Raikkonen holds on at Spa

Kimi Raikkonen held off a strong challenge from Giancarlo Fisichella to win the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.

Fisi charge just falls short

Kimi Raikkonen maintained his fantastic record at Spa but he had hold off a spirited challenge from Giancarlo Fisichella to win the Belgian Grand Prix. The Finn claimed a long-awaited first win of the season and has now won four out of the past five races at the high-speed circuit. It was suggested that polesitter Fisichella would not be in contention for the victory but the Italian just came off second best in a race-long battle. Despite relinquishing the lead following a restart after a safety car period, the Force India driver hung on to the back of Raikkonen and even threatened to pass him at certain points. Championship leader Jenson Button retired after a collision on the first lap and Sebastian Vettel took advantage, finishing on the podium and reducing his deficit in the standings to 19 points. Robert Kubica secured his best finish of the year when he crossed the line in fourth with team-mate Nick Heidfeld behind him in fifth.

Flying Start

As the lights went out, the Brawn GP of Rubens Barrichello stalled from fourth position on the grid and had to sit and watch the field stream past him. Raikkonen, aided by KERS, made a flying start from sixth, going wide around the first hairpin but not losing any time and storming up to second place. However, chaos ensued in the midfield as Button was hit from behind by Romain Grosjean, spinning him out of the race. At the same corner, Jaime Alguersuari and Lewis Hamilton got together, resulting in a total of four cars beached in the gravel and debris spread across the track as the safety car took to the circuit. Jarno Trulli's hopes were scuppered when he touched the back of Raikkonen's Ferrari as the Finn came back onto the track after running off at Les Combes. When the safety car took to the pit-lane, Raikkonen once again used his KERS to good effect, slotting into the slipstream of Fisichella before easily passing him on the long straight Eau Rouge. The BMW of Robert Kubica had quietly moved up into third place during the first lap carnage and held onto the back of Fisichella before pitting on lap 12. Raikkonen and Fisichella unexpectedly came in together, as it had been thought that the Italian was running a lot lighter, and the Force India remained in second place.

Battle

Championship hopeful Mark Webber again failed to capitalise on Button's problems, suffering from a lack of pace and being given a drive-through penalty for almost causing a collision in the pits. During the second stint, Fisichella gradually drew closer to the back of the Ferrari before Raikkonen responded, the gap remaining constant at around one second. After his slow start, Barrichello made steady progress and had managed to put himself in contention for a points finish by half distance. One-stopping Fernando Alonso made a brief appearance at the head of the field behind the two leaders before a pit-stop problem ruined his chances. The two leaders once again came into the pits on the same lap for their second stop and the Ferrari mechanics made no mistake as Raikkonen held on to his lead and secured the win. Vettel was having a quiet day but kept up an impressive pace and temporarily took the lead until he made his second stop. The young German then emerged from the pit-lane in third position, having leap-frogged Kubica due to a string of flying laps on low fuel. Barrichello eventually ground out a seventh place finish, and reduced his gap in the points standings to 16 points. Belgian Grand Prix result:
1 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1hr 23mins 50.995secs, 2 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India 1:23:51.934, 3 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:23:54.870, 4 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:24:00.961, 5 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:24:02.271, 6 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren 1:24:23.758, 7 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Brawn GP 1:24:26.456, 8 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams 1:24:27.203, 9 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:24:27.954, 10 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 1:24:32.485, 11 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:24:33.631, 12 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:24:37.101, 13 Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams 1:24:45.236, 14 Luca Badoer (Ita) Ferrari 1:25:33.172
Not Classified: 15 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 26 Laps completed, 16 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 21 Laps completed, 17 Jenson Button (Gbr) Brawn GP 0 Laps completed, 18 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Renault 0 Laps completed, 19 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 0 Laps completed, 20 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 0 Laps completed Championship Standings:
Drivers: 1 Jenson Button (Gbr) Brawn GP 72pts, 2 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Brawn GP 56, 3 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 53, 4 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 51.5, 5 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 34, 6 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams 30.5, 7 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 27, 8 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 22.5, 9 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 22, 10 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren 17, 11 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 16, 12 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 16, 13 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 10, 14 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India 8, 15 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 8, 16 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 3, 17 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 2, 18 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 0, 19 Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams 0, 20 Nelson Piquet Jr (Bra) Renault 0, 21 Luca Badoer (Ita) Ferrari 0, 22 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 0, 23 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Renault 0
Manufacturers: 1 Brawn GP 128pts, 2 Red Bull 104.5, 3 Ferrari 56, 4 McLaren 44, 5 Toyota 38.5, 6 Williams 30.5, 7 BMW Sauber 18, 8 Renault 16, 9 Force India 8, 10 Scuderia Toro Rosso 5