Lewis Hamilton took a fine victory for McLaren, dominating the Belgian Grand Prix from start to finish. Hamilton capitalised on a poor start from pole man, Mark Webber at the Spa-Francorchamps track. Webber's Red Bull went into anti-stall mode when the red lights went out, and Hamilton, Robert Kubica, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button were all able to make their way past him.
And then came the rain, early on in the race, causing plenty of slips and slides at the Bus Stop chicane. Race leader Hamilton ran wide, so did several of the other front runners. Rubens Barrichello had a tangle with Fernando Alonso, as a result of which he had a premature end to his 300th grand prix. Alonso, however, was able to continue his race.
More clashes ensued, when Vettel's attempts to get past Button led to contact between the two. Vettel tried to go down the inside at the Bus Stop, hit a bump, and then ran into the left side pod on Button's McLaren MP4-25. While Vettel was able to make it to the pits and get a new front nose, Button was out of the race. Vettel was handed a drive-through penalty later on, for causing an avoidable accident.
After serving his penalty, Vettel found himself out behind the Force India of Vitantonio Liuzzi, which came off better than the Red Bull. Five laps later, Liuzzi's team-mate, Adrian Sutil stormed past Michael Schumacher. But Vettel's troubled race was still not over. He managed to clip Liuzzi's front wing with his left rear tyre, puncturing the tyre, and eventually finishing a lap down, without any points.
Michael Schumacher managed to finish seventh, having been passed by his team-mate Nico Rosberg who took sixth place for Mercedes. Vitaly Petrov finished ninth with Jaime Alguersuari in tenth.
Up ahead, Mark Webber managed to take second place, ahead of Robert Kubica, after the latter had an unfortunate pitlane incident. Lewis Hamilton was the man on the top step of the podium, though, and is also at the head of the championship standings.
Championship standings after Belgian Grand Prix
1 Lewis Hamilton British McLaren-Mercedes 182
2 Mark Webber Australian RBR-Renault 179
3 Sebastian Vettel German RBR-Renault 151
4 Jenson Button British McLaren-Mercedes 147
5 Fernando Alonso Spanish Ferrari 141
6 Felipe Massa Brazilian Ferrari 109
7 Robert Kubica Polish Renault 104
8 Nico Rosberg German Mercedes GP 102
9 Adrian Sutil German Force India-Mercedes 45
10 Michael Schumacher German Mercedes GP 44
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