Hamilton clinches Belgium GP

Hamilton clinched the Belgium GP, the same one where he was stripped of his win two years back as he was given a penalty. He led the pack from the start of what was a very exciting race and also moved on top of the driver’s championships. The highlight of the race can be said the superb drive by Robert Kubica for Renault to finish third.

Hamilton clinches Belgium Grand Prix

The race started of with a burst of rain at the start of the first lap which saw many cars skidding off the track. Hamilton had no such problems and came into first position. Webber again made a very poor start and dropped back to fifth in the third lap.

The race started off with Webber dropping three places and moving to fourth position while Hamilton moving up to the top followed by Kubica and Button tailing Kubica. By the third lap Vettel also joined in and was right behind Button. Alonso also started well by moving two rigs up the order into the eight position.

The action already had started in the second lap where Barrichello who was celebrating his 300th Grand Prix start had to retire after he crashed into Alonso and thus forcing him to retire and forcing Alonso into the Pits. Safety car was deployed in Lap 3 and by then Button had already overtaken Kubica and thus raising hopes of a McLaren 1-2 and Kubica dropped one more place losing his position to Vettel. Button and Hamilton continued their fight at the top.

By the fifth Lap Schumacher had moved up seven places to move into fourteenth position.

The rain had stopped by Lap 8 and by then Alonso pitted once more to change his tyres while in between the Mercedes GP pair were shining well and Schumacher moved into twelfth position while Rosberg into tenth position. Bruno Senna had also retired after he spun off the track losing grip. By the ninth lap the battle for second position intensified between Vettel and Button. Petrov also moved up well and gained thirteen places to move into ninth position by the eleventh lap.

The second battle intensified so much that by Lap number seventeen both the cars made contact which saw Button retire and Vettel go to the pits. All this played in the favor of Mercedes GP and Schumacher moved up into sixth ahead of his team mate Rosberg who was running slow as he had some problems with his front wing.

Vettel crashing into Button

Vettel joined the race in twelfth position but was then handed a drive through penalty which meant he lost his dreams of securing some points in this race.

Meanwhile both Massa and Kubica entered pits in the twenty fourth lap and Kubica managed to just edge out Webber while emerging from the pits using his supreme straight line speed by the car’s F-Duct system. Adrian Sutil was driving superbly and overtook Schumacher on lap twenty five and in the process set the fastest lap also.

Lap twenty six saw Kubica clock the fastest lap and Alonso move up to eight position while Vettel meanwhile made contact with Liuzzi resulting in chipping off a part of Liuzzi’s front wing and thus Vettel in turn punctured his rear wheel. Vettel hence pitted only to emerge out in the twentieth position.

By lap twenty nine Kubica and Webber had to intensify their fight for the second position while Hamilton was running away in the front of the race track.

Rain again started to pour down on the track and Hamilton ran wide of the track into the gravel on Lap thirty five. The rain saw all the drivers pit except for Hamilton, Massa and Kubica. Hamilton still managed to retain his track position even after the spin but Kubica had closed in on. Lap thirty six saw Kubica pit to change tyres and a little slow pit stop meant that Kubica loose on his track position to Webber. This whole thing also resulted in Rosberg dropping to ninth position after the pits.

Lap thirty eight saw Alonso loose his front wing and was forced out of the race which also saw Safety Car being deployed.

The last three laps were also exciting with Rosberg overtaking his team mate Schumacher, Trulli spinning off the track and the cars just missing on hitting him while Pedro De la Rosa spun into the gravel and Liuzzi and Alguersuari fighting it off for the tenth position and eventually Liuzzi loosing it out.

The final Standings were

Courtesy – www.formulaone.com