Two BIG winners, three BIG losers and the curious case of Felipe Massa's starting position...
Star of the Race
Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 1st
There wasn't an error-free drive at Spa Francorchamps (not surprisingly, given the conditions) - Lewis had some gravelly fun at Rivage, Webbo bogged his start, Robert Kubica wanted his tyres changed in the next-door garage, Massa couldn't work out where his grid slot was, Sutil gave up an easy place to Webber on the opening lap, Vettel regressed to Formula Ford, Button missed his braking point at the final chicane etc etc.
But all things considered Hamilton did well to hold it all together on an afternoon when two Safety Cars and two bouts of rain were thrown at him. As Martin Brundle said in the BBC race commentary, in rapidly changing conditions it's always hardest being the first car on the scene...because you get to miss your braking point first.
The start of the race was a gift from Mark Webber and from that point on Lewis never gave up the lead.
Overtaking Move of the Race
Lap 11, Vitaly Petrov on Nico Rosberg for P9
Petrov had a torrid time of it after making a mistake in qualifying and ending Q1 ignominiously in the barriers. So it was good to see him confident enough to start flexing his muscles on the track. It's not easy passing anyone on the outside of Les Combes but Petrov held his nerve against a driver who's not easy to overtake. When they ran through the first part of the turn Vitaly's eyes must have been out on stalks...
WINNERS
Mark Webber, Red Bull, 2nd
What can you do with "bloody kids"? Well, you can set them loose on your Championship rivals for a start. Mark didn't have to work too hard after his team-mate cleared a path for him by detonating his car against Jenson Button, then driving like someone on a track experience day.
Everything got better after La Source on Lap 1. Sutil handed him sixth place, Vettel took Button out, he got himself past Massa and then Kubica opened the door for P2 late in the race.
The fact that he's pretty handy in wet conditions - as we witnessed at the race at Mount Fuji which spawned the much-loved phrase - also helped.
Robert Kubica, Renault, 3rd
It would be very interesting to see the in-car footage from Sebastian Vettel as he came up the hill from Eau Rouge on the second lap. Robert Kubica's move across the track was potentially more dangerous than Michael Schumacher's squeeze on Rubens Barrichello in Hungary. Exiting Eau Rouge on the tarmac run-off, Kubica rejoined the track up the hill and moved right over on the Red Bull of Vettel. Sebastian had to take to the grass at speed and if there were any major award for a single act of car control then it was Vettel managing to keep his car straight on wet grass at speeds of over 180 mph. This must have been what the stewards were investigating because it was a moment as heart-stopping as Mark Webber's unexpected flight in Valencia.
Apart from this and his late race pit-stop bungle, Kubica drove another great race, making maximum use of his Renault F-duct and once again demonstrating how he is driving the team forward, unlike the previous occupant of his race seat.
Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 4th
After a frantic GP with lots of on-track incident, cars spinning out of control, cars sliding into the gravel, slamming into each other, ripping off each others' front wings etc the footage I'd like to see is very mild in comparison. I'd like to see how Felipe Massa lined up for the grid. What could possibly have distracted him enough to put his car two metres beyond its correct slot? Or were the commentators mistaken when they said he was that far out?
Massa's career in F1 has stretched from a debut with Sauber in 2002; he has started 127 races, yet I don't remember him starting from outside of his gridbox before. The problem was that he'd qualified quite a bit in front of Fernando Alonso and there was rain in the air. Ferrari obviously couldn't be seen to be favouring Alonso in a very obvious way, so what better way to switch them round than to get Massa to make a mistake that would attract a penalty right from the start...? On a wet day, with rain imminent, the guy who came in second would probably drop back further because he'd be overtaken by slower midfield cars who were behind him, but the first of their team to have their tyres changed.
And with rain actually predicted for eight minutes after the start time of 2.00pm this scenario was a likelihood not a possibility. Or am I just being a great big cynical Hector?
As it was, Fernando was doing slightly better than most to negotiate Turn 19 when Rubens Barrichello decided to test the robustness of his chassis and anyway, the stewards turned a blind eye to Felipe's poor parking. But I'd still like to have seen the way Massa lined up his car.
Adrian Sutil, Force India, 5th
There was so much going on in the race that we hardly saw much of Adrian Sutil's Force India, though he was never that far away from Felipe Massa. Having had several shades knocked out of the car in previous races and still brought it home, you could probably have relied him to be there or thereabouts at the finish. As the first car to opt for Inters when Hamilton, Kubica, Webber and Massa chose to opt for one more lap on slicks he could have lucked into the result of his career had the Belgian rain come on just a little stronger. But didn't.
