Three of the leading cars collided less than three hundred meters after the start of the Belgian Formula One GP. Three cars when there is only room for two. And for the three drivers that was the beginning of hell.
At the end of the race, dominated by Rosberg, fingers were pointing in every direction. Verstappen blamed the Ferraris and the Ferrari pair blamed Verstappen. I have a slightly broader point of view.
Young Max was the first to make a mistake: he bogged his RB at the start, letting both Ferraris pass by. The dutchman was on an aggressive three stop strategy and could not afford to let Kimi and Seb go past him, both on slower rubber. In order to recover from this horror, he dived into the inside of Kimi to find almost an impossible gap.
Raikkonen was next to make a mistake. Thanks to a mega start he was on a perfect apex to grab second place behind Nico and his Mercedes. A guy of his experience should know by now that Verstappen is the most aggressive driver on the grid, especially under brakes. For this it is imperative not to open any door to him. Kimi was in the perfect position to control his trajectory but failed to protect himself from Max’s attack.
Vettel was third to make the wrong move which costed him second place at the beginning of the GP and the podium. The german gained from Verstappen’s slow getaway and got to the first corner in a dominating position on the outside. Instead of taking a progressive line, he closed to the inside, probably to keep his teammate honest, totally unaware that Kimi was already extremely busy of his own.
The collision was unavoidable. Three cars, three drivers, three victims, three mistakes. Not one, three.