Force India will be introducing team orders from now on as their drivers looked to draw a line under their clashes and subsequent responses at the Belgian Grand Prix, issuing statements on Twitter on Monday.

The two men have been involved in several notable moments this season, including their first on-track collision during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and at Spa the latest flashpoint came as the Mexican squeezed Ocon into the pit wall on the run to Eau Rouge, both on Lap 1 and again later, causing a Safety Car, as the 20-year-old looked to move past.

Though the Frenchman would recover and finish ninth, he was furious with his teammate when speaking to the media after the race.

"Risking our lives for nothing. He risked my life in there, at 300km/h down to Eau Rouge," he told Channel 4. "He's supposed to be a professional driver, today he didn't show it. He has not done that with any other teammates, I don't know why he's doing it with me.

"I'm going to go and speak to him man to man and tell him the truth. He's going to have a child. I don't know if he wants to die or something. It's just ridiculous."

He would post a similar message on social media, suggesting Perez "tried to kill me two times" to which Sergio posted two video messages on Twitter in response.

"I'm just very disappointed to see his comments regarding that I want to kill him or whatever," he said. "I'm not that type of guy and I'm not going to make any stupid comments, I just want to tell you the truth and move on.

"We are all professional and I could have said many things in the past but that's not the type of guy that I am. I want to move on and I will give the best driving ever in the next eight races for my team. They will deserve that and they will see the best from me in my career. I look forward to that."

The 27-year-old would accept responsibility for the first lap contact claiming he didn't see his him on the inside, which Ocon also admitted was possibly the case, however, he stood by his conviction that he did nothing wrong the second time, which the stewards agreed with as they took no further action.

"I just kept my line," he claimed. "There was no room for two cars, there was just a wall and then my car and we were always going to make to contact. There was no need to do that because he could have waited after Eau Rouge and make the manoeuvre easily."

Since then, Ocon has also looked to draw a line with a message of his own: "In the heat of the moment and given the dangerous situation, I was very much upset," it read.

"But we will be moving forward, we are a team and I appreciate my teammate apologising. We want to work better together, I'm committed to the success of Sahara Force India and I'm confident as a team we will put this behind us to reach even greater levels of success together.

"We have a big challenge ahead with keeping fourth place [in the Constructors' Championship] and nothing will distract us from that goal."

It does seem, however, that after trying to allow their drivers to race freely throughout the season, the events at Spa will signal a change in how Force India allow their drivers to compete.

"As much as I support competitive racing, the repeated incidents between both our cars are now becoming very concerning," team owner Vijay Mallya said. 

“Under these circumstances, I have no choice but to implement a policy of team orders in the interest of safety and to protect the team’s position in the Constructors’ Championship.”

COO Otmar Szafnauer would go further suggesting a race ban would be on the cards if anything happening again.

"This is what you get when you have two very competitive drivers who are fairly equal in performance in a decent car. It has happened to others in the past and it is happening to us now," he commented. 

Fernando Alonso claimed McLaren would have locked out the front row for the Belgian Grand Prix if they had more power from the Honda engine, despite a somewhat better-than-expected result in qualifying.

The Spaniard just missed out on Q3 in 11th and could well have made it into the top 10 had it not been for a peculiar issue which saw his ERS system not deploy any hybrid power on the exit of Pouhon his final run, after Alonso had taken the corner flat out and confused the engine program as to the car's location on the track.

That problem left the double world champion particularly frustrated as he yelled "no power" down the radio and abandoned his lap although more broadly he was relatively pleased.

“We would have liked to be there but in general it was a very positive day," Alonso claimed. "In Q2, until the final attempt, we were 1.5 seconds off on a track where we know how much we are losing with the engine, so we would easily be in first and second positions.

"The battery didn't work and I lost six-tenths from Turn 11 to 12,” he added, explaining the problem. “I was two-tenths quicker than on the previous lap so I would have improved one or two more in the final sector, so we would have been in Q3 without any problems.

