Sebastian Vettel claimed the victory in a thrilling Belgian GP, which saw six different drivers each lead one lap or more.
Blistering tyres, a lack of dry running, different strategies and the sweeping corners of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit all played a crucial role in what proved to be one of the best races of the season.
Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Mark Webber all had a turn at the front of the pack but, after 44 laps, it was inevitably Vettel who was in the P1 slot.
The reigning World Champ finished ahead of Webber and Button, who had started from P13.
Race Report
It was a cloudy Spa Francorchamps with no rain in sight as start time approached, but at the Belgium track it is never far away and there was always the possibility with an ambient of just 16C and the track at 23C.
Six Rows of Grid : 1.Vettel, 2.Hamilton, 3.Webber, 4.Massa, 5.Rosberg, 6.Alguersuari, 7.Senna, 8.Alonso, 9.Perez, 10.Petrov, 11.Buemi, 12.Kobayashi
Start:Sebastian Vettel got away well from pole and led into La Source hairpin, Lewis Hamilton couldn't take any advantage and was outmuscled by Felipe Massa down the hill towards Eau Rouge.
The star move came from Nico Rosberg who came through the first turn on the inside poised to take P2. Rosberg's great start was helped by Mark Webber getting another poor one as his car bogged down away from the line. It had looked as though Rosberg was in trouble as his overheating brakes created clouds of smoke on the grid, but it was Webber who fell rapidly backwards
Behind the frontrunners there was chaos created by an inept start from Bruno Senna. Senna locked up his brakes into the hairpin and cannoned into the side of Jaime Alguersuari taking the Toro Rosso driver out of the race and pushing him towards Alonso who had to take to the emergency run-off tarmac.
Timo Glock made a suicidal dive up the inside and took off large parts of Paul DiResta's Force India and also managed to take a rear endplate off Jenson Button's car. Button ran over Senna's discarded front wing in the run down to Eau Rouge and terminally damaged his own.
Back at the front, Nico Rosberg's Mercedes had a big power advantage going up the hill towards Les Combes and managed to outbrake the Red Bull to take the lead.
Positions after Lap 1
1.Rosberg 2.Vettel, 3.Massa, 4.Hamilton, 5.Alonso, 6.Buemi, 7.Perez, 8.Webber, 9.Kobayashi, 10.Petrov, 11.Sutil, 12.Button
Both Ferraris were impressively quick through Eau Rouge and on Lap 2 Alonso was easily past Hamilton for P4. Sebastian Vettel was able to wait for the DRS wing to be enabled on Lap 3 and then cruised past Rosberg. At the same time Mark Webber and Jenson Button pitted for tyres and Jenson for a new front wing as well.
Fernando Alonso closed on Massa who was showing signs of wanting to hang on to his place today and not give it up. If Alonso wanted to get past he would have to do it the hard way. On Lap 4 Nico Rosberg had to defend hard against Massa while Alonso was trying to get past Felipe, and Lewis Hamilton was catching them all up.
On Lap 5 Alonso got past Massa down into Rivage, almost ran wide and pushed Massa offline in the process. Lewis Hamilton tried to get past them both at the same time but had to make do with squeezing past Felipe. Massa pushed the McLaren to the very edge of the track but Lewis still got through.
While this was happening Sebastian Vettel pitted to change his very badly blistered front tyres.
On Lap 6 Sebastian Buemi was pictured with a deranged rear wing after contact with Sergio Perez. Both disappeared for repairs and Perez got a drive-through for his troubles. Thus the leaderboard on Lap 6 looked very different from Lap 1.
Positions after Lap 6
1.Rosberg, 2.Alonso, 3.Hamilton, 4.Massa 5.Kobayashi, 6.Petrov, 7.Vettel, 8.Sutil, 9.DiResta, 10.Maldonado, 11.Webber, 12.Barrichello.
On Lap 7 Fernando Alonso passed Rosberg and a lap later Hamilton was through courtesy of the DRS zone. At the end of Lap 8 Fernando pitted and when he emerged from the pitlane he found Mark Webber's Red Bull bearing down on him from La Source.
They both tried to get through the bottom of Eau Rouge, Webber passing Alonso on the outside. As the cars ran alongside for a nanosecond it looked like there might be an almighty accident, but Alonso lifted and let Webber through. It was breathtaking stuff.
Webber progressed past Sutil, but Alonso on fresher tyres was able to use the DRS zone to reclaim his position ahead of Webber by Lap 10. Vettel passed Rosberg, while Hamilton pitted for the first time.
