Belgian GP – Race: Vettel reconnects with victory, Hamilton K.O.!

Under the watchful eyes of John Surtees, Nigel Mansell, and local Jacky Ickx, the drivers embark on their warm-up lap. Sebastian Vettel in pole position leads ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, and Felipe Massa. Starting 7th on the grid, Bruno Senna makes a grand return to F1 by outpacing Fernando Alonso and his own teammate who sits in 10th place.

Michael Schumacher is the last to line up on the starting grid, the red lights turn on one by one and then go out while Rosberg’s car smokes on the grid.

Catastrophic start for Mark Webber, jumped just like a sheep by Nico Rosberg who takes the lead of the race at the expense of Sebastian Vettel at the Combes corner. While Felipe Massa overtakes Lewis Hamilton at the La Source corner, Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber are forced to widen their trajectory after a big contact of Senna with Alguersuari which tears off his front left suspension on Alonso’s right rear wheel.

At the exit of the Raidillon on the second lap, Fernando Alonso overtakes Lewis Hamilton in the slipstream while Bruno Senna goes back to the pits to make the usual repairs after his initial collision.

Author of a fantastic start, Rosberg finds himself under pressure from Sebastian Vettel, who regains the lead of the race through slipstreaming in the 3rd lap, while his teammate, Michael Schumacher, has already moved up to 13th position.

As Mark Webber returns to the pits to fit medium tires, Jenson Button changes his nose after losing some in the first corner: the Brit puts on soft tires with yellow sidewalls.

Now that he has been overtaken by Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg is holding up the two Ferraris a bit, with Felipe Massa putting on the pressure in Blanchimont and at the Bus Stop chicane. A small train forms behind the German, and tempers flare between the Ferrari drivers, with Alonso ultimately getting the better of his teammate at the exit of the Combes corner, narrowly avoiding a collision. Opportunistic, Hamilton also overtakes the Sao Paulo native.

The start of the race is dominated by concerns about the performance of the first set of tires. After his teammate, Vettel pits as early as the 6th lap and relinquishes the lead of the race to Nico Rosberg, who took advantage of the battle between the Ferraris and Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren to gain some breathing room.

In the 7th lap, Fernando Alonso takes advantage of the slipstream from the German driver to seize the lead while Buemi is forced to retire, with the rear wing in pieces.

It’s Hamilton’s turn to encounter Rosberg while he’s complaining to his engineer about issues with his front set of tires. Once again, the Mercedes driver has to yield to the slipstream with the DRS and finds himself under pressure from Massa while Vettel moves up the field with his fresh set of tires.

After making a pit stop, Fernando Alonso falls behind Mark Webber, who overtakes him at the Raidillon. But the Australian soon encounters Paul di Resta’s Force India, which he passes, leaving Fernando Alonso to battle with the Scotsman. But after getting past the Force India at the exit of La Source, the Spaniard takes Webber’s place at the Raidillon.

Vettel is the fastest man at the moment and is overtaking Nico Rosberg—who still hasn’t stopped—on the outside of the full-speed Blanchimont while Lewis Hamilton comes into the pits and falls back to 8th place, behind Sutil’s Force India.

After 12 laps, Sebastian Vettel is 5 seconds ahead of Fernando Alonso, followed by Webber, Kobayashi, Petrov, Sutil, Hamilton, Di Resta, Barrichello, and Schumacher. Rosberg, after his pit stop, has fallen to 13th place, behind Massa and Button.

Fitted with new soft tires, Hamilton quickly dispatches Adrian Sutil, Vitaly Petrov, and Kobayashi. However, the Japanese driver, attempting to regain his position with the benefit of slipstreaming approaching Les Combes, embeds his front right wheel into the left rear wheel of the British driver’s McLaren, who seemingly hasn’t seen him. Lewis Hamilton spins out and violently hits the wall, with no consequence other than a major fright. The safety car is deployed: Vettel and the Mercedes drivers pit and change their tires, but Alonso and Webber stay on the track. The Spaniard thus leads the two Red Bull drivers when the safety car leaves the track.

