racing was lying second, having passed Ferrari in the standings at the previous round in Germany. In the World Constructors' Championship, Mercedes held a lead of 159 points. Mercedes driver and defending race winner Lewis Hamilton entered the race leading the World Drivers' Championship by nineteen points ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg. It was the thirteenth round of the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship, and marks the seventy-second running of the Belgian Grand Prix and the fifty-ninth time the race was held at Spa-Francorchamps.

The 2016 Belgian Grand Prix (formally known as the 2016 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 28 August 2016 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium.

2016 f1 season highlights