Chaos in his wake

McLaren’s Jenson Button won the Belgian Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday after a first corner pile-up ended the hopes of his teammate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Formula One leader Fernando Alonso, writes Alan Baldwin.

Button enjoyed an untroubled afternoon in the Spa sunshine, making just one stop and taking the chequered flag 13.6 seconds clear of Red Bull’s double world champion Sebastian Vettel, who won from pole last year.

Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 champion, took third place for Lotus to strengthen his title challenge in his comeback year with a fourth podium in five races.

Alonso, who started the race with a 40 point lead over Red Bull’s Australian Mark Webber, had hoped for a record-equalling 24th successive points finish but that dream was shattered in a cloud of carbon-fibre after a matter of metres.

His lead was slashed to 24 points, less than a race win, with Vettel rising to second overall. Webber dropped to third, 32 points adrift of Alonso. Raikkonen is one point behind in fourth.

The Spaniard could at least consider himself fortunate not to have been hit on the head by the flying Lotus of Frenchman Romain Grosjean, whose car took off after colliding with Hamilton and flew over the front of the Ferrari.

Grosjean was handed a one-race ban for causing the collision, which brought out the safety car, meaning he will miss next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Sauber’s Sergio Perez also retired on the spot in a miserable afternoon for his Swiss team after a Saturday qualifying session that had promised so much with both their cars in the top four.

Kamui Kobayashi, only the second Japanese driver to start from the front row, was also caught up in the first lap mayhem and went to the back of the field and finished 13th.

His brakes started smoking before the start, which was jumped by Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado – who was handed a 10 place penalty for Monza as a result and a later collision ended his race.

Button’s 14th career win, and first at the classic Spa circuit, came in his 50th race for McLaren, a team partly-owned by Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, and his satisfaction was evident as he posed for a team photograph with his father and girlfriend in ‘rocket red’ T-shirts.

“This circuit is such a special one to most drivers, the way it flows and the history, so to get a light to flag victory is very special,” said the 2009 champion after his second win of the season.

“It’s a massive long-shot to win the title but today proves that you can claw back 25 points very, very quickly,” added the Briton, now 16 points behind Hamilton and lagging Alonso by 63 with eight races remaining.

“If we can keep fighting for victories like this ... there’s still a small chance that I can really fight for that championship.”

Champions Red Bull edged a point further ahead in the constructors’ standings, with 272 points to McLaren’s 218.

Force India’s German Nico Hulkenberg came fourth, his team’s best result of the season, ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Webber.

Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher marked his 300th grand prix with seventh place for Mercedes after running as high as second at the circuit where he began his F1 career in 1991 and took his first win in 1992.

Toro Rosso pair Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo came eighth and ninth in a strong turnaround for the Italian team ahead of their home race at Monza next weekend.

The stewards were given plenty to ponder with a stack of incidents investigated after the race.

While Grosjean and Maldonado were punished heavily, and Caterham were fined 10,000 euros for the unsafe release of Heikki Kovalainen at a pitstop, Webber and Schumacher escaped sanction.

Schumacher had cut across Vettel sharply to get into the pit lane after the two had battled for fourth place with 20 of the 44 laps gone.

Vettel, who started 10th and only stopped once as he battled through the field, described the race as ‘crazy’. He said: “I’m not bothered in terms of points and gaps at the moment. There are a lot of races ahead and ... bloody hell, if you saw the first corner, you can see how quickly things can change. That’s racing.”

Team-by-team anaylsis

RED BULL
(Sebastian Vettel 2, Mark Webber 6) - Vettel moved ahead of Webber into second place overall. The double champion started 10th, while Webber qualified seventh but had a five place penalty for a gearbox change due to damage sustained at the previous race. Red Bull stretched their constructor’s lead by a point.

MCLAREN
(Jenson Button 1, Lewis Hamilton retired) - Button’s second win of the season and first since the Australian opener, it was also his first at Spa after his first pole in three years. He is now 63 points adrift of Ferrari’s Alonso but just 16 behind Hamilton, who crashed out at the first corner in a pile-up. McLaren have now won two races in a row.

LOTUS
(Kimi Raikkonen 3, Romain Grosjean retired) - Raikkonen’s third podium in a row and fourth in five races makes him a title contender even if he has yet to win this season. Grosjean caused the first lap crash and has been suspended for the Italian Grand Prix next weekend.

FERRARI
(Felipe Massa 5, Fernando Alonso retired) - Alonso’s run of 23 points scoring finishes came to an end. He was blameless in his first retirement for more than a year and is now just 24 points clear overall. Massa had one of his better afternoons.

MERCEDES
(Michael Schumacher 7, Nico Rosberg 11) - Schumacher celebrated his 300th grand prix with points but no podium, despite running as high as second. He used a two-stop strategy and drove the final laps with no sixth gear. Rosberg started 23rd after a grid penalty and gearbox problems in qualifying.

SAUBER
(Kamui Kobayashi 13, Sergio Perez retired) - Kobayashi became only the second Japanese driver to start a race from the front row but his brakes were smoking heavily before the lights went out. He made a poor getaway and was caught up in the first corner crash that ended Perez’s race. Kobayashi resumed in last place with a heavily damaged car.
 
FORCE INDIA
(Nico Hulkenberg 4, Paul di Resta 10) - Hulkenberg gave Force India their best result of the season, and the best of his career, and lifted them ahead of Williams. Di Resta had problems with his car before the start, which badly affected his race.

WILLIAMS
(Bruno Senna 12, Pastor Maldonado retired) - Senna took some consolation by clinching the race’s fastest lap. Maldonado jumped the start, then collided with Glock and retired. He was handed a 10 place grid penalty for Monza.

TORO ROSSO
(Jean-Eric Vergne 8, Daniel Ricciardo 9) - Toro Rosso returned to the points for the first time since Malaysia back in April. In one race, they also scored as many points as in the entire first half of the season.

CATERHAM
(Vitaly Petrov 14, Heikki Kovalainen 17) - Caterham were fined 10,000 euros for the unsafe pitlane release of Kovalainen.

MARUSSIA
(Timo Glock 15, Charles Pic 16) - Glock collided with Maldonado. Glock had one stop, Pic two.

HRT
(Pedro De la Rosa 18, Narain Karthikeyan retired) - De la Rosa came in for a new front wing after the first lap. Karthikeyan spun off on lap 32 with a suspension problem.