2010 Belgian Grand Prix - Lucky Lewis Survives Gravel Scare To Win Magical Spa Race

Lewis Hamilton produced the perfect response from his Hungary disappointment to win the Belgian Grand Prix today, on the daunting Spa-Francorchamps circuit.  The Brit regained the championship lead from Australian Mark Webber, surviving a trip into the gravel trap in changeable conditions with ten laps to go in the process.  Webber finished second, on a day when the three other major championship contenders, Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso all failed to score.

Having started 2^nd, Hamilton jumped into an instant lead, as Webber threw away his pole position with a shocking start, not helped by a dragging clutch.  Webber dropped back to sixth position, and was on his backfoot from the outset.  Whilst Hamilton sped into the distance, a brief shower on the opening lap caused chaos, as the drivers struggled on their slick tyres.  On his 300^th Grand Prix, Rubens Barrichello caught a damp patch and ran into the back of Alonso at the Bus Stop chicane, forcing Alonso into the pits for repairs and Rubens onto the sidelines.

Despite incurring some front wing damage, after a brush with Robert Kubica at La Source on the opening circuit, Jenson Button was looking strong to make it a McLaren 1-2, though struggling to match Hamilton’s blistering speed.  That was until Lap 16, when Sebastian Vettel hit a nasty bump at the Bus Stop, lost control and then drove into Button’s radiator.  The 2009 World Champion was an instant retirement, whilst Vettel pitted for a new front wing.  It was a ridiculous overtaking attempt from the rash German and quite rightly, he received a drive-through penalty for causing a collision.  Later, he made more contact, this time with Vitantonio Liuzzi at the same spot, which saw Sebastian limp around for a full lap with a left-rear puncture, finishing off any hope of points.

After gambling wrong on tyre choice early on, Alonso had a fairly lacklustre race and got frustrated more and more when he got stuck behind slower cars.  With six laps to go, the former double world champion ran wide onto the wet kerbs at Malmady, lost control and smashed into the tyres.  With shattered front suspension, Fernando was finished for this race.  Team-mate Felipe Massa produced an error-free race to wind up 4^th.

With ten laps to go, Hamilton locked up on the greasy surface at Rivage, went straight into the gravel and kissed the barrier.  Luckily, he survived this scare and got into the pits for the required intermediate tyres.  Webber had raced hard with Kubica, and grabbed 2^nd spot when the Pole got distracted by changing some settings on his steering wheel and overshot his pit box.  Nevertheless, it was another stunning performance from Kubica, who earned his third podium finish of the season. 

Adrian Sutil was an excellent fifth place for Force India, matching his best performance of the season, and he drove clean past both Mercedes during the race too.  Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher made the most of the inclement weather conditions to score 6^th and 7^th place finishes for Mercedes, despite some minor contact between the pair early on.  Kamur Kobayashi was a strong 8^th for Sauber, with the points rounded off by Vitaly Petrov in the second Renault, from the very back of the grid and the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguesuari.

With six races to go, there is bound to me many more twists and turns, but few of the remaining races will throw up the classic that Belgium did today.  However, Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber have stolen momentum and a march on the other contenders.  Button, Vettel and Alonso need to respond in clinical fashion in two weeks time at the fastest track on the calendar, Monza.