Jenson Button wins 2012 Belgian GP

Jenson Button (McLaren) led from start to finish to cap off a surprisingly dominant weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix. But it was a calamitous start which was the real story of the race.

The drama began when Romain Grosjean (Lotus) was defending a move from Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and in doing so the pair touched, sending Hamilton onto the grass and ultimately into the back of Grosjean. The two cars then went flying into the pack at La Source, the first corner hairpin, collecting Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and Sergio Perez (Sauber) on the way through.

Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) was also contacted quite heavily by Hamilton, but he somehow managed to finish the race; albeit in P13, well below the expectations generated by his front row start.

It really was total chaos for a brief moment and we’re thankful to report no drivers were hurt. Fernando Alonso was especially lucky to escape unharmed as Grosjean’s car flew over the front of the Ferrari’s nose, close to Alonso’s head.

A Safety Car period of around four laps followed and Button made a clean getaway from the restart and that was that. Indeed, so dominant was Button he was able to complete the race with only one pit stop, the gap back to P2 sufficient to ensure he was able to rejoin the race without surrendering his lead.

Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) drove well to work his way into P2 after starting from P10 and he came in for his first tyre stop on lap 21. The German was able to complete the race on those tyres to collect a well earned podium finish.

Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) promised a lot and while happy to finish the race in third place would have held higher ambitions.

After starting well down in P12, Australia’s Mark Webber (Red Bull) recovered well to collect the eight championship points offered for a sixth place finish. We’re not sure if a one-stop strategy was an option for him, but we saw from the first two drivers that it was the better option for the day.

With Alonso scoring no points the goal was to claim back as much of Fernando’s championship lead as possible. Mark managed to reclaim eight points back, but Vettel went better with 18 and in doing so leap frogged Webber into second place for the title hunt.

Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) was as high as fifth early on in the race but slipped back to finish in P9. That matches his best F1 finish achieved in Melbourne. Crucially for Daniel his teammate, Jean-Eric Vergne, was one place ahead in P8.

Race stewards have a few incidents to sign off on after the race, including a possible unsafe release from Webber’s second pit stop. There was no damage done as Felipe Massa (Ferrari) dived in for his stop, so let’s hope sanity prevails there and Mark’s result is unaffected.

A provisional finishing order can be seen below, along with updated championship tables. If the stewards intervene and upset the apple cart we’ll be sure to update the figures below.

2012 Belgian Grand Prix final placings*

1. Jenson Button (McLaren), 44 laps – 25pts
2. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), +13.6 secs – 18pts
3. Kimi Räikkönen (Lotus), +25.3 secs – 15pts
4. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India), +27.8 secs – 12pts
5. Felipe Massa (Ferrari), +29.8 secs – 10pts
6. Mark Webber (Red Bull), +31.2 secs – 8pts
7. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes AMG), +53.3 secs – 6pts
8. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso), +58.8 secs – 4pts
9. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), +62.9 secs – 2pts
10. Paul di Resta (Force India), +63.7 secs – 1pt
11. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG), +65.1 secs
12. Bruno Senna (Williams), +71.5 secs
13. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber), +1 Lap
14. Vitaly Petrov (Caterham), +1 Lap
15. Timo Glock (Marussia), +1 Lap
16. Charles Pic (Marussia), +1 Lap
17. Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham), +1 Lap
18. Pedro de la Rosa (HRT), +1 Lap

Not classified/retirements:

Narain Karthikeyan (HRT), Lap 29
Pastor Maldonado (Williams), Lap 4
Sergio Perez (Sauber), Lap 1
Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Lap 1
Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Lap 1
Romain Grosjean (Lotus), Lap 1

Fastest lap: Bruno Senna (Williams), 1:52:822 (Lap 43)

*Pending several post-race investigations from race stewards.

2012 World Championship top 10 (Drivers) – Round 12

1. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) – 164
2. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) – 140
3. Mark Webber (Red Bull) – 132
4. Kimi Räikkönen (Lotus) – 131
5. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) – 117
6. Jenson Button (McLaren) – 101
7. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG) – 77
8. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) – 76
9. Sergio Perez (Sauber) – 47
10. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes AMG) – 35

2012 World Championship (Constructors) – Round 12

1. Red Bull Racing-Renault – 272
2. McLaren-Mercedes – 218
3. Lotus-Renault – 207
4. Ferrari – 199
5. Mercedes AMG – 112
6. Sauber-Ferrari – 80
7. Force India-Mercedes – 59
8. Williams-Renault – 53
9. STR-Ferrari – 12