Go on admit it, the Belgian Grand Prix just would not be the same if rain did not have its say on Sunday afternoon and again today, a wet track produced some interesting scenarios, although it has to be said that, even when the track was dry, there were some thrilling fights going on from the top to the bottom of the time sheet. Scuderia Toro Rosso had been hoping for a wet race, but it did not work in our favour quite as much as we had hoped.
Sébastien Buemi’s race was compromised right after the start when another car – at the moment we don’t know who – drove into him, slashing his left rear tyre, so that the Swiss driver had to pit immediately. From then, he struggled with an ill-handling STR5, as the collision had also done considerable damage to the floor of his car, thus affecting its aerodynamic performance. Jaime got away well, although he did drop a place to twelfth, but on lap 2, when the Safety Car came out, he rushed into the pits to fit intermediate rain tyres when a brief shower hit the track. With hindsight, it was the wrong call, as the track dried very quickly, requiring another trip down pit lane for a return to slicks, which dropped him down to eighteenth. Through his own efforts and the mistakes and misfortunes of others he eventually worked his way up to tenth place, but then saw his point taken away from him by the Race Stewards, who deemed that on lap 42, at the chicane, "he left the track but rejoined gaining an advantage."
They gave him a post-race drive-through penalty which means that 20 seconds is added to his race time, thus dropping him out of the points zone.
Otherwise, Jaime’s pace was excellent and he delivered a mature performance, especially in fighting off a fast closing Liuzzi in the late stages, when the Italian had the advantage of running on extreme rain tyres in another heavier downpour, while the Spaniard was on the less suitable intermediates. However, after the race, a meeting with the Stewards saw the positions reversed.
The race was won by Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren, who took the lead at the start, when pole man Mark Webber got bogged down. The safety car was needed almost immediately, after Rubens Barrichello’s three hundredth grand prix start came to a premature stop, when he drove his Williams into Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari. The Brazilian retired, while the Spaniard cruised to the pits, rejoining way down the order. Kubica tucked in behind Hamilton, but the Pole was soon passed by Button, so that when the safety car came in on lap 4, it was a McLaren one-two followed by the Renault, then the two Red Bulls, Vettel leading Webber, followed by Massa in the other Ferrari. The German Red Bull driver then took third off Kubica and set out to chase Button. In fact, while Hamilton had a comfortable lead, Button led a train that went down to sixth place. On lap 15, Vettel lost control and crashed into Button: the Englishman retired, the German pitted for a new nose, before being given a drive-through penalty for causing an accident. During the run of pit stops around lap 22, Kubica missed his pit lane marker and that cost him second place to Webber’s benefit, while Hamilton pitted on lap 24 and rejoined without losing the lead.
Lap 33 and the rain reappeared, at first quite light and then much heavier: it caught out the race leader who slid wide through the gravel, but Hamilton managed to keep going to the flag unchallenged, despite another stop to change onto rain tyres. The Safety Car reappeared on lap 38, when Alonso spun his car, leaving it half across the track, but the racing resumed again on lap 41. De La Rosa in the Sauber, passed Jaime for tenth at this point, but the elder of the two Catalans went wide through the gravel, allowing the Toro Rosso man to retake tenth spot. Hamilton’s win means he now takes over the lead in the championship ahead of Webber, with their two main rivals for the title, Vettel and Button failing to score.
What do you think? Have your say on our Community forums.