Daniel Ricciardo takes surprise win after nightmare Mercedes collision

As with every intra-team battle for the world championship, the question of when team-mates will collide is always a matter of when and not if. 

For Mercedes in 2014, it had already had multiple flare-ups between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg by the summer break. 

Rosberg had controversially caused a yellow flag on the second run Q3 in Monaco when Hamilton was up on the pole time and Rosberg down, whilst in the previous race in Hungary, Hamilton had effectively ignored a team order to let Rosberg, on a different strategy, past.

After the Monaco incident, Hamilton famously declared "we're not friends" as the tension built up, including over the summer break. It all came to a head at the Belgian GP - with Daniel Ricciardo there to pick up the spoils. 

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Ricciardo's win after Mercedes nightmare

In the rain of qualifying, Rosberg bagged pole with Hamilton riding shotgun on the front-row as Ricciardo lined up fifth, behind the all-world champion second row of Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.

At lights out, Hamilton launched into the lead, with Rosberg slow away, as Vettel catapulted past his fellow German to attack Hamilton for the lead.

However, unlike the more famous charge to Les Combes on the opening lap of the 2018 race, Vettel could not make the move stick and ran wide through the run-off, allowing Rosberg into second. 

It happened on the second lap.

Rosberg got a good run on Hamilton down the Kemmel Straight and moved to the outside himself, but failed to realise soon enough what was happening as Hamilton took the normal racing line.

As Hamilton cut back left for Turn 8, Rosberg's front-wing was in the way, and contact was made, puncturing Hamilton's left-rear Pirelli and breaking the right-front of Rosberg's front-wing.

"Nico's hit me, Nico's hit me," was Hamilton's instant response over the radio as Rosberg cleared off into the lead, chased by Vettel, Alonso and Ricciardo. 

Hamilton did manage to make it back to the pits, but was effectively out of the race, eventually retiring on Lap 39 due to damage sustained.

Whilst Rosberg carried on, Ricciardo made two crucial moves to win the race.

Firstly, on Lap 3, he used the DRS to pass Alonso on the Kemmel Straight for third, and then two laps later, Vettel made a crucial mistake.

Rounding Pouhon, the world champion put on a wheel onto the damp artificial grass and had a snap, running off track, as Ricciardo glided past. He was now in second behind the wounded Mercedes.

Rosberg pitted for a new front-wing on Lap 8, dropping to 15th, but on the comeback drive, he suffered a stunning piece of bad luck, as a piece of Jules Bianchi's tyre carcass attached itself to the radio antenna on the bulkhead - and he was unable to move it for a few laps. 

As it happened, after a second normal pit-stop, Rosberg was still 3.383s behind Ricciardo at the flag, as the Australian claimed a third grand prix victory - and for the only time in his career, took back-to-back wins after success in Hungary. 

But whilst he was all smiles on the podium, Rosberg was booed as he, Toto Wolff, Niki Lauda, and Hamilton held a debrief, for which tickets would have gone for a pretty penny.

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Mercedes' reaction

The stewards briefly looked at the incident, and deemed it a racing incident, so no further action was taken - but that was not how Mercedes saw it.

Wolff's instant reaction was to brand the contact "completely unacceptable", whilst Lauda felt if the incident had happened in the closing stages, it could have been understood, but for it to occur on the second lap was "ridiculous."

But Hamilton went further. He alleged that Rosberg had said in the debrief that he had driven into the Briton to "prove a point" and that Rosberg had admitted he "could have avoided it."

Days later, Mercedes held a further meeting, with Rosberg incurring sanctions within the team and forced to apologise for his "error of judgement."

It would be Hamilton who got the last laugh, as he would win six of the remaining seven races, finishing second to Rosberg in the other, to land a second world title, and first for Mercedes in the Abu Dhabi finale.