Lewis Hamilton stormed back to the top of the Formula One drivers’ championship with an impressive victory at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver sped past his nearest rival—Red Bull’s Mark Webber—at the start of the race and didn’t relinquish the lead at Spa. Webber came second with Renault’s Robert Kubica third, and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa fourth.
Hamilton’s victory means he is three points ahead of Webber at the top of the standings with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, of McLaren and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso all losing ground.
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Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton Wins Belgian Grand Prix
Formula 1: Mark Webber Grabs Pole at Spa-Francorchamps
Formula 1: Belgian Grand Prix - Race Line-Up
F1 Standings Ahead of Belgian Grand Prix
Webber was on pole but suffered a nightmare start as five cars sped past him into the first corner. A pile up forced Rubens Barichello’s retirement and the safety car came out with rain beginning to fall. CNN International
Sutil drove a great race for Force India to take a fifth place that protects the team’s points advantage on a day when Williams failed to score, while Mercedes salvaged something from a tough weekend with sixth and seventh places for Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. Things might have been a little tense in the garage afterwards, however; on lap 10 Renault’s Vitaly Petrov squeezed by Rosberg at Les Combes, running him wide and enabling Schumacher also to pass his team mate, but Michael swiped Nico’s front wing as he did so. Later Nico forced his way by Michael there on lap 41, then left him behind.
Kamui Kobayashi made some amends for his qualifying gaffe by driving his usual feisty race through to eighth for BMW Sauber, ahead of Petrov, who also did well to claw his way from the back of the grid. The final point fell to Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari, who resisted a strong challenge from Liuzzi when the safety car pitted at the end of lap 40.
Behind the Italian’s Force India, BMW Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa survived a late off at Rivage to take 12th ahead of Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso and Nico Hulkenberg’s Williams, with Vettel a lap down in 15th. In the new team stakes, Heikki Kovalainen brought his Lotus home 16th ahead of the duelling Virgins of Lucas di Grassi and Timo Glock, with late-spinning Jarno Trulli 18th from final finisher Sakon Yamamoto. Besides Barrichello, Button and Alonso, Bruno Senna failed to finish after something broke on his HRT. Formula 1
Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired 1 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes Winner 2 6 Mark Webber RBR-Renault +1.5 secs 3 11 Robert Kubica Renault +3.4 secs 4 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari +8.2 secs 5 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes +9.0 secs 6 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP +12.3 secs 7 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP +15.5 secs 8 23 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari +16.6 secs 9 12 Vitaly Petrov Renault +23.8 secs 10 17 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari +29.4 secs 11 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes +34.8 secs 12 22 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari +36.0 secs 13 16 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari +39.8 secs 14 10 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth +1 Lap 15 5 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault +1 Lap 16 19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth +1 Lap 17 25 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth +1 Lap 18 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth +1 Lap 19 18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth +1 Lap 20 20 Sakon Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth +2 Laps Ret 8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari +7 Laps Ret 1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes Accident Ret 21 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth +39 Laps Ret 9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth Accident
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