Belgian Grand Prix, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Spa - Race - Result
Sebastian Vettel did it again. This was his 7th victory out of 12 this season taking his lead to a whooping 92points over the second man Mark Webber. It was a thrilling race with lots of pure overtaking manoeuvers and some exceptional DRS manoeuvers.
It was the race that saw a battle for glory between the two red bulls, Fernando Alonso Ferrari and the two Mclarens but ultimately it was Sebastian Vettel who came as the winner with clever strategy and pure speed and skills.
Vettel initially was dropped to second after Nico Rosberg went on leading the race from 5th to 1st in the first lap. But Vettel took the lead back again from Nico. Vettel instead of building a race went on to pitstop and dropped to 8th. This move helped him to gain speed and positions which was further boosted by Lewis Hamilton accident that gave him a 2nd pitstop and thereby leading to a race victory.
For the moment, Alonso showed his skills to lead the race but the medium tyres slowed the Ferrari which dropped him to 4th in the end. Webber on the other hand started the race in 3rd, as usual dropped to 8th on the start lap. Rejuvenated Webber later, moved up the order and finished the race in 2nd. Jenson Button started the race in 13th on the hard compounds. The mistake of choosing the wrong tyres paid the team in the end as they have the choice to run on softer compound tyres. He made an early pitstop and thereafter steadily made his way up the field and in the last 10 laps climbed to 3rd quickly by overtaking Schumacher, Sutil, Massa, Alonso, Rosberg up the order.
Michael Schumacher with the stunning performance showed that he has got the spark left in him. Starting from the back of the grid at 24th (possibly the worst start for the German) quickly moved to 15th on the opening lap. Thereby making steady progress and finished the race in 5th. He showed some exceptional moves on the other drivers that distinguish him from the rest of the field. Clearly Schumacher celebrated his 20th Anniversary in Formula 1 in style.
Nico Rosberg keep it cool and steadily completely the race in 6th. However due to worn out tyres and low fuel load have to give away his 5th position to his teammate.
Adrian Sutil again put that Force India in the points with a beautiful 7th finish in a hard driven race. Sutil again proved he is a very talented driver and holded of some of the drivers at the top for some time during the race.
Felipe Massa always step on the wrong button as he finished 8th. He ran in 4th and 6th position for most time of the race but due to an additional pitstop for hard tyres as he picked puncture in the end caused him to drop to 12th position. He then gradually climbed his way to finish at 8th taking the position from Vitaly Petrov in the final lap. Petrov who drove with patience was extremely low on fuel in the end and had to park the car just after crossing the finishing line.
Pastor Maldonado in the Williams scored first point of his career and was the last point scoring person.
Paul Di Resta after starting from 17th worked through the field, kept his head straight but could not make it into the point table in the end. However, his continuous effort in that Force India was remarkable.
Kobayashi after a few incidents finished 12th.
Bruno Senna, nephew of Ayrton Senna, had a bad sunday afternoon. After a promising qualifying session he could not hold onto it. Causing an accident in the first corner that knocked out Jaime Alguersuari. He served a penalty for it. Was dropped to the tail end. But kept his head straight and gradually made some places but not good enough to come into point scoring position.
Both the Lotus showed sign of major improvement as they finished 14th and 15th with Jarno ahead of Kovalainen this time. Barrichello finished in 16th after hitting and breaking his front wing during an incident with Kobayashi in the end.
He was followed by both the Virgin and the sole HRT of Liuzzi.
Among the retirements, Perez after a moment in top 10 then went to serve penalty for causing a collision. Mostly the point scoring chances were over. He retired with some suspension problem in the car. Ricciardo also retired during the safety car period and parked his car due to some mechanical problem
Lewis Hamilton in a massive high speed crash after twitching at the back of the Sauber and went into the grass to spun 2times before hitting the wall. He remained still in the car for a minute but was conscious and looked okay.
It was a horrifying day for Toro Rosso as both their cars retire of the race with Buemi with a broken rear wing and Jaime Alguersuari on the first corner by Bruno Senna.