Kamui Kobayashi had yet to stop for tyres and was in P4, running much slower lap times than the cars behind who had changed. When Lewis Hamilton went to pass him in the DRS zone going up to Les Combes, for some reason Kobayashi over lapped his back tyre onto Hamilton's in the braking area. As Hamilton moved left to improve his turn-in he found Kobayashi's tyre against his rear wheel which flicked him hard against the barriers and out of the race. Surprisingly the stewards saw this as a racing accident and no action was taken against the Japanese driver.
With the barrier heavily impacted the Safety Car was sent out and Vettel immediately used this to his advantage to change tyres. Webber should have come in too, but a radio blank meant that Mark didn't get an answer when he asked if he should box his Red Bull.
Positions after Lap 15 behind the Safety Car
1.Alonso, 2.Webber, 3.Vettel, 4.Massa, 5.Rosberg, 6.Sutil, 7.Perez, 8.Petrov, 9.Schumacher, 10.Barrichello, 11.Button, 12.Maldonado
As soon as the Safety Car came in Nico Rosberg was past Massa, and Vettel was past his team-mate as early as La Source hairpin. On Lap 18 Vettel used the DRS to overtake Alonso for the lead while Jenson Button got past Petrov and Perez in one move, the Mexican braking early for La Source as Petrov and Button cruised up to his gearbox
Button then unleashed a string of overtaking moves as he headed for the front. On Lap 22 he was past Schumacher, on Lap 23 Sutil. On Lap 25 he got by Massa into the bus-stop chicane outbraking him round the outside and on Lap 26 Rosberg was passed.
Because of the excessive camber used by Red Bull to get heat into their tyres for qualifying, the blistering of the front tyres was still a concern, and Ferrari were confident that Red Bull were going to stop one more time than themselves. Alonso was holding onto P2 with Vettel ahead and Webber behind.
Both Webber and Button had used their two tyre compounds, and so on Lap 29 Alonso pitted for the medium compound he had yet to run. Vettel covered him and changed a lap later along with Massa and Rosberg.
On Lap 31 Mark Webber pitted, handing over the lead briefly to Jenson Button who was then overtaken by Vettel on his fresh rubber. Button pitted on Lap 32 and set off after Mark Webber in P4 again. In the mean time a puncture for Felipe Massa sent him back down pitlane and out of the top six.
Positions after Lap 34
1.Vettel, 2.Alonso, 3.Webber, 4.Button 5.Rosberg, 6.Schumacher, 7.Sutil, 8.Petrov, 9.Maldonado, 10.DiResta, 11.Massa 12.Kobayashi.
Both Jenson and Mark were going two seconds a lap quicker than the two men in front of them. Webber was able to chase Alonso down for P2 on Lap 37 and by Lap 40 of 44 Button had the gap to Alonso down to 1.5 seconds. He was past him on Lap 42 for the final podium place.
In the closing stages of the race the Mercedes duo were running close together, Michael Schumacher having taken advantage of the Safety Car period and just as Jenson was passing Fernando, so Michael eased his way past Nico on the run up to Les Combes to take P5.
On the final lap Massa caught and passed a very very slow Petrov for P8 with the Russian taking P9 and Pasto Maldonado his first points in F1, in P10. It had been a dramatic race despite the lack of rain and one of great relief for Adrian Newey. After the race the Red Bull technical chief explained that there had been a great worry that the blistered Red Bull tyres would suffer structural damage between the tyre wall and the tread. A very risky situation.
But they had come through for a 1-2. In all truth it should have been Mark Webber's victory, but yet again the Aussie paid the price for a poor start. However with a new contract for 2012 he still has many more races to challenge Seb's 17 wins.
FH
Results
01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h26.44.893
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 3.741
3. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 9.669
4. Alonso Ferrari + 13.022
5. Schumacher Mercedes + 47.464
6. Rosberg Mercedes + 48.674
7. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 59.713
8. Massa Ferrari + 1m06.076
9. Petrov Renault + 1m11.917
10. Maldonado Williams-Cosworth + 1m17.615
11. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1m23.994
12. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1m31.976
13. Senna Renault + 1m32.985
14. Trulli Lotus-Renault + 1 lap
15. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 1 lap
16. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
17. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth + 1 lap
18. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 1 lap
19. Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth + 1 lap
Did Not Finish
Perez Sauber-Ferrari 27
Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 13
Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 12
Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 6
Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1