Rosberg versus Schumacher - Mercedes buddies
Nico came 6th, Michael came 7th but they were both so nearly out of the points courtesy of the younger driver. Schumacher had a pretty exemplary race, picking up careful places on the opening lap and running faster than his team-mate in the opening stages.
When he clipped Rosberg's endplate at the tail-end of the Petrov overtaking move, it was unfortunate, but more down to Rosberg leaving the door wide open. Had Nico accepted that Petrov was past him he wouldn't have lost two places.
Later in the race, Michael should probably have been looking in his mirrors a bit more at the restart, but he was quite fair as Rosberg came into Les Combes alongside him. What Rosberg did next was stupid because he obliged Schumi to get out the way by cutting in front of him and obliging Michael to clamber over the kerbs to avoid a collision. It was the kind of move that cars from rival teams put on each other, it wasn't the kind of move that team-mates attempt because it was too close to a double DNF.
Asked about it afterwards Michael took a slight pause before saying "I think we had two tight manoeuvres, that's racing, that's good." I can't see that Ross Brawn would have seen it quite as calmly.
Nigel Mansell, Race Steward and Former Special Constable
Great to see the effect that Nigel Mansell had on the drivers' approach to Lap 1 in Spa. The former Isle of Man special constable had told drivers at the briefing that if they took to the La Source run-off tarmac and gained a place then they'd be penalised. Only a Virgin car wandered out there at the start and was losing places at the time, not gaining them.
Had Nigel been around last year then it would have been a Giancarlo Fisichella victory for Force India, because Kimi Raikkonen took that route to make up places at the start.
Rain
Curious to think that what is pain and misery and abandonment to oval racers in the States is joy to the spectators of F1. Let's hear it for rain.
LOSERS
Rubens Barrichello, Williams, DNF
It's good that Rubens is still in one piece after Hungary to be able to compete in 300 GPs and come clanging into the entirely innocent Fernando Alonso. It's doubly a shame because Rubens is usually so good in the wet.
Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, DNF
It won't be any comfort to Fernando Alonso to know that had he just cut the chicane at Turn 19 and not tried manfully to follow the racing line, that Barrichello wouldn't have hit him. After that he got one lucky break when the Safety Car closed everyone up and allowed him to undo the error of his tyre stop for Intermediates. The mistake that ultimately robbed him of what might have been 6th or 7th place was a curious one, but yet another in what his critics maintain is an unhealthy catalogue of errors this season.
Sebastian Vettel
Even though he was involved in three separate stewards deliberations, Sebastian was the innocent party in two of them. The one he was responsible for was dire enough. To think that he could jink from the inside to the outside of Button going into the final chicane was optimism akin to someone new to single-seaters. You might be able to do that on the PlayStation simulator when it's set on Easy mode but not in a real-life grand prix. It's another example of Vettel throwing it away when he gets involved in close hand-to-hand scrapping down the field. Button, Alonso, Hamilton and Raikkonen can do it, but Webber, Massa and Vettel aren't so good, and Vettel is the worst.
However, as mentioned earlier, his ability to drive on the grass at speed is nothing short of miraculous. It's a pity for him that overtaking on the grass is deemed off the circuit.
Later in the race, when he'd managed to trash a set of wet tyres you began to feel sorry for him when he grumpily reported on race radio: "It's not that wet!" and his engineer reported that cars on Intermediates were spinning off and you knew full well that the cars that were spinning off because they put wheels on the kerb.
On a slightly unkind note, people keep saying that even if Mark Webber wins the World Championship this year, Sebastian Vettel's time will come. Based on this kind of performance that might be a bit optimistic.
Jenson Button
Quite clearly Jenson did nothing wrong other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bloody kids.
Christian - Pinocchio - Horner
It's increasingly difficult to believe anything Christian Horner says. He's been maintaining for some time that the Renault engine has a power imbalance, yet at a power circuit it wasn't just the aerodynamically slippery Red Bulls that were at the front. Robert Kubica qualified third on the grid in the dry and was never seriously dropped in the race. Up until Lewis Hamilton's late surge in Q3 it was Renault engines in the first three places.
And after the accident in which Vettel emulated his Turkish GP slam into Mark Webber, Horner had the front to suggest that Button had braked early for the chicane. As if anybody's going to brake early when they're under pressure of being overtaken from a car behind. How stupid does he think the viewing public is...?
Token Eddie Jordan/James Joyce quote:
"Before we castigate aspersions about the dry ice..."
