He returned to second after Vettel made a driver error at Les Combes corner and took the lead following contact with the right-hand front wing end plate and Hamilton's left-rear tyre on lap two.

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 was booed by the crowd and received an undisclosed punishment from Mercedes for hitting Hamilton; the two were allowed to race each other with no team orders used.

[6] At the preceding Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton ignored team orders from Mercedes to allow Rosberg to pass him in the final laps.

[7] For his part, Hamilton said he desired a recreation of his best form from earlier in the season and sought to put his recent below-par qualifying performances behind him, "I had some difficult weekends in the first part of the season, but then a bit of good fortune at the last race in Budapest kept me from damaging my car on the wall during that first lap, so hopefully that was a sign that my fortunes are changing at just the right time.There were so many positives to take from the opening eleven races, but both myself and the team always want more and know we are capable of more.

On top of that, the battle with Lewis has been so close all season – and it could well stay that way right up to the final race – so every last point will be crucial in that contest, too.

[13] Chilton's seat was subsequently reinstated following a successful request to the stewards by Marussia, meaning Rossi drove only in the first practice session.

[17] During the session, Alonso briefly stopped at the edge of Eau Rouge corner with engine problems,[18] and his teammate Räikkönen spun leaving the La Source hairpin before his car's energy recovery system overheated.

[19] Button's DRS was lodged open, Vettel's session ended early with a temperature-related exhaust failure and Marcus Ericsson spun his Caterham at the La Source hairpin.

[22] A gearbox fault caused Gutiérrez to spin soon after at Blanchimont corner, prompting a second stoppage since he was unable to continue driving.

[20] After the second session, Vettel, whose ignition failed in one cylinder breaking the exhaust and overheating the kinetic motor–generator unit, changed his engine, his fifth of the season.

[23] Heavy overnight rain made the circuit damp and little on-track activity occurred in the final session's first half an hour.

Ricciardo, Rosberg, Räikkönen, Hamilton, Alonso, Kvyat, Button, Massa and Toro Rosso's Jean-Éric Vergne completed the top ten.

Sauber's Adrian Sutil pushed hard to start from 14th and a loss of rear car control left Lotus' Romain Grosjean in 15th.

[30] Hülkenberg in 18th could not progress past the first session for the first time since the 2012 season due to a loss of brake feel and a minor driver error.

[36][38] The soft compound tyre was predicted to be 13 seconds faster over 15 laps and degradation rate research prompted most teams to make two pit stops for their drivers.

They retrieved a jump-start battery from their garage and used it on his car, giving Alonso a five-second time penalty taken at his first pit stop since Ferrari broke a regulation mandating all team personnel to vacate the track 15 seconds before the start of the formation lap.

[39] Although he stopped slightly outside of his grid slot and reversed to find a good angle, Hamilton used his teammate Rosberg's slower start to lead into the La Source hairpin.

[40] Maldonado became the first driver to retire from the Grand Prix with a suspected exhaust failure causing smoke to emit from the rear of his car on lap two.

After Vettel ran wide onto the damp artificial grass through Pouhon corner on lap five, he slid luridly and Ricciardo got past for second.

Red Bull gave Ricciardo a target lap time of 1 minute, 53.400 seconds to stop Rosberg overtaking him, which he did consistently.

[44] At the podium interviews, conducted by former team owner Eddie Jordan,[45] Rosberg was booed by the crowd four times for his contact with Hamilton on lap two,[46] which they perceived as intentional.

[43] He blamed the reaction on a small group of Hamilton's British support and urged them to acquaint themselves with the regulations and a drivers' code of conduct before booing.

Rosberg said his strategy was altered because of the damage to his car and declined to reveal details of the meeting with Mercedes after the Hungarian Grand Prix concerning envisaging contact with Hamilton.

Bottas stated a slow start caused other cars to delay him and called the duel with compatriot Räikkönen "a clean and fair fight".

[52] Five days after the race Mercedes held a meeting between senior members of the team (including Wolff and technical director Paddy Lowe) and both drivers to determine what measures were to be taken to maintain their championship aspirations.

[53] Rosberg incurred an undisclosed punishment during the half-hour conference and he and Hamilton were allowed to continue battling each other for the rest of the season without the imposition of team orders favouring one driver over the other.

"[54] 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.

"[57] The McLaren racing director Éric Boullier argued Magnussen's move needed to be embraced by Formula One and believed the driver had made adequate progress in 2014, "Obviously it is part of the experience he is gaining over the season.

Ferrari in third place increased the gap over Williams in fourth to ten points as McLaren overtook Force India for fifth with seven races left in the season.