2011 Formula 1 : Vettel wins in Spa to extend lead

2011 F1 - Belgian GP winner : Sebastian Vettel (GER), Red Bull Racing, RB7

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium : August 28, 2011 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) scored his seventh win of the season in the Belgian GP on Sunday to extend his championship lead.

2011 F1 - Belgian GP winner : Sebastian Vettel (GER), Red Bull Racing, RB7

The reigning world champion was off the pace during wet practice but came good in the dry qualifying session to take pole, but the race was not an easy one for him, after he was passed on the first lap and dropped back down the order later.

Team mate Webber came in second, 3.7 sec behind with an excellent drive taking Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes) from 13th on the grid to the podium. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) was fourth.

Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) drove from the back of the grid to fifth, finishing a second ahead of team mate Nico Rosberg.

Vettel has extended his lead in the championship to 259 points ahead of Webber (167), Alonso (157), Button (149) and Hamilton (146).

Red Bull has a runaway lead in the constructors' championship with 426 points over McLaren (295) and Ferrari (231).

Rosberg made a blinding start from fifth on the grid at Spa-Francorchamps to lead at the end of the first lap. He streaked away from fifth place on the grid, passing third-placed Webber as if he was parked and challenging for the lead against Vettel into the first corner. Vettel stayed ahead but only as far as the back straight where Rosberg got into the slipstream and emerged to pass into the chicane.

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) dropped from second to third behind Rosberg at the start while further back, Bruno Senna (Renault) outbraked himself into the first corner and smacked into the side of Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso-Ferrari), breaking his front suspension and putting him out of the race.

Felipe Massa (Ferrari) got past Hamilton into third place on the first lap and the 2008 champion then had to start defending against Alonso.

At the end of the first lap, Rosberg was leading from Vettel, Massa, Hamilton, Sébastien Buemi (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) and Sergio Perez (Sauber-Ferrari).

On the second lap, Alonso got past Hamilton on the back straight as Senna pitted for a new front wing and Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus-Renault) and Timo Glock (Virgin-Cosworth) also pitted to repair damage.

After wet practice and qualifying session, Sunday's race started under grey skies on a dry track with the air temperature at 16°C and the track at 24°C with humidity of 58%.

Most of the drivers elected to start the race on the softer option compound, but Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes) chose the harder option starting from 13th on the grid and hoping to go further before needing to stop for fresh tyres.

Vettel got past Rosberg into the lead on the second lap and then set a fastest lap of 1'55.708 as team mate Webber pitted for fresh tyres. Second-placed Rosberg had both Massa and Alonso looking for a way past him. Massa defended against Alonso, but Alonso got past and with Massa wrong-footed, Hamilton also got through and into fourth.

On lap 5, Vettel pitted for fresh soft tyres as Buemi pitted with a collapsed rear wing and retired.

On lap 6, Alonso moved past Rosberg into the lead after starting from eighth on the grid, and Hamilton also got past Rosberg to go second.

On lap 8, Alonso pitted and Hamilton took the lead and then pitted for fresh tyres on lap 10. Two laps later he came down the long back straight behind Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber-Ferrari) and used his DRS to pull out and draw alongside as the two braked for the Chicane. Both drivers aimed for the same piece of track and there was contact between the two cars, with Hamilton spearing off the track into the barriers and retirement. As a result the Safety Car was deployed.

On lap 15, with the field circuiting behind the Safety Car, Alonso was leading from Webber, Vettel, Massa, Rosberg, Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes), Perez, Vitaly Petrov (Renault), Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) and Rubens Barrichello (Williams-Cosworth).

Button got past both Petrov and Perez in the run downhill out of the La Source hairpin into eighth while at the front, Vettel slipstreamed down the back straight past Alonso and held the lead into Les Combes.

There was a five-way dice for tenth between Perez, Barrichello, Pastor Maldonado (Williams-Cosworth), Paul di Resta (Force India-Mercedes) and Kobayashi, all covered by just two seconds.

Button had good pace and was lapping at the same times as the leaders and he next caught seventh-placed Schumacher and began trying to find a way past. On lap 21 he shadowed the German for most of the lap before out-braking him into the final chicane and emerging into the start/finish straight in seventh place. One lap later he got past Sutil into sixth.

Fifth-placed Massa was half a second a lap slower than Button and less than a second ahead and he was quickly reeled in. They arrived side-by-side at the final Chicane and Button hung on around the outside to emerge ahead and in fifth place, 16.3 sec behind race leader Vettel, who had 4.7 sec in hand over Alonso.