After gaining a bit of ground after the restart, Fernando Alonso quickly finds himself under pressure from Sebastian Vettel on the Kemmel straight: the German also having the advantage of new tires while Button, Petrov, and Perez battle it out at the La Source corner.

In the next round, Fernando Alonso yields at the Combes braking point to Vettel, who spent the entire Kemmel straight alongside the Spaniard. Lots of movements in the pack, especially with Sergio Perez losing his position to Rubens Barrichello at La Source before regaining it thanks to DRS in Kemmel.

Midway through the race, Vettel is once again leading Alonso by 5 seconds. They are followed by Webber, Rosberg, Massa, Sutil, Button, Schumacher, Petrov, and Perez. The McLaren driver puts his Force India counterpart under pressure at the Bus Stop Chicane before overtaking at Les Combes, despite a heavy brake from Sutil. The Briton, thanks to his fresher tires, quickly gains on Felipe Massa, passing him on the outside at the Bus Stop Chicane, with the two cars touching slightly, without consequences.

In the next lap, after gaining nearly 2 seconds on Nico Rosberg, the Briton maneuvers to overtake the German using the DRS and after a superb climb through Eau Rouge in the slipstream of the Mercedes.

Outside of the spectacle offered by the 2009 world champion, most of the drivers seem to have switched to economy mode and the race is settling into a false rhythm. The teams, having done little driving on dry track before the Grand Prix, seem to be struggling with their tires and are therefore trying to control their degradation.

After a slight mistake that allowed Vitaly Petrov to take 9th place, Perez enters the pits, directly into his box under the stern gaze of Peter Sauber: it’s retirement for the promising Mexican. Starting from 21st position after his penalty, Maldonado is ahead of his teammate and an unexpected Trulli, the Italian sitting in 14th position.

With 14 laps to go before the checkered flag, Fernando Alonso switches to medium tires and theoretically should not stop again: the Spaniard drops behind Button to 4th place, while the Briton will also need to pit again. Sebastian Vettel pits on the following lap, also to switch to medium tires, leaving the race lead to his teammate, while Fernando Alonso has just set the fastest lap in the race.

Jenson Button is the last of the leading men to go through the pits and comes out behind Vettel, Alonso, and Webber but opts for the soft tires. Although he has already stopped, Felipe Massa has to return to the pits due to a slow puncture and drops back into the midfield, behind Kamui Kobayashi, whom he overtakes on the inside at Blanchimont.

For his twentieth Formula One anniversary, Michael Schumacher took 6th place at the expense of Adrian Sutil on Kemmel Straight: the German gained 18 places.

While he is nearly 7 seconds behind Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso sees a lively Webber closing in on him rapidly in his rearview mirrors. The Spaniard can do nothing against the Australian and his DRS, and drops a step on the podium, behind a potential Red Bull one-two.

As Schumacher catches up with his teammate on fresher tires, both men are allowed to fight cleanly for 5th place, while Felipe Massa gradually moves up in the standings.

His teammate, Fernando Alonso, reappears on Jenson Button’s radar, who gains more than a second per lap on him. On the verge of scoring points, Rubens Barrichello loses a piece of his wing while braking at the Bus Stop, into the left rear tire of Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber.

In the 42nd lap, Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher overtook Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg respectively for the gain of 3rd and 5th place, both drafting in the Kemmel straight: the seven-time world champion gained 19 places in this Grand Prix, a personal record surpassing the one achieved in Monaco in 2006.

Under the checkered flag, Sebastian Vettel clinches his 7th victory of the season, the first since the last European Grand Prix. Mark Webber secures a one-two finish for Red Bull, bringing them closer to the constructor’s title, while Jenson Button takes the last step on the podium. The Briton finishes ahead of Alonso, Schumacher, Rosberg, Sutil, Petrov, Massa, and Maldonado. The Russian driver stops his car a few meters after the finish line.

The Red Bull driver now has a 92-point lead over his teammate and a 102-point lead over the third-placed driver, Fernando Alonso, in the drivers’ championship. Red Bull, on the other hand, secures a 131-point lead over their closest rival, McLaren.

Result of the 2011 Belgian Grand Prix: