Kimi Räikkönen wins his fourth Belgian Grand Prix while Sebastian Vettel closes in on the championship leaders.
Kimi Räikkönen’s record at Spa-Francorchamps is easy to summarise: he either wins the Belgian Grand Prix or he doesn’t finish the race. Starting sixth on the grid, he was still fancied to do something interesting with the Ferrari KERS under his thumb – though, frankly, he’d have been fancied showing up on the grid in a Morris Marina.
Pole position man Giancarlo Fisichella made a good start, but behind him the La Source hairpin became a very busy piece of real estate. Räikkönen got a screamer and went all the way around the outside, climbing into third position; Nick Heidfeld pushed Jarno Trulli wide, the pair touched and Robert Kubica managed to sneak past both of them. Further back, Fernando Alonso and Adrian Sutil collided, but everyone else seemed to escape unscathed. The big loser was Rubens Barrichello, who bogged down on the grid and was left at the back.
On the run up Kemmel, Räikkönen showed how useful the KERS button is by rocketing past Kubica and into second position, the Pole helpless to do anything but watch. But the real action happened at Les Combes. The final count was four cars out and several more wounded in an accident that seemed to last a half-hour. Jenson Button was punted off by Romain Grosjean, Hamilton lifted to avoid the scrum, but Jaime Alguersuari didn’t, and went into the back of the McLaren.
“Jenson spun and Hamilton had to move to the left to avoid him, moving onto the part of the track that I was on. We collided and my car was too damaged for me to continue,” explained Alguersuari. The world champion and the championship leader were both left scratching their heads behind the barriers as the safety car came out.
'I got up as close as I could then used the KERS. It was pretty easy really…' – Räikkönen
Barrichello took the opportunity to pit and change to the harder tyre, Trulli and Sutil also pitted to have damage looked at. The restart saw the inevitable happen: Fisichella made a clean start, but Räikkönen hung on in, waited for his moment, and did what the Ferrari does best: “I just made sure I was close enough at the first corner; I got up as close as I could, then used the KERS. It was pretty easy, really…” Fisichella spend the rest of the race looking at the Ferrari’s gearbox: faster over the lap, but unable to outdrag the extra 80bhp provided by KERS.
Behind them, the battles were all strategic. Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld were racing for fourth position and came in for their first stops together. Webber looked to have made up the place… just… nearly hitting the BMW Sauber as he exited his box. The stewards later ruled that it was a bit too close for comfort and penalised the Red Bull driver with a drive-through penalty. Webber never recovered, and would ultimately finish ninth.
Meanwhile, the other Red Bull Racing car of Sebastian Vettel was slowly making up ground. Having started in ninth position with a heavy fuel load, Vettel stayed out a long time, finally leading the race as others pitted before him. He had the hammer down and, after stopping, managed to jump in front of Heidfeld. After the second round of stops, he did the same to Kubica, emerging in third position. Vettel had the fastest car on the track and set about chasing down Fisichella and Räikkönen. He set the fastest lap of the race and was gaining quickly, but ultimately ran out of time.
Getty Images/Red Bull Photofiles
Räikkönen crossed the line for his and Ferrari’s first win of the year. Fisichella took second and Vettel had to settle for third. The two BMWs were fourth and fifth with Kubica in front of Heidfeld, while Heikki Kovalainen brought his McLaren home sixth. Rubens Barrichello had a great recovery drive to finish seventh, nursing a smoky Brawn across the line ahead of Nico Rosberg, once again scoring for Williams.
After the race, Vettel was philosophical about his result. “For the championship, it’s a good result – I got more points than the others. For the race, we lost too much ground in the first stint. The car was fantastic in the second and third stints; I didn’t make any mistakes and it was a pleasure to drive. The team scored more points than Brawn and I scored more points than Jenson or Rubens, so – a pretty good day.”
Asked about his title aspirations, he was likewise upbeat: “It’s still open! This championship is crazy: when I was a little boy, you knew after the first race who was competitive – now we have a Force India finishing second, so everything is possible.”
With five races remaining, Brawn GP lead Red Bull Racing by 23.5pts. In the Drivers’ Championship, Button still holds a 16pt lead over team-mate Barrichello, with Vettel and Webber a further three and 4.5pts further back. Going to Monza, there’s everything to play for.
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