Vettel returns to victories in Spa

World champion Sebastian Vettel has extended his lead in the World Formula One Championship after he won today’s Belgian Grand Prix. The German returned to the victories since the European GP in Valencia.

Red Bull made a one-two finish as Webber finished ahead of a brilliant Jenson Button who recovered from a 13^th place in the grid to finish in the lower step of the podium. Different luck had his team-mate Lewis Hamilton who on lap 13 was involved in a crash with Kamui Kobayashi. Fernando Alonso fought for victory throughout the race but fell into fourth spot.

This year’s race was the stage of a complete chaotic start which saw Webber go down from second to eighth place while Nico Rosberg jumped into second place and quickly getting ahead of Vettel at Les Combes.

Vettel quickly answered and overtook Rosberg just three laps after, after triggering his DRS system at the Kemmel straight. But then the Red Bulls started to face problems with their tyres. Webber came in just three laps after and Vettel gave the lead back to Rosberg.

After passing Lewis Hamilton and his team-mate Felipe Massa it was time to Fernando Alonso take the lead in the Kemmel straitgh. In the next lap Hamilton would put Rosberg one place further down the order.

But the early trip to the boxes would come to the benefit of Red Bull. When the Ferrari and McLaren’s tyres lost their effectiveness and had to pit Vettel was already close to Rosberg and in an extraordinary move at Blanchimont he got back to the lead.

Hamilton’s race in Belgium would come to an end on lap 13 with a contact with Kamui Kobayashi’s tyres sent him into the barriers at Les Combes. With the safety car in Vettel used the opportunity to pit and change tyres yet again and although he lost the lead to Alonso he would yet again use DRS to take the lead over from the Spaniard.

After that no one could stop Sebastian Vettel to take his first win since the European Grand Prix. After his last change of tyres Alonso saw his face go down and he started losing places, finishing in fourth place behind Webber and Button. The latter had yet again another brilliant race. He started in hard tyres but during the middle of the race he just flew passing driver after driver.

Another superb effort came from seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who after starting in last place came in fifth, with the same tyre strategy as Button. His team-mate finished sixth ahead of Force India’s Adrian Sutil.

Thanks to a deflating tyre, Massa had to make an extra stop and fell into eighth position, while the top-ten was completed by Vitaly Petrov and Pastor Maldonado.