"In the end starting 11th with new tyres maybe gives us an extra opportunity, so we'll try to take advantage tomorrow."

Another tactic that allowed McLaren to be more competitive saw the team use Stoffel Vandoorne, who was already guaranteed to start at the back due to a mammoth engine grid penalty, to provide a slipstream for his teammate on the run to Eau Rouge and along the Kemmel Straight and it worked well with his top speed not far off those at the front.

"We had it planned. Next week it will be the other way around because it's my turn," Alonso said, also referring to the likelihood of him picking up engine penalties at Monza.

"We were trying to take advantage of the penalties. We have to find a positive and try to do the best for the team."

Theories are arising over the reason Fernando Alonso pulled in to retire during the Belgian Grand Prix, as Honda confirm no issue with his power unit was found.

The Spaniard blamed an engine problem for his eighth failure to see the chequered flag this season, however, had become frustrated once again by what he called the "embarrassing" performance of the Honda unit as he slipped from seventh place back to 11th in the early laps having moved up from 10th on the grid. 

Expectations had been low heading into the weekend, given the power demands around Spa-Francorchamps, and though a good qualifying and great start had given some optimism, the double world champion called the race "normal" expecting more of the same in Monza.

“We knew Hungary would be a good track good us and we ended up in 6th place, our best result of the season," he said. "Here and next weekend the normal is to be out of the points, but we have to keep on working and improving the car so that once we get to Singapore we’ll have better chances to score points.

“Today was normal and next week will be the same or worse but we keep trying new parts, some already for 2018, so there’s very important work going behind the scenes. All we need is one change…,” he added, clearly referring to the engine.

Honda F1 chief Yusuke Hasegawa acknowledged the decision to retire was precautionary after Alonso reported a problem although there was "nothing showing in the data" to suggest as such. 

Talking to Sky Sports, the 36-year-old was asked if McLaren retaining Honda would signal his exit from the team, after stating it could be post-season before his future is decided.

"We will see what happens in the next couple of weekends. McLaren is always one of the best teams in the world and I would be happy to keep working with them but we need to see how things evolve in the next couple of weeks," he replied. 

However, speaking elsewhere he has admitted to numerous offers for next year, the most recent coming from Williams who would like him alongside Lance Stroll next season.

“I think the stock value has never been as high as now, at least with the offers that I've had, so it's good,” he commented. “We will consider all the options out there. We did a fantastic qualifying, we did a fantastic start, we’ve won a lot of Grand Prix, a lot of things in our career, we shouldn’t be this further back.

“The team is working a lot, I know the guys have been sleeping very little this weekend, so thank you for all that effort and hopefully next weekend we’ll be more competitive.”

Lewis Hamilton was able to grab a fifth win of the season in an action packed Belgian Grand Prix, surviving attacks from title rival Sebastian Vettel to close the gap to only seven points on top following an error-free drive around Spa.

The championship leaders went head-to-head the whole race as the Ferrari followed closely behind the Mercedes, but every time giving he pushed, Hamilton responded to all threats managing to keep the German behind.

A late Safety Car, following the second coming together of the two Force Indias in the race on the run to Eau Rouge, looked to have given Vettel the advantage as he switched to the Ultrasoft compared to Hamilton on the Soft's but he was able to fend off the challenge from the four-time world champion before showing excellent pace to go on and claim victory.

Daniel Ricciardo returned Red Bull to the podium for the first since Austria, capitalising on the Safety Car restart to pass Valtteri Bottas around the outside at Les Combes to finish third, after a solid if unspectacular race up til that point. Sadly for the Milton Keynes outfit and the roughly 80,000 Dutch fans in attendance, Max Verstappen was forced to retire for the sixth time this year as yet another Renault engine problem hit his car.

This would disrupt Kimi Raikkonen's race as he was handed a 10-second stop and go penalty for ignoring the double yellow flags to recover the car, however, the Finn was able to take advantage of the Safety car restart too, passing Bottas on the inside of Les Combes moments after Ricciardo had swooped around the outside.

