Spa is the favourite track of many of today’s F1 drivers, and not without good reason. Corners such as Eau Rouge, Blanchimont, Pouhon, Les Combes and Stavelot all combine to create one of the most technically challenging and rewarding tracks in the world. Combine that with a weather system that's just about impossible to predict and you have yourself a truly classic venue that never fails to provide excitement for the F1 fan.
After Webber took pole position on Saturday, it looked as if the Australian should have had the best possible chance of victory number five, particularly as his teammate Sebastian Vettel could only muster fourth position. Splitting the Red Bull pair were the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton and an impressive Robert Kubica for Renault. Jenson Button was able to qualify in fifth place, but the final title challenger Alonso suffered a wretched session, qualifying in a lowly tenth place after being compromised by a late shower.
The race began dry but the threat of rain, as is often the case at Spa, loomed large nonetheless. It was a dream start for the McLaren team when Webber bogged down on the grid allowing Lewis Hamilton to lead into the first corner unchallenged with Button making an equally impressive getaway to make it a McLaren one-two by the end of the second lap, ahead of Vettel, Kubica and the slow-starting Webber.
Shortly after, the rain did arrive very briefly around the start-finish area, resulting in almost the entire field failing to make the final Bus Stop chicane. There was particular misery for Rubens Barrichello, who ended his three-hundredth Formula One start by losing control of the car under braking and side swiping Alonso in the process. Whilst the Brazilian was out on the spot, Alonso miraculously survived the encounter and made a bee line for the pit lane, where the Ferrari crew fitted his car with intermediate tyres in a strategic gamble. Fellow Spaniards Pedro De La Rosa and Jaime Alguersauri also stopped to fit the inters, but likewise lost track position in the process.
However, the rain was not to last and thus Alonso’s venture backfired. After immediately reverting back to slicks, he found himself consigned to seventeenth place. Back at the front, Hamilton was controlling the race, steadily increasing his lead from Button, who was struggling to shake off the faster cars of Vettel, Kubica, Webber and Massa.
Whilst things were going swimmingly for McLaren #2, things were about to hit rock bottom for the #1 car of Button. Vettel had been steadily closing in, and began lining up the reigning champion for a move at the Bus Stop chicane. However, in a manner not dissimilar to Barrichello, albeit now in dry conditions, the young German lost control of the car and clobbered the side of Button's McLaren, necessitating his immediate retirement with irreparable damage done to the side-pod.
Vettel on the other hand was fortunate enough to be able to continue, naturally having to pit for a new nose section. He would then be slapped with a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable accident, his second in as many races. Having proceeded to make a fairly swift ascent through the field, he undid his hard work once more by making contact with the Force India of Tonio Liuzzi, giving himself a slow puncture. The ‘crash kid’, as McLaren principal Martin Whitmarsh labelled him after the race would wind up in a lowly 15th place.
Back at the front, Hamilton continued to lead, now from Kubica, Webber and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa who had just cleared the Force India of Adrian Sutil for 4th place. The two Mercedes cars of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg and had also made up ground to both be inside the points (despite their earlier altercation where Schumacher sheared off his teammate’s front wing end-plate in a brash overtaking move) after the safety car period that followed the Vettel-Button incident.
Just when the race had appeared to settle down however, the erratic Belgian weather took another dramatic turn as the rain began to fall at the far side of the circuit, very nearly accounting for race leader Hamilton’s race after he sailed into the gravel trap, just millimetres away from the crash barrier. It quickly became evident wet-weather tyres would be necessary, and so the leading cars all made the switch. Much to the chagrin of Renault, Kubica accidentally overshot his pit box in doing so, forfeiting 2nd place to Webber in the process.
The other victim of the late shower would be Fernando Alonso who became the final casualty of the day when he pirouetted into the barriers in a rare error exiting the Les Combes-Malmedy complex. The Spaniard had fought his way back to 8th after his earlier mishaps, but once again through his own fault had placed his title ambitions very much on the back foot.
There were no such problems however for Hamilton, who made no further errors as he cruised to his third win of the season, confirmed his prowess in changeable conditions. Webber took 2nd place, but that wouldn't be enough to prevent Hamilton usurping him at the top of the championship table. Kubica completed the podium after a faultless performance, pitstops aside.
Massa plugged away to a solid 4th place, from Adrian Sutil for Force India and both the Mercedes cars of Rosberg and Schumacher. Kamui Kobayashi for Sauber, Vitaly Petrov for Renault and Liuzzi in the other Force India completed the points, the latter benefitting from an off-road excursion for De La Rosa and a 20-second timed penalty for Alguersauri.
Whilst Hamilton and Webber are now the clear leaders in the title race after non-scores for Vettel, Button and Alonso, it would be churlish to think that the latter three are now out of the running. After all, there's only 41 points between the quintet (about 15 in old money), with 6 races to go and thus 150 points left up for grabs. Everything is still to play for.
