Hamilton wins as Spa’s famous weather puts a damper on title challengers

Lewis Hamilton has moved back to the top of the drivers title chase after winning a dramatic Belgian Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver started alongside Mark Webber on the front row of the grid but when the Red Bull driver made a poor start Hamilton took a lead that he never relinquished. The race started in dry conditions but even before the end of the first lap rain started to fall, and cause chaos to the field. As the leaders entered the Bus Stop chicane the field felt the first sprinkles of rain and each of the first five drivers ran off the track onto the tarmac run off area.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso stared the race in tenth after a poor qualifying effort but made a good start and was into eight positions on the first lap before Rubens Barrichello misjudged the grip into the Bus Stop on the first lap and crashed into the back of Alonso. Barrichello, celebrating his 300^th Grand Prix, retired but Alonso was able to continue. The Spaniard made an immediate change to intermediate tyres; gambling on the rain getting worse and forcing others to stop.

When Alonso resumed the race he did so under safety car conditions. The race stewards deemed that Barrichello’s stricken Williams was in a dangerous position and as a result the field needed to be neutralised to allow marshals to safely move the car. During this safety car period the track continued to dry and Alonso was forced to pit once more, this time for dry weather slick tyres.

When the race resumed Vettel managed to overtake the Renault of Robert Kubica and set off in chase of the leading McLaren’s of Hamilton and Jenson Button. Button had started the race in fifth and had struggled to match the pace of his teammate throughout the weekend. In mixed conditions though Button was sure to be a challenger for the podium and continue his consistent season. With Vettel harrying him for ten laps Button had calmly parried any attempts that his German rival made to overtake the reigning world champion. On lap 16 though Vettel had a great slipstream on the run down to the Bus Stop chicane and with Button defending his position by positioning his car on the inside Vettel lost control of his Red Bull.

Button’s promising race was over in an instant and the implications for the Englishman’s title hopes are sure to be felt with the season drawing to a close. Vettel needed to pit for a new front wing, this though would not be his last drive down pitlane. Within a handful of laps notification came through that Vettel would be penalised for causing an avoidable accident and would have to serve a driver through penalty. This left the title charger facing an ever increasing challenge.

Later in the race, while driving through the field, Vettel made contact with the Force India of Vitantonio Liuzzi and suffered a puncture. With Webber finishing in second Vettel has now fallen over a race victory behind his teammate in the title chase, and 31 points behind Hamilton.

With title rivals Vettel and Webber failing to score Fernando Alonso knew that it was crucial to score as many points as possible to keep in contention for the title. The Spaniard though crashed out six laps from the end during a late race shower. Alonso was not the only driver to be caught out during the changing conditions, Hamilton ran wide at Rivage as the rain started to fall, but this mistake could, arguably, be enough to put Alonso out of title contention. The Spaniard has had an error prone season, crashes at Monaco in practice, spins in Australia and a jump start at China all cost him the chance of points.

The Ferrari driver now sits 41 points behind Hamilton and will need to win at the Italian Grand Prix if he is to have a realistic chance of a third title. This though could be difficult to achieve, Hamilton will enter the next race on the crest of a confidence wave having dominated this race and knowing that the McLaren should be strong on the long straights of Monza.

While Hamilton was generally unchallenged at the front the battle for second was much more competitive. Robert Kubica had held the advantage over Webber for much of the race but the Polish driver made an uncharacteristic mistake when he out braked himself during his late race pitstop when the field had to change to intermediate tyres on lap 36 when the rain restarted. Webber managed to get past and while Kubica clearly was fast enough in the dry to pull out a sufficient lead over his Australian rival in the rain it was a different story as Kubica held station, satisfied with another podium in what has been a very competitive season.

Behind the leaders Felipe Massa had another solid drive and finished in fifth, comfortably ahead of Adrian Sutil who had a strong showing in his Force India. Sutil’s speed on the straights was such that the German will have to be very confident ahead of the next race at Monza. In sixth was the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg who finished ahead of teammate Michael Schumacher. Schumacher had a much more competitive showing as he drove through the field after starting in 21^st position. Both Mercedes drivers waited to make their pit stops until the late race shower but both drive well and thoroughly deserved a decent haul of points for the team.

When the dust settles from this race both Hamilton and Webber will be immensely satisfied with their days work. Both have now firmly set themselves to be their team’s main title challenger and will know that the momentum is with them as the season winds to a dramatic close.