Vettel stars at Spa

World Champion Sebastian Vettel scored his seventh win of the season at the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.

World Champion extends his lead to 92 points after seventh win of 2011

World Champion Sebastian Vettel scored his seventh win of the season on Sunday when he led Mark Webber home in a Red Bull one-two finish at the Belgian Grand Prix. The German's latest victory has enabled him to open up a 92-point lead over Webber at the top of the standings. Yet it was hardly plain sailing for Vettel in a race which saw a multitude of lead changes. Jenson Button started 13th on the grid at Spa-Francorchamps and also headed the field briefly before settling for third place. McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton likewise hit the front but retired spectacularly on lap 13 after a collision with Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi. With seven races remaining, Button and Hamilton are respectively 110 and 113 points adrift of Vettel. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso is 102 points behind after finishing fourth. Mercedes GP's Michael Schumacher celebrated the 20th anniversary of his F1 debut by coming through the field from 24th and last on the grid to finish fifth ahead of his team-mate Nico Rosberg, who led at the end of lap one after making a storming start. Force India's Adrian Sutil finished seventh ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa, while Renault's Vitaly Petrov and Williams driver Pastor Maldonado finished ninth and 10th to edge Paul Di Resta just out of the points. After two days of changeable weather conditions, the threat of rain held off with Vettel making a clean getaway at the lights - unlike his team-mate. Not for the first time this season, Webber made a poor start from third on the grid while, directly behind him, Rosberg got a flyer. He made up three place heading into La Source and it got even better for the Mercedes driver when he passed Vettel for the lead along the Kemmel straight. From second on the grid Hamilton dropped to fourth, and although he claimed third almost immediately from Massa, he soon lost that again to the Brazilian on the straight. Early in lap two Hamilton then dropped to fifth after being passed by Alonso. There were a number of collisions at the first corner, the most notable seeing Bruno Senna - in his first race with Renault - running into the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari. The Spaniard, who had started a career-high sixth on the grid, then retired with severe damage to his front wing and front-left suspension midway through the first lap.

Worn rubber

It was understood that both Red Bulls were carrying severely worn rubber on their front tyres after qualifying, potentially necessitating early pit stops, whilst Hamilton was believed to have one front tyre with more wear than normal. With Webber and Button having made early stops - the latter dropping down to 19th having also been hit by Di Resta at the opening corner - Vettel was back in the lead after passing Rosberg on lap three, followed by Massa, Alonso and Hamilton. On lap five a breathtaking tussle unfolded, with Alonso first squeezing past Massa, swiftly followed by Hamilton, with the duo moving up to third and fourth. At the end of the lap Vettel's tyre problem, like that for team-mate Webber, came to fruition, as the German also made an early stop. That handed the lead back to Rosberg, but again that was shortlived as Alonso netted top spot by flying past the Mercedes down the Kemmel straight. Hamilton then passed Rosberg a lap later to take second, which became the lead at the end of lap eight as Alonso made a surprise early stop. Emerging on track in eighth place, Webber performed a daring pass on the double world champion, squeezing past on his left at the bottom of Eau Rouge. After also falling behind Sutil, Alonso then managed to take the German coming out of Eau Rouge on lap 10 before repassing Webber on the Kemmel straight. After 10 laps Hamilton relinquished his lead to Vettel, who seconds earlier had complained of blistering to his front tyres. That prompted McLaren to inform Hamilton over the radio of the situation, adding: "Remember what we had talked about. Take it easy please." After 12 laps Vettel led by 5.5 seconds from Alonso, followed by Webber, before Hamilton crashed out of the race on lap 13.

Attack

Having passed Kobayashi for fourth coming out of La Source, the Japanese then attacked the Briton down the Kemmel straight. As they approached the right-hander Les Combes at the end of the straight, Kobayashi's front-right tyre hit the rear-left on the McLaren. Hamilton ploughed nose first into a barrier and careered through a polystyrene advertising hoarding before rolling to a halt. After a few moments to compose himself, Hamilton emerged from the cockpit of his car, with debris in the area prompting the introduction of the safety car. Assessing the incident, Hamilton said: "I'm not really quite sure what happened. I hit the wall pretty hard. "As far as I was concerned I was ahead of whoever I was racing and then I was hit by them. "We were struggling, we were massively slow on the straights and I guess that's why we were in that position, although we might at least have got a podium." It also sparked a rash of pit stops, the outcome of which saw Alonso take the lead ahead of Webber, Vettel, Massa, Rosberg and Sutil. Schumacher had by that stage risen to ninth, with Button 11th and Di Resta in his Force India 13th. The safety car exited at the end of lap 16, and at the end of the Kemmel straight on lap 18 Vettel had moved from third to first. However, by lap 26 Button was the man on the move as he had powered his way past Petrov, Schumacher, Sutil, Massa and Rosberg to climb to fourth. At that stage Button found himself 16.4secs adrift of Vettel, who was 5.3secs ahead of Alonso and 8.2secs clear of Webber. With blistering tyres, Alonso was the first of the frontrunners to pit again at the end of lap 28, a move covered by Red Bull a lap later as they brought in Vettel. From seventh, eighth and ninth, Rosberg, Massa and Petrov also made further stops, with Webber pitting on the following lap.

