Belgian Grand Prix: Vettel dominates and closes in on the Championship

Sebastian Vettel

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton stormed to pole position on Saturday and was at the head of the field for the race ahead of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. Dry weather welcomed the drivers to the track but rain was expected later in the day.

As the lights went green, Hamilton had a good start but Vettel set the track on fire and passed the Mercedes with ease on the Kemmel Straight. Behind them everybody cleared La Source without any damage. Webber dropped to sixth whereas Alonso showed Ferrari‘s real pace by moving up to 5th within two laps. Marussia’s Bianchi and Chilton, who surprised on Saturday with 15th and 16th, immediately moved to the back of the pack.

Within a few laps Vettel managed to get a good lead. Alonso moved up to third after passing Rosberg. DRS helped many drivers pass those ahead of them. There was action up and down the field as drivers pushed hard to get into the DRS zone to boost their straight line speed. McLaren’s Sergio Perez was penalized with a drive through penalty for pushing Grosjean off the track after making a move on him into Les Combes.

The first set of pit stops started from lap 10. Hamilton was held up behind Grosjean for a lap and this helped Alonso close in. Alonso passed Hamilton for 2nd on lap 15 after the Brit made a mistake heading into La Source. Button was one of the late stoppers and this moved him up into 2nd before he pitted for fresh tyres.

Grosjean was the last of the stoppers on lap 22. He was looking to finish the race with just one stop.

After 22 laps, it was Vettel in the lead by over 8 seconds from Alonso. Hamilton was a further 4.1 seconds behind and it looked like he was saving his tyres for later. Behind them it was Rosberg having a good battle with Webber. Button put his McLaren in 6th ahead of Massa in 7th with Raikkonen right on his tail. The two Force India’s were in 9th and 10th. At the back of the pack, Charles Pic retired with technical issues.

On lap 25, Kimi Raikkonen brought his car into the pits and was pulled into the garage with what looked like brake issues. This brought an end to his record of 27 consecutive points finishes.

Three laps later, William’s driver Pastor Maldonado had a tangle with Force India’s Di Resta at the final chicane. This took out Di Resta while Maldonado continued after coming into the pits. Maldonado’s car also touched the other Force India of Sutil. Not a good day for Di Resta after starting from 5th. Maldonado was later handed a 10-second Stop/Go penalty for the incident.

After the second set of pit stops, it was still Vettel ahead of Alonso with Button in 3rd ahead of Hamilton. Vettel was told that he has to finish the race on those tyres and was warned about possible rain. He was still consistently quicker than everybody else.

Webber was pulling in quickly on Rosberg’s Mercedes and was ahead of Button, who made his second stop on lap 35. While Vettel increased his lead to over ten seconds on Alonso.

Ricciardo made a late race charge after breezing past Perez for 10th. Elsewhere Esteban Gutierrez was handed a drive-through penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

After a long 44 lap race, Sebastian Vettel took the chequered flag to take his 31st grand prix victory and equal Nigel Mansell’s record. Alonso finished in 2nd after a brilliant drive. Hamilton finished in 3rd. Vettel finished the race almost 17 seconds ahead of Alonso, which is quite amazing looking at the pace others had this weekend.

Rosberg took 4th after managing to stay ahead of Webber. Button finished in 6th with Massa, Grosjean, Sutil and Ricciardo closing out the top 10. Perez finished in 11th ahead of Vergne, Hulkenburg, Gutierrez, Bottas, Van der Garde and Maldonado. Bianchi and Chilton took the last two spots.

This now puts Vettel 46 points ahead of Alonso. Lewis hamilton is in 3rd and Raikkonen has dropped back to 4th in the championship.

Red Bull lead Mercedes by 77 points with 8 races left.

Results:

Pos Driver Team 1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 2. Alonso Ferrari 3. Hamilton Mercedes 4. Rosberg Mercedes 5. Webber Red Bull-Renault 6. Button McLaren-Mercedes 7. Massa Ferrari 8. Grosjean Lotus-Renault 9. Sutil Force India-Mercedes10. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari11. Perez McLaren-Mercedes12. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari13. Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari14. Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari15. Bottas Williams-Renault16. van der Garde Caterham-Renault17. Maldonado Williams-Renault18. Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth19. Chilton Marussia-Cosworth

Not classified/retirements:

Driver TeamDi Resta Force India-MercedesRaikkonen Lotus-RenaultPic Caterham-Renault