F1 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX: SPA SPECIALIST Kimi Raikkonen took his fourth Belgian Grand Prix victory yesterday as Jenson Button dodged a championship bullet when most of his main rivals failed to capitalise after the Briton was dumped out of the race in a lap-one accident.
Button, who had qualified a poor 13th on Saturday, was clipped from behind by Renault’s Romain Grosjean as the field turned into the Les Combes corner after the start, an incident which also saw McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton ruled out after he was hit by the Toro Rosso of rookie Jaime Alguersuari.
The accident should have been a major setback for the misfiring Button, who has scored just 11 points since his last win in Turkey, five races ago. But in a title fight no one seems willing to dominate, Button was left to watch and marvel from the pit wall as just one of his major rivals profited from his early exit.
Team-mate Rubens Barrichello should have been the man to gain most but the Brazilian had a disastrous start, failing to get away from his grid spot when the lights went out. That dropped the remaining Brawn car to 15th from where Barrichello had av serious fight on his hands to clamber back towards the points-scoring positions.
But after taking a first win in five years last weekend in Valencia, the Brazilian driver can see a championship tilt on the horizon and eventually scraped through to seventh and two points, though only just, an oil leak in the closing stages forcing him to nurse his smoking car through the final two laps as Williams’ Nico Rosberg honed in. In the end Barrichello made it to the finish though ended his afternoon with his car in flames in the pitlane.
“I dumped the clutch and the anti-stall comes in and the car is not moving,” said Barrichello of his start. “That’s disappointing, but you know if you think that I had 26 points behind Jenson two weeks ago, I’m 16 now. I should have had more points today though, but with all the problems that we had we’re still very lucky to finish seventh. When the engine began to go, I prayed with everything I know!”
Red Bull racing’s Mark Webber, third in the title standings before the start, should also have seized the opportunity, and initially the Australian looked like he would take the initiative, climbing to fourth place behind Raikkonen, who had stolen the lead from Giancarlo Fisichella after the safety car for Button had left the track on lap six, and third-placed Robert Kubica.
But in his first pit stop, BMW-Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld was quicker out of traps and was blasting towards the pit-lane exit just as Webber was released by his pit crew. The German was forced to brake hard and cede the place but the incident was quickly ruled an unsafe release by the race stewards and Webber was handed a drive through penalty, which left him 13th and in trouble. He eventually fought back to ninth but a second race in a row outside the points leaves Webber fourth in the post-Spa standings.
By now Button must have been thanking his lucky stars. The only threat remaining was Sebastian Vettel, who, before this race, was some 25 points behind the Englishman in the title standings.
Despite what he called an over-cautious first period of the race, Vettel blasted through his remaining stints to claim third, brushing by Robert Kubica in his second stop, setting the fastest lap of the race and closing to within four seconds of second-placed Fisichella in the closing laps.
“If you look at the championship it’s a very good result,” said Vettel. “I think it’s still open. This championship is a bit crazy, to be honest.
“Today we took six points out of Jenson, the championship leader. We lost the ground in the beginning but nevertheless it’s a very good result.”
With all the championship contenders suffering hardships, it was left to Spa specialist Raikkonen to grab the race by the scruff of the neck and after muscling past pole-winner Giancarlo Fisichella at the restart, Raikkonen powered to a largely untroubled fourth victory at the Ardennes circuit, despite being chased all the way by the Force India driver.
Fisichella was left with mixed emotions, thrilled at securing his team’s best ever result but convinced the victory could have been his.
“I’m a little bit sad for that because I was quicker than him,” he said. “He could overtake me just because of KERS at the restart after the safety car. I was keeping his pace and we did exactly the same strategy. It’s great, because I finished second just one second behind the leader, but actually we could have won the race.”
That chance may fall to him in two weeks’ time at the Italian GP. With Felipe Massa’s replacement Luca Badoer again finishing last, Fisichella has been hotly tipped to move from Force India to the second Ferrari. On the strength of his Belgian Grand Prix performance the switch won’t come soon enough for the fanatical tifosi who will turn out in force at Monza looking for a first Italian win at the circuit since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966.
