The Belgian Grand Prix usually brings a surprise or two and this year the Spa Francorchamps circuit produces its usual exciting and entertaining Grand Prix. Through it call came Kimi Raikkonen to claim his sixth win of the season and keep his slim championship hopes alive as Fernando Alonso drove steady but error free race to finish in second position ahead of the charging Jenson Button in his BAR Honda.
The battle for the race win was not just an all-McLaren Mercedes affair, although both Juan Pablo Montoya and Raikkonen did lead through out, but the duo came under pressure from a number of drivers throughout the 44-lap race before their competition eliminated themselves from the front running positions.
Heavy rain this morning at Spa Francorchamps left the circuit wet for the start of the race and it was not until the final ten laps that circuit had dried sufficiently for the dry weather grooved tyres to become a viable option. This did not stop people from gambling from the mid-race point with dry tyres.
Raikkonen had to fight hard for the win as team-mate Montoya led away at the start of the race with Raikkonen tucking in behind. There was no gift of position from the Colombian driver and it was not until the second round of stops that Raikkonen was able to take advantage of a clear track and put in some blistering laps in tricky conditions to make the pass stick following his second stop.
Montoya looked all set for second position as he backed off dramatically once the lead was gone. Once again a late race incident would end his hopes of the runner up position as birthday boy Antonio Pizzonia and the McLaren driver made heavy contact in the final stage of the race, eliminating both from the race in one move. Pizzonia has just pitted for dry Michelin’s and Montoya was clearly cruising to second before Pizzonia hit the back of Montoya.
As in Turkey, this handed Alonso second position on a plate and he gratefully took the eight points as Montoya stood and watched. Button was pushing hard in the final stages of the race but could not quite catch Alonso for the runner up position.
"If Fernando keeps finishing behind us it is not possible to catch him any more, but we will do everything we can as a team to keep fighting and we were very unlucky today," said Raikkonen. "We had a perfect race and it was unfortunate for the team what happened in the last few laps because we could have had a one-two and we deserved it. I was happy with the car but we deserved to have both cars on the podium."
Mark Webber drove a fine race for BMW Williams to finish in fourth position. He was one of many drivers to gamble and switch to dry tyres mid-race when the safety car was deployed as Giancarlo Fisichella binned his Renault at Eau Rouge. The gamble did not work for Webber and the others and one lap later they were all back in for intermediate tyres. Still, Webber did not put a foot wrong and the fourth place was very well deserved for the hard working BMW Williams team.
Rubens Barrichello struggled in the early stages of the race, running as low as 15th but was able to work his way back up the order to finish in fifth position for Ferrari. Team-mate Michael Schumacher was running well and could well have finished on the podium in his F2005 were it not for Takuma Sato ramming into the back of him following the safety car period. Schumacher was not amused and Sato did his career no good at all again today at Spa.
Jacques Villeneuve struggled in qualifying on Saturday as he had a very heavy fuel load on. Stopping just once for fuel the former Champion drove a very impressive race to finish in sixth position for Sauber Petronas.
Over at Toyota the win was there for the taking and the team gambled and it did not pay off. Jarno Trulli ran third early on in the race before putting on dry tyres too early and dropping out of contention while Ralf Schumacher was pressuring Montoya for the lead when he pitted too early for dry tyres. Schumacher would battle back to finish in seventh position right behind Villeneuve, but he could have and probably should have won the Belgian Grand Prix. Team-mate Trulli would crash out with ten laps remaining.
Tiago Monteiro, perhaps the most under-rated driver of the season, picked up the final point for Jordan Toyota after a solid and error free drive from the back row of the grid. Christian Klien would finish in ninth for Red Bull Cosworth ahead of Felipe Massa who gambled on dry tyres and was just tenth in the second Sauber Petronas.
Narain Karthikeyan finished the race in 11th in the second Jordan Toyota after a rather frightening battle with Villeneuve earlier in the race. Karthikeyan is nothing if not aggressive, but sometimes aggression is not the only key to a race. Once again team-mate Monteiro made the best of the situation and out-raced Karthikeyan.
It was a poor showing from Minardi Cosworth in race conditions following their impressive qualifying disply on Saturday. Christijan Albers would finish in 12th position ahead of Doornbos who was the final runner at the chequered flag in 13th.
David Coulthard’s race ended with a rare Cosworth engine failure, while Sato eliminated himself and Michael Schumacher from the race. Giancarlo Fisichella was the final non-finisher as he lost the back end of his Renault heading into Eau Rouge and hit the retaining tyres on the right hand side of the circuit very hard indeed.
The Formula One Circus now packs up and heads to Interlagos for the Brazilian Grand Prix in two weeks time where Fernando Alonso could very well be crowned World Champion no matter how hard Raikkonen pushes for the win.