Spa is always a magical place and this year was no exception.
What a turnaround for Force India and Giancarlo fisichella!The team have worked so hard on perfecting their package that in Belgium they were the fastest car on the track, and only Raikkonen's KERS stopped one of the biggest underdog wins in Formula One.
As soon as the ferrari blasted past fisichella after the restart there was nothing Fisi could do,especially as their crucial second pit stops were made on the same lap.
Pre-race favourites Red Bull salvaged 6 points in their quest to hunt down Jensen Button at Brawn, with Vettel reaching the bottom step of the podium, he was the fastest man on the track towards the end of the race so one must wonder where the pace went for qualyfying and the early part of the race. Webber would have had a top 5 if it was not for a dodgy pit release infront of Nick Heidfeld in the rejuveanated BMW.
Lewis Hamilton, fresh on the back of two podiums, suffered for his poor grid slot by gettin involved in an accident that also claimed Grosjean, Algasuari and championship leader Button, who,like Hamilton,started down in the midfield. Grosjean in the renault got his braking for Les Combes all wrong and took out the Brawn, with the Torro Ross and Mclaren collecting each other in the process. Grossjean may be faster slightly than piquet, but hes a bit accident prone.
THe first DNF of Button's season may well be the kick up the backside he needs to restart his challenge to become formula one world championship, rather than another dull drive to the lower reaches of the points, it will give him time to reflect and regroup.
Toyota again had a day to forget, they have a bad habit of making promising grid positions go awry. Trulli got caught out by Heidfeld's sudden braking at the top of Les Combes, while Glock had a pitstop problem, Bahrain must feel like such a long time ago.
Williams salvaged one point at a track they expected to struggle at, they are also expecting to struggle even more so at Monza.
The final championship pretender, Barrichello, agian had problems at the start, but fought back well to claim 2 points which could be crucial come the end of the season.
Raikkonen has now obtained his season objective, to win a race, and has fittingly done it at the circuit where he is sheer genius. He must thank his KERS system today however, as Fisichella was easily faster than the Ferrari.
How interesting then that it seems the very car that stopped Fisichella winning this weekend is probably the same car he will be driving next time out at Monza, as Badoer again struggled to adapt to a 2009 car, it really was a tall order for the Italian and with such little knowledge of the car or regulation he did what was expected.
Button will be somewhat relieved that his championship lead is still a healthy 16 points, thankfully for the englishman, none of his closest rivals can appear to mount a consistend and sustained championship challenge.
1-Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1h23m50.995
2-Giancarlo Fisichella Force India + 0.939s
3-Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing + 3.875s
4-Robert Kubica BMW Sauber + 9.966s
5-Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber + 11.276s
6-Heikki Kovalainen McLaren Mercedes + 32.763s
7-Rubens Barrichello Brawn GP + 35.461s
8-Nico Rosberg Williams + 36.208s
9- Mark Webber Red Bull Racing + 36.959s
10-Timo Glock Toyota + 41.490s
11-Adrian Sutil Force India + 42.636s
12-Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 46.106s
13-Kazuki Nakajima Williams + 54.241s
14-Luca Badoer Ferrari + 102.177s
R-Fernando Alonso Renault + 18 laps
R-Jarno Trulli Toyota + 23 laps
R-Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes + 44 laps
R-Jenson Button Brawn GP + 44 laps
R-Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso + 44 laps
R-Romain Grosjean Renault + 44 laps
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