Button caught Rosberg a lap later and drove straight past him on the back straight to take fourth. His next target was third-placed Webber eight seconds ahead, with the Red Bulls suffering with blistering front tyres in this race.

Alonso pitted for fresh tyres on lap 29, choosing the harder compound.

Vettel and then Webber pitted too, releasing Button into the lead, but Vettel got past on fresher tyres to regain the lead. McLaren had no option but to follow Red Bull's strategy and pull in Button for fresh tyres, which they did on lap 32 with 12 laps remaining.

Massa pitted for tyres on lap 30 but had to return three laps later with a puncture, dropping to 11th place as Webber set a new fastest lap of 1'49.883.

Schumacher, who started from last place on the grid after his wheel came off in qualifying, got past Sutil on lap 34 to take sixth place.

Second-placed Alonso was lapping slower and was being caught by both Webber (+0.9) and Button (+7.6) with seven laps remaining. Webber got good drive out of Raidillon and swept past the Ferrari down the back straight.

Button was wearing down the 2.6 sec gap between himself and third-placed Alonso at over a second a lap with four laps remaining, while further back, Schumacher was right on the tail of team mate Rosberg in fifth place.

Barrichello ran in to the back of Kobayashi under braking for the chicane, with carbon-fibre panels flying off the cars.

Button caught Alonso down the back straight and drove around the outside of the Ferrari to take third place. Schumacher made an identical move to pass Rosberg into fifth place.

2011 Formula 1 : Belgian Gran Prix - Race Result

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	44	1:26:44.893	1	25
2	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	44	+3.7 secs	3	18
3	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	44	+9.6 secs	13	15
4	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	44	+13.0 secs	8	12
5	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	44	+47.4 secs	24	10
6	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	44	+48.6 secs	5	8
7	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	44	+59.7 secs	15	6
8	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	44	+66.0 secs	4	4
9	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	44	+71.9 secs	10	2
10	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	44	+77.6 secs	21	1
11	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	44	+83.9 secs	17
12	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	44	+91.9 secs	12
13	9	Bruno Senna	Renault	44	+92.9 secs	7
14	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	43	+1 Lap	18
15	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	43	+1 Lap	16
16	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	43	+1 Lap	14
17	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	43	+1 Lap	20
18	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	43	+1 Lap	19
19	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	43	+1 Lap	22
Ret	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	27	Rear axle	9
Ret	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	13	Mechanical	23
Ret	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	12	Accident	2
Ret	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	6	Accident damage	11
Ret	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	0	Accident damage	6

2011 Formula 1 : Drivers' Championship Standing

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Sebastian Vettel	German	RBR-Renault	259
2	Mark Webber	Australian	RBR-Renault	167
3	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	157
4	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	149
5	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	146
6	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	74
7	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	56
8	Michael Schumacher	German	Mercedes	42
9	Vitaly Petrov	Russian	Renault	34
10	Nick Heidfeld	German	Renault	34
11	Kamui Kobayashi	Japanese	Sauber-Ferrari	27
12	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	24
13	Sebastien Buemi	Swiss	STR-Ferrari	12
14	Jaime Alguersuari	Spanish	STR-Ferrari	10
15	Sergio Perez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	8
16	Paul di Resta	British	Force India-Mercedes	8
17	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Williams-Cosworth	4
18	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Williams-Cosworth	1
19	Pedro de la Rosa	Spanish	Sauber-Ferrari	0
20	Jarno Trulli	Italian	Lotus-Renault	0
21	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italian	HRT-Cosworth	0
22	Bruno Senna	Brazilian	Renault	0
23	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Belgian	Virgin-Cosworth	0
24	Heikki Kovalainen	Finnish	Lotus-Renault	0
25	Timo Glock	German	Virgin-Cosworth	0
26	Narain Karthikeyan	Indian	HRT-Cosworth	0
27	Daniel Ricciardo	Australian	HRT-Cosworth	0
28	Karun Chandhok	Indian	Lotus-Renault	0

2011 Formula 1 : Teams' Championship Standing

Pos	Team	Points
1	RBR-Renault	426
2	McLaren-Mercedes	295
3	Ferrari	231
4	Mercedes	98
5	Renault	68
6	Sauber-Ferrari	35
7	Force India-Mercedes	32
8	STR-Ferrari	22
9	Williams-Cosworth	5
10	Lotus-Renault	0
11	HRT-Cosworth	0
12	Virgin-Cosworth	0

[Source : F1-Official, McLAREN, SUPERSPORT.ZA, CRASH.NET]