Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen has won the Belgian GP, ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa.
Italian marque clinches constructors' title with one-two at Spa
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen has given his world championship hopes a timely boost after taking a commanding victory in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
Starting from pole position, the Finn led home a Ferrari one-two after 44 laps of the Ardennes circuit, with team-mate Felipe Massa just under five seconds behind at the chequered flag.
In fact, the top four qualifying order remained static throughout, with world champion Fernando Alonso taking the final podium position ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
The result means that the English rookie's drivers' championship lead over Alonso now stands at just two points with three races remaining.
Raikkonen's victory sees him 13 points behind Hamilton and in with a much better chance of overhauling McLaren's drivers than Massa.
The Brazilian now stands 20 points behind Hamilton - a deficit that could only realistically be overcome by a streak of poor McLaren reliability hitherto unseen this season.
Nevertheless, after Thursday's FIA hearing saw McLaren thrown out of the constructors' championship, the result also guarantees Ferrari that particular title.
Processional
The most dramatic moment of a processional race - whose spectacular setting surely deserved more - came when Hamilton made a brave attempt to pass his team-mate on the opening lap.
Side-by-side heading into the La Source hairpin, Alonso pushed Hamilton wide at the corner's exit.
But the 22-year-old again challenged Alonso on the run down to Eau Rouge, with the latter only holding sway after the pair had entered the fearsome left-right-left sequence side-by-side at 190 mph.
Up front, Raikkonen was making it all seem rather easy and built a five-second lead over Massa ahead of his opening stop on lap 16.
Alonso stopped from third on the same lap, with Massa and Hamilton respectively pitting from second and fourth one lap later.
The fact that the race was Ferrari's to lose was reflected by the 11.8-second gap that existed between second-placed Massa and third-placed Alonso by lap 23.
Raikkonen had again built a comfortable lead over his team-mate and it was little surprise that when he, Massa and Alonso stopped once more on laps 32, 33 and 34 respectively, the order remained unchanged.
Race pace
The gap in race pace between the McLaren drivers was also fairly substantial - Hamilton's second stop came a full four laps after Alonso's, but even that supposed strategic advantage was not sufficient to move him ahead.
So, with the Ferrari-McLaren status quo firmly established, it was left to Nick Heidfeld to shuffle the order, the BMW Sauber driver vaulting ahead of Williams driver Nico Rosberg to take fifth.
Mark Webber finished seventh, an encouraging sign of reliability from Red Bull - albeit one tarnished by David Coulthard's retirement with a hydraulics failure on lap 32.
Heikki Kovalainen claimed the final championship point for Renault, the Finn one-stopping and fending off the second BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica at the chequered flag.
Meanwhile, Honda's Jenson Button also retired with a hydraulics failure on lap 37, with Super Aguri's Anthony Davidson finishing one lap down in 16th place.
Belgian Grand Prix, result: 1 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1hr 20mins 39.066secs, 2 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:20:43.761, 3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) McLaren 1:20:53.409, 4 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:21:02.681, 5 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:21:30.945, 6 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams 1:21:55.942, 7 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:21:59.701, 8 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Renault 1:22:04.172, 9 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:22:04.727, 10 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 1:22:07.640, 11 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:22:22.702, 12 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Scuderia Toro Rosso at 1 Lap, 13 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Honda at 1 Lap, 14 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Spyker at 1 Lap, 15 Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri at 1 Lap, 16 Anthony Davidson (Gbr) Super Aguri at 1 Lap, 17 Sakon Yamamoto (Jpn) Spyker at 1 Lap
Not Classified: 18 Jenson Button (Gbr) Honda 36 Laps completed, 19 Alexander Wurz (Aut) Williams 34 Laps completed, 20 David Coulthard (Gbr) Red Bull 29 Laps completed, 21 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Scuderia Toro Rosso 8 Laps completed, 22 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1 Lap completed
Fastest Lap: Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1min 48.036secs on Lap 34
World Championship Standings after Belgian Grand Prix:
Drivers: 1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 97pts, 2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) McLaren 95, 3 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 84, 4 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 77, 5 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 56, 6 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 33, 7 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Renault 22, 8 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 17, 9 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams 15, 10 Alexander Wurz (Aut) Williams 13, 11 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 10, 12 David Coulthard (Gbr) Red Bull 8, 13 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 7, 14 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 5, 15 Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri 4, 16 Jenson Button (Gbr) Honda 2, 17 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1
Manufacturers: 1 Ferrari 161pts, 2 BMW Sauber 90, 3 Renault 39, 4 Williams 28, 5 Red Bull 18, 6 Toyota 12, 7 Super Aguri 4, 8 Honda 2
