Belgium – Race: Victorious Return for Button at Spa

The drivers take their places on the grid, and Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber is smoking heavily on its spot. The red lights go out, and it’s a great start for Pastor Maldonado. At the first braking point, there’s a collision between Romain Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton, with contact between them. The McLaren climbs onto the Lotus, violently hits Sergio Pérez’s Sauber, and then takes off before crashing into Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.

The leader of the world championship takes some time to get out of his car but manages to do so on his own, fortunately, it was more fright than harm for the drivers involved. However, with all the debris, the safety car is deployed to allow the marshals to clean up the track.

With this incident, the standings have been significantly shaken up, with Button still leading ahead of Räikkönen. They are followed by the two Force Indias of Hülkenberg and Di Resta, Michael Schumacher, the two Toro Rossos of Ricciardo and Vergne, Senna’s Williams, Webber’s Red Bull, and Kovalainen’s Caterham.

The safety car pulls away after 4 laps and everything goes well at the restart, except for Maldonado who has a damaged front wing at the end of the Kemmel straight, he retires. At the end of this same straight, Nico Hülkenberg successfully overtakes Kimi Räikkönen’s Lotus.

While he gives up, the Venezuelan driver is under investigation for a false start and is also under investigation for an incident with Timo Glock’s Marussia.

Michael Schumacher passes Paul di Resta on the straight as well. Behind them, the two Red Bull drivers are held up by Bruno Senna’s Williams, which is very fast on the straight. Webber, unable to overtake Senna, is passed by Sebastian Vettel in the chicane before the pit lane.

Paul di Resta is the first to pit on the 11th lap. He switches from medium to hard tires. Thanks to DRS, Michael Schumacher manages to pass Kimi Räikkönen, who is now in 4th place while the Mercedes driver is on the virtual podium because of this overtaking.

Kimi Räikkönen and Mark Webber return to the pits on the 12th lap, the Red Bull driver was stuck behind Senna and his teammate, and the Austrian team likely changed its strategy to try not to lose more time.

As with his teammate, Sebastian Vettel passes Bruno Senna in the last chicane. Meanwhile, Nico Hülkenberg, who was in 2nd place, goes through the pit lane.

After overtaking Senna, Sebastian Vettel moves up and manages to pass Jean-Eric Vergne in the DRS zone. At the same time, Kimi Räikkönen overtakes Nico Rosberg and continues his own climb.

Incident in the pits between Heikki Kovalainen and Narain Karthikeyan, the Caterham driver leaves as the HRT is entering its pit, making the collision inevitable. The error is clearly on the Caterham side. Both men leave the pit lane without major damage but having lost a lot of time.

On the 19th lap, Jenson Button is ahead of Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, but none of them have pitted yet. They seem to be on a different strategy compared to their rivals. Sebastian Vettel attempts an overtake on his compatriot, but Schumacher defends well before finally entering the pits. The following lap, Jenson Button makes his first stop, with the Briton switching from mediums to hards, possibly planning for only one stop for the McLaren driver.

Sebastian Vettel is the last driver to pit, Vettel rejoins in 6th place and manages to hold his position against Ricciardo and Schumacher on the Kemmel straight even though both men had DRS.

Jenson Button is one of the fastest on track after his stop. He is faster than the drivers following him, Kimi Räikkönen, Nico Hülkenberg, and Mark Webber. Behind him, Sebastian Vettel passes Felipe Massa to take 5th place.

Race control announces that an investigation will be conducted after the race regarding Schumacher’s pit entry ahead of Vettel’s Red Bull.

Kamui Kobayashi, who started from the front row, goes through the pits for his third stop already. The Sauber driver is only in 13th place.

Second round of pit stops on lap 27 with Paul di Resta, followed on the next lap by Nico Hülkenberg, Mark Webber, and Felipe Massa. These three men are making their second and probably last stop of the Grand Prix. We see a replay of Webber’s stop where he almost collided with Massa in the pits, and the action is now under investigation by the FIA stewards.

Kimi Räikkönen also goes into the pits on the 29th lap while he was second in the race behind Button. He returns to the track in 4th position behind Vettel and Schumacher. At the Combes corner, Felipe Massa overtakes Bruno Senna, who had passed him right after his stop.

A great battle at the front for the third place between Schumacher, Räikkönen, Hülkenberg, and Webber. Kimi Räikkönen passes the seven-time world champion at the entrance of Raidillon. Behind, Hülkenberg puts pressure on Schumacher but doesn’t overtake him, which benefits Webber, yet he can’t get past the Force India.

The young German eventually overtakes his senior at the hairpin of the source but gets overtaken again in the Kemmel straight thanks to good top speed and the DRS. Behind these two men, Mark Webber sees Felipe Massa closing in.

Schumacher is informed that they are switching to plan B, the Mercedes driver no longer has tires and struggles as best as he can. He enters the pits to fit new tires, the mediums, the softest ones brought by Pirelli to Spa.

Felipe Massa passes Mark Webber on the Kemmel straight, while both men had DRS. Immediately after, Jean-Eric Vergne passes Nico Rosberg at the Les Combes corner. Rosberg loses another place immediately afterwards to Daniel Ricciardo. Rosberg, like Schumacher before him, goes back to the pits to put on new tires with 7 laps to go.

At the back of the pack, Charles Pic is ahead of Timo Glock and asserts himself authoritatively at the end of the Kemmel straight to keep the advantage over his experienced teammate. Glock eventually passes Pic at the same spot the following lap. Vergne does the same against Senna at the same location thanks to the DRS. His teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, will try to do the same while being cautious of Paul di Resta closing in behind. The Australian driver passes the Williams, which heads to the pits four laps before the checkered flag.

A small scare for Heikki Kovalainen who spins in a corner, getting overtaken by Pedro de la Rosa as a result.

In the lead of the race, Jenson Button is still the leader and quite broadly, he has more than a 14-second advantage over Sebastian Vettel, who is in second place.

The British driver wins his second victory of the year after the Australian Grand Prix. He beats the double world champion, Sebastian Vettel, who scores big points and at the same time takes second place in the world drivers’ championship. Kimi Räikkönen takes third place.

Following are Hülkenberg, Massa, Webber, Schumacher, Vergne, Ricciardo and di Resta who takes the point for 10th place.

Provisional standings of the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix