Current world champion Sebastian Vettel extended his world championship lead to 92 points over team mate Mark Webber as Red Bull took a 1 – 2 at Spa Francorchamps. Jenson Button drove an excellent race to finish on the third step of the podium from 13th after Saturday’s catastrophic strategic screw up in the McLaren camp. Button made some impressive and aggressive passing moves working his way through the field; that should silence his critics who claim he is a journeyman. Jenson’s McLaren team mate Lewis Hamilton wasn’t so fortunate colliding with Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber as the Japanese came back at the Briton after being overtaken by the McLaren. Initially after the incident, Hamilton suggested that the incident was Kobayashi’s fault live on BBC Television but later accepted blame on his Twitter page. Jaime Algersauri who started from an excellent sixth place was hit by Renault’s Bruno Senna forcing Algersauri into the side of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso breaking his front left suspension, meaning a very early bath for the Toro Rosso driver. Alonso went onto to secure fourth place but ran as high as second before being overtaken near the end of the race by Webber and Button as the Spaniard struggled with tyres.
There was a good battle between the Mercedes drivers near the end with Michael Schumacher beating his younger compatriot Nico Rosberg to the chequered flag and fifth place, although Schumacher did have the advantage of slightly newer option tyres while Rosberg was running the prime tyre, it was nice to hear Mercedes say over the radio that the two Germans could race, clearly Mercedes trust their drivers to race fairly. Rosberg has an absolutely stunning start, moving from fifth place to leading the race by the start of lap two, the Mercedes has some serious speed but has problems with looking after their tyres which ultimately means they slowly move backwards so today’s result of 5th and 6th is a great result. Force India’s Adrian Sutil finished in a strong seventh place after starting 15th; the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa finished in eighth place after initially running in third. Vitaly Petrov drove a steady race and kept out of trouble to claim another couple of points for ninth place; and the final point for tenth goes to the driver that I believe should have been excluded for his actions in qualifying, Pastor Maldonado.
Spa Francorchamps delivered as ever, I saw more overtakes today than I did all last season; probably didn’t even need a DRS zone in Belgium. This is easily the best track in the world, it’s just a shame that the world title is all over but the shouting which means effectively the rest of the season is null and void, Vettel almost has a four race cushion over everyone. Seven races and 175 points remaining, Vettel has a 92 point lead; the German would have to finish out of the points on at least three occasions for other drivers to mount a challenge on this season’s drivers title!