Nico Hulkenberg capitalised on Force India's problems and kept his Renault out of trouble despite a manic first 10 laps taking a well-deserved sixth as Romain Grosjean managed his race well to take his Haas back into the points in seventh.Felipe Massa who made it to eighth after starting sixteenth. Massa was able to take advantage of all the action and trouble around.

Felipe Massa likewise moved up after the Safety Car and gave Williams a good result after a poor qualifying with eighth after starting 16th.

Despite the Force India in-team drama, Esteban Ocon was able to recover to ninth place but his teammate Sergio Perez, who was lucky to escape a penalty for pushing the Frenchman into the pit wall on the old pit straight, wasn't so fortunate as he pulled into retire with three laps to go.

Carlos Sainz completed the top 10 for Toro Rosso as Lance Stroll’s fightback fell just short of grabbing a rewarding point finishing 11th. Daniil Kvyat was able to make his way to 12th as yet more disappointment hit Jolyon Palmer, who suffered a five-place grid drop following a gearbox change after his failure in qualifying and could only manage 13th in the race.

Stoffel Vandoorne was 14th in his first home race after starting at the back ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Marcus Ericsson who came in 15th and 16th respectively and completing the race finishers.

Fernando Alonso had an excellent start initially, moving up to seventh, but would soon drop back outside the points before he was forced to retire once again with engine trouble once again losing power just after the half way mark.

Hamilton’s win cuts Vettel’s championship lead to just seven points ahead of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in just seven days time.

Daniel Ricciardo admitted it was crucial he made the move on Valtteri Bottas at the Safety Car restart as he went on to secure a sixth podium finish of the season at Spa on Sunday.

The Australian was in a lonely race in fifth, following another retirement for his team-mate Max Verstappen, but a penalty for Kimi Raikkonen would promote the Red Bull to fourth before an excellent move on the Mercedes at Les Combes at the restart secured a sixth podium of the year.

The pace he would then show to keep the two Finn's behind until the finish would surprise some, but afterwards the 28-year-old was simply pleased to have taken advantage of the opportunity that arose.

"It's certainly ended well, we seem to find some extra pace on Sunday," he said. "We put ourselves in a position to take advantage of something and capitalise, so I'm really happy, another podium is always good.

"In the first few laps with the Ultrasoft's we were struggling quite a bit, there was a lot of blistering, problems we always have at this circuit with the high speed. We were struggling to really make much progress in the first stint, [but] we put the Supersoft's on and found a good rhythm, we were able to keep a similar lap time to the leaders.”

Commenting on the Bottas overtake, which saw the much-criticised Renault engine in the Red Bull able to out-drag the Mercedes along the Kemmel Straight, Ricciardo knew of the importance of completing one of his now trademark bold manoeuvres as was later proved by the battle at the front. 

"The Safety Car for me opened up an opportunity at the restart with Valtteri and I capitalised on that.  He was on the Soft's, I was on the Ultra's and I knew if we were going to have a podium then it's happening at the restart,” he explained.

"Once his tyres were up to temperature it would have been harder to do something."

Max Verstappen has vented his frustration after yet another agonising failure ended his race early in Belgium.

The Dutchman suffered his sixth retirement in twelve races in front of his adoring fans at Spa, grinding to a halt on the Kemmel Straight on Lap 5.

Verstappen has only managed to score 67 points this season, but believes his woes cannot be dismissed as "bad luck".

"It is very frustrating, and especially in Belgium with lots of Dutch fans," he said. 

"To retire after eight laps is not acceptable. You can't call it bad luck. It is very bad.

"At the moment I am not a happy person. We will speak with the team and hope to do better in Monza."

The Bulls have been left lambasting engine suppliers Renault once again, with Christian Horner demanding an improvement.

"It really hurts and it really hurts Max because he's at his home race, huge support, he's in a great position and his engine has failed on him," the team principal said.

"That is hugely frustrating for him and of course the support group he has around him.

"That needs to change but unfortunately as a team it is an element that is beyond our control.

"So all we can do is put pressure on our supplier and say come on, get your act together."

Sebastian Vettel praised the "very high" quality battle between himself and Lewis Hamilton during the Belgian Grand Prix, which saw the Ferrari driver have to settle for second after a faultless drive from both men.

The German stalked the Mercedes through Sunday's race at Spa-Francorchamps with the gap never expanding beyond a few seconds, but ultimately the triple world champion had too much speed in the key areas to hold his championship rival at bay.

Speaking afterwards, Vettel conceded he was having to wait for an opportunity to attempt a pass on Hamilton but the chase was still an exciting one, even if unsuccessful.

“I think overall it was a very good race, very fun. Obviously not that exciting probably to watch because we were very close but nothing happened,” he said.

“But good fun in the car because I was waiting for him to maybe have an error, he was waiting for me to maybe have an error, an off. It didn’t happen. The quality was very high I thought. Very consistent lap times despite the tyres.

“[I] never really had a chance, so maybe half a chance, quarter of a chance. I think the positive thing is that we had very good race pace," he added.

“It was very difficult to follow in the middle sector, but we stayed close, then we benefitted a little bit in the first and the last sector, but overall the car was very good.”

A Safety Car entering the final third of the race appeared to offer a chance for Vettel as he changed to Ultrasoft tyres compared to the Briton on Soft, however, as the pace difference on the respective compounds proved minimal, the 30-year-old was left with his only chance when the race began again to make any attack on Hamilton.

“Obviously I knew that we had a tyre advantage with the Ultrasofts versus the Softs for the first couple of laps and particularly the restart,” he said. “You could see exiting Turn 1 I was all over Lewis. It was not so hard to follow so close, maybe that was the problem, my restart in the initial part was too good, it was too close!

“For sure if I had to do it again, maybe I would try something different. We know that they have a very good straight line speed and in qualifying [engine] mode at the start of the race, I obviously felt how strong they were up the hill on the start. So I didn’t want to be too far either.

“Finding that optimum is difficult. Lewis also lifted a bit going down to Eau Rouge, which I think he could afford because he knows he’s got a very good top-end [speed].”

Kimi Raikkonen continued his strong pace this weekend by leading Practice 3 at the Belgian Grand Prix. The Finn was followed by his teammate Sebastian Vettel who just topped title rival Lewis Hamilton by a 0.001s difference as the two manufacturers continue their ongoing battle.

Raikkonen, who will be retained by Ferrari for 2018 it was announced earlier this week, has been leading up to his reputation as a specialist around Spa-Francorchamps by leading two of the three practice sessions and finishing posted a new lap record on Saturday morning with a 1:43.916s on the Ultrasoft tyres.

As for Vettel, he was able to recover after a slow start for his weekend finishing second but the Scuderia will have to be careful of the additional power modes Mercedes will unleash in qualifying.

Max Verstappen was able to grab fourth for Red Bull, albeit almost a second off the top three but did finish ahead of a struggling Valtteri Bottas as the second Mercedes driver had problems under braking on his fastest lap.

Daniel Ricciardo followed the Finn closely finishing sixth just under a tenth of a second off Bottas but his best time was compromised by a yellow flag on his first lap which meant his tyres lose some of their grip.

Jolyon Palmer was the 'best of the rest' in seventh as Renault continued their strong form this weekend. Four different midfield teams filled positions 7-10 as Sergio Perez was able to improve from a difficult Friday finishing eighth ahead of the two Spaniards, Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso, who completed the top 10.

Nico Hulkenberg had to settle for 11th ahead of Force India’s Esteban Ocon, who is most likely to move up once the action gets serious in qualifying. Romain Grosjean had yet more brake issues but was 13th in the Haas with local boy Stoffel Vandoorne 14th, as the Belgian concentrated on long runs with a 65-place grid penalty to come. The mid-grid battle seems intense with positions 7 till 14 all within one second.

The midfield battle looks intense with seventh-to-17th covered by 1.2 seconds but struggling more than most was the Williams duo with Lance Stroll and Felipe Massa 15th and 16th respectively as Massa returned to the track for the first time since his crash in the first 15 minutes of practice on Friday morning.

Kevin Magnussen followed in 17th as Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat session was cut short by a likely engine issue as he stopped on the Kemmel Straight, he finishing 18th as a result. The Sauber duo completed the grid as Pascal Wehrlein finished just 0.004s ahead of teammate Marcus Ericsson, despite the Swede completing just six laps due to a car problem.

Several intense battles seemed to be upon heading into the qualifying and with times still expected to drop even more who will secure pole position and how will the grid shape up?

Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari had the stronger race pace in the Belgian Grand Prix, despite holding off Sebastian Vettel to claim a fifth win of the year on Sunday to cut the German's championship lead to seven points.

Though his Mercedes team have the advantage over a single lap, many went into Sunday's race believing the better tyre conservation of the Italian team would help them keep up and so it proved as the German was able to stay with the Mercedes throughout the 44 laps at Spa.

However, the Prancing Horse never had the opportunity to use any advantage it had, as the Mercedes was able to use similar engine modes it has for qualifying and a little less drag with the wings to stay clear down the straights with the turbulent air hurting Vettel's handling in the middle sector.

“The Ferraris I think genuinely had the upper hand, particularly on race pace throughout the weekend,” Hamiton claimed. “It was very, very strong today and I was towing him around everywhere, so they were getting a good tow down the straights."

The four-time world champion's best chance came right after a Safety Car when he was able to draw alongside in the slipstream down the Kemmel Straight but not pull far enough ahead to take the line into the Les Combes chicane.

“On the restart, the Safety Car was driving so slow, it was I guess to let the other people catch up, so keeping tyre temperature, given I was on the harder tyre, was very, very difficult," Lewis explained.

“I came to the restart, Sebastian was very, very close, the front tyres weren’t switched on initially. He got a good tow. I think he was a little bit too close on the run out of Turn 1, so I think he had to lift off as he would have otherwise come by potentially before Eau Rouge which perhaps was a good thing for me because he lost a little bit of performance.

The 32-year-old has said on several occasions about the enjoyment his battle with Vettel has given him this season and he mentioned it again after an intense fight even if an uneventful one for onlookers.

"He did a great race, he was very, very consistent throughout,” Hamilton said praising his main title rival. “It was fun to be racing against another team and Sebastian really at his best and the car at his best, battling within half a tenth every lap. That’s what racing is about.

“I think they’re able to keep up and follow quite closely for a long, long time, so I think they had the better pace today but fortunately I was able to do just enough to stay ahead.”

Despite his eventual victory, the triple world champion was left frustrated by the need for a Safety Car, following a collision between the two Force India's which would threaten his win as Vettel changed to what was thought to be much faster ultra-soft tyres.

“I felt like it was a bit like NASCAR where they keep putting out the Safety Cars for no reason,” he claimed. “The wing was clear after we’d slowed down, and they could have done a VSC but I guess they wanted to see a race.

“That’s for sure the reason they did that because there was hardly any debris, if at all because they’d cleaned it so well. Before that, it was obviously close.”

Ferrari has announced Sebastian Vettel will remain with the team for 2018 and beyond after signing a new three-year deal with the Italian team on Friday in Belgium. 

The confirmation was widely expected following the earlier retention of teammate Kimi Raikkonen on Monday for another season, despite the German hinting there would be no news until after the Italian Grand Prix on Thursday.

The slight surprise is the news of a three-year contract as it was believed Vettel was pushing for just a single year extension with the Scuderia amid rumours of a pre-agreement with Mercedes and a number of top drivers expected to potentially move seats for 2019.   

If the contract length is accurate then it would show great faith in the Scuderia from the four-time world champion after helping them to something of a renaissance this season as they used the new car design rules to catch Mercedes and currently sit 14 points clear at the top of the Drivers' Championship.