Picked off

Button then led, but only for about a kilometre before being easily picked off by Vettel down the Kemmel straight, resulting in him taking on a fresh set of softs at the lap 31. With 10 laps remaining, Vettel led by seven seconds to Alonso, with Webber a further 2.5secs down and Button another 6.6secs behind. Webber soon passed Alonso, while Button also eased past on lap 42 to claim the final podium place. Vettel was 3.7secs ahead of his team-mate at the chequered flag, with the pair's one-two finish their 10th in all. "We had some tyre concerns beforehand, and both of us (referring to Webber) stopped early in the race," Vettel said in the post-race press conference. "But surprisingly the pace was good, I was able to reclaim the lead (after losing it early to Rosberg), and after the safety car it was more about management than usual. "The car worked brilliantly, so I'm very happy with the result, in particular with how we managed the tyres."

Shocking

Webber described his start as "shocking". "That was very disappointing, and we were on the backfoot from there," added the Australian, who celebrated his 35th birthday on Saturday. "But all in all, the way the teams handled the problems is a credit to everyone. In the end we got a good result. "I would loved to have won, but it was still an enjoyable race." In the middle of the pack, Button described turn one at La Source as "mayhem", adding: "Di Resta hit my rear wing so I lost the rear-wing endplate. "Then driving through Eau Rouge somebody's front wing came off and hit mine, and it also knocked off a wing mirror. "After that I had a good race, so overall a podium is pleasing, but to see a Red Bull one-two is very disappointing. "The balance of the car here was phenomenal because it felt like we had improved from Hungary (where he won). "Who knows what would have happened if we had qualified well, but we've only come away with 15 points, so we have to make sure we change that at the next race."Result
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1hr 26mins 44.893secs, 2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:26:48.634, 3 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:26:54.562, 4 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:26:58.115, 5 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:27:32.357, 6 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:27:33.567, 7 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:27:44.606, 8 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:27:50.969, 9 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 1:27:56.810, 10 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:28:02.508, 11 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:28:08.887, 12 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 1:28:16.869, 13 Bruno Senna (Bra) Renault 1:28:17.878, 14 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus F1 at 1 Lap, 15 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus F1 at 1 Lap, 16 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams at 1 Lap, 17 Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin Racing at 1 Lap, 18 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing at 1 Lap, 19 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) HRT-F1 at 1 Lap Not Classified: 20 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 27 Laps completed, 21 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) HRT-F1 13 Laps completed, 22 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 12 Laps completed, 23 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 6 Laps completed, 24 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 0 Laps completed
Drivers' Championship: 1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 259pts, 2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 167, 3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 157, 4 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 149, 5 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 146, 6 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 74, 7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 56, 8 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 42, 9 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 34, 10 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Renault 34, 11 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 27, 12 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 24, 13 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 12, 14 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 10, 15 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 8, 16 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 8, 17 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams 4, 18 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1, 19 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) Sauber-Ferrari 0, 20 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus F1 0, 21 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) HRT-F1 0, 22 Bruno Senna (Bra) Renault 0, 23 Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin Racing 0, 24 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus F1 0, 25 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing 0, 26 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1 0, 27 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) HRT-F1 0, 28 Karun Chandhok (Ind) Lotus F1 0
Constructors' Championship 1 Red Bull 426pts, 2 McLaren 295, 3 Ferrari 231, 4 Mercedes GP 98, 5 Renault 68, 6 Sauber-Ferrari 35, 7 Force India 32, 8 Scuderia Toro Rosso 22, 9 Williams 5, 10 Lotus F1 0, 11 HRT-F1 0, 12 Virgin Racing 0