Since winning the European GP on the streets of Valencia, Sebastian Vettel has never got to the top step of the podium. But at yesterday’s Belgian GP, the reigning world champion returned to winning ways, leading teammate Mark Webber home for a 1-2 for Red Bull. Jenson Button had another brilliant drive to finish third on the podium for McLaren.
In contrast, fellow Brit teammate Lewis Hamilton got into an accident on lap 13 with Kamui Kobayashi, spinning into the barriers and bringing the safety car out. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who was in the running for the win, finished fourth after fading off in the final third.
Next up was Michael Schumacher, the living legend started from the back of the grid to finish fifth, ahead of Mercedes GP teammate Nico Rosberg. Another German, Force India’s Adrian Sutil, was seventh.
Massa was forced to pit an extra time, putting him down to eight, ahead of Lotus Renault GP’s Russian driver Petrov. Pastor Maldonado of Williams scored his first ever point in F1 at Spa.
Making his debut for the Group Lotus sponsored Renault team after displacing the disgruntled Nick Heidfeld (who besides not performing well enough in LRGP’s eyes, was deemed not being a good enough team leader), Bruno Senna finished 13th, a spot ahead of Team Lotus’ Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen in 14th and 15th, respectively. The two green cars were a lap down on the winner, but was classified ahead of Rubens Barrichello’s Williams.
It was an unbelievable start at Spa for most spectators, which saw Mark Webber make his customary poor start to drop from third to eighth. Nico Rosberg went the other direction, getting past it all to second behind pole man Vettel.
His Silver Arrow then slipstreamed pass Seb by Les Combes. The lead wasn’t for too long though, Vettel retook the lead on lap 3. However, the Red Bulls had tyre issues, and Webber had to pit on lap 3, followed by Vettel in the following lap.
Lap 1 drama also came from Bruno Senna, who clashed with Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari. The Spaniard was out, while the Brazilian with the famous family name got a drive through penalty for his part.
In the meantime, the front runners were Alonso, Rosberg, Hamilton and Massa, who exchanged places till the first round of stops at around lap 8. The Bulls, who pitted earlier, came back to take their places at the front, with some nice overtaking moves from Vettel (on Rosberg) and Webber (on Alonso) on display.
That proved to be the order, and Alonso’s change to the less desirable harder tyre saw his challenge fade away. In contrast, the charging Jenson Button had long swept aside the hard rubber, and overtook so many cars that we lost count. His epic drive ended by passing the double world champ for third with two laps to go.
Vettel leads the Driver’s standings comfortably, 259 points to Webber’s 167, with Alonso a further 10 points behind. The Constructor’s championship is Red Bull’s to lose – they lead Ferrari 426 to 295 points. The next race is two weeks from now at Monza.
© 2011 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.
This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 28 Aug 11 19:24:08 +0000.
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