Jenson Button turned in a dominating drive to win the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix Sunday, after a multi-car collision in the first turn sent several cars to the garages.
It was lights-to-flag for Button, who won his first pole with McLaren Sunday. That made all the difference as behind him, Lotus driver Romain Grosjean made a charging start, pushing past Lewis Hamilton and forcing the McLaren driver onto the grass on the right. Their wheels touched, and Grosjean launched over the nose of Alonso’s Ferrari, which Hamilton then hit from behind.
Kobayashi, who lined up second but blew the start, somehow avoided all the flying cars but punctured a tire on some debris and had to pit, wasting his excellent qualifying run.
Pastor Maldonado in the Williams-Renault made an amazing start, beating everybody off the line and nearly catching Button before the carnage erupted. That came to nothing as he hit Timo Glock on the restart and had to park.
While everything turned chaotic behind him, Button drove serenely into the distance, using his mastery of tire management to succeed with a one-stop strategy while still turning fast laps. The McLaren driver finished the race 13.6 seconds ahead of defending champion Sebastian Vettel. Vettel also made the one-stop strategy work, but his Red Bull was no match for the McLaren.
Kimi Raikönnen of Lotus took third, but only after Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes lost sixth gear. The seven-time world champion made up seven places by lap six and took second on lap 13, cutting through the field with masterful maneuvers. The Mercedes driver worked his way back into third after pitting, then lost top gear, which on a track as fast as Spa-Francorchamps was a death sentence for his podium hopes. He finally finished seventh.
“I’m sorry to all the fans if it wasn’t very exciting at the front!” Button commented in a McLaren press release.
“Turn One looked pretty crazy—in my mirrors, I could see cars all over the place. For me, it was all pretty straightforward though. Having said that, without having been able to gather long-run testing data from Friday, it initially looked like it was going to be a hard race to call. In fact, as things panned out, it was the opposite.
“It was unusual to be able to run a one-stop strategy. We got to lap 12 and the team asked me how the car was feeling; I told them that the balance was getting better and better, so we were able to get to lap 20 before pitting.
“We need to score big points in both world championships—and today was exactly what we required. I’m a massive team-player, and I fight for the team; I want us to win both world championships and, until I can’t mathematically fight for the drivers’ world championship, I won’t give up on it. I think I showed that today.”
Button’s win, coupled with the retirement of Alonso and Hamilton, completely changes the Drivers’ Championship picture.
The Ferrari driver stays at 164. Vettel moves from third to second, only 24 points back; Button advances to sixth, 63 points down but now a viable contender. Button’s teammate Lewis Hamilton falls to fifth, 44 points down while Raikönnen moves up to fourth, 33 behind.
Sunday’s outcome was terrible for Ferrari and half bad for McLaren, but it made the points race even more competitive.
Red Bull increases its prohibitive lead in Constructors’ points.
Formula One heads to another classic, high-speed track for its next race, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on September ninth. Tickets and travel packages are available through the Formula1.com website.
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