Firstly my apologies for my poor and lack of coverage for this weekends Belgian GP. Being bank holiday here in the UK and myself being in a tourism lead job meant I missed most of qualifying myself and had little time to update the blog.
Spa provided us with a rain free race day this year, however the drama was to be caused by the events on track and not the weather. Rubens starting in 4th but with the lightest car on the grid really needed to get a good launch into turn 1. Jenson on the other hand down in 14th needed a good launch and plenty of luck to not get collected into turn 1. Unfortunately Rubens found his car in anti stall once again after dumping the clutch to get away off the line, leaving him last on the grid.
Rubens commenting on the situation:
"Third time that we have that and I feel sorry really, it shouldn't happen," Barrichello told the BBC. "But honestly I haven't checked what happened but it was pretty much the same thing as the last races that I had [the slow start].
"I dumped the clutch and the anti-stall comes in and the car is not moving."
Jenson however had a stellar start and managed to eek his way into 8th by the 1st turn. However he wasn't prepared for what was about to come at Les Combes, Romain Grosjean punted Jenson from behind putting him into a spin which was also a catalyst for the dimise of Lewis Hamilton and Jaimie Alguersuari's departure from the race.
Jenson had the following to say about the incident and the race weekend:
"It can always be worse," Button said. "Also it could have been a lot better. Rubens got a bad start, had a problem and I was up in 12th or 11th, and it could have been a good race for me until I got hit at turn five."
He added: "After the accident now it's a relief, but having Rubens behind at the start was a good position to be in, and just behind the Red Bulls as well. So it was very disappointing when I actually crashed, but then to watch the race after...
"Rubens obviously got a couple of points, then Red Bull made a mistake in the pit stop and he wasn't able to score any points, which is good for the championship.
"This is a race we expected the Red Bulls to easily win, so it shows that a lot of teams are strong now.
"And when your weekend doesn't go perfectly, like it didn't for the Red Bulls because they had a bad position after qualifying, it's very difficult to win from that far back."
The Briton made contact with Renault's Romain Grosjean on the first lap, and the Frenchman said Button had taken him out of the race.
But the Brawn driver saw things differently.
"I can't believe he's blaming me. He hit me, but to be fair I don't really care. It's not really important. I didn't score any points, and that's what's important."
The four car incident prompted the release of the safety car whilst the cars and debris were removed from the track. Rubens used this as a a window of opportunity to adjust his strategy as whilst down in last place he could catch up to the back of the pack with more fuel and a fresh set of tyres. Rubens then proceeded to provide in my opinion a Spa masterclass using the BGP001 to full effect with some stellar laps and fantastic overtakes. I wonder if he had only lost a few places on the grid and remained on strategy how this fantastic driving would have panned out in the race. Rubens continued to push to the last with only an oil leak at the end of the race causing a smoke plume to follow him for the last 2 laps. Prior to this he had been hounding down Heikki and I believe would have passed the McLaren driver had he not had to turn it down to make it to the end of the race.
Sebastian Vettel was the only Red Bull Racing driver to score points at Spa so the constructors and drivers championship was not adjusted greatly. This is great news for both Brawn GP and Jenson Button, although I do feel that the way Rubens drove at Spa his championship points haul deserved a little more boost.
PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS
The Belgian Grand Prix
Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium;
44 laps; 308.052km;
Weather: Sunny.
Classified:
Pos Driver Time
1. Raikkonen 1h23:50.995
2. Fisichella + 0.939
3. Vettel + 3.875
4. Kubica + 9.966
5. Heidfeld + 11.276
6. Kovalainen + 32.763
7. Barrichello + 35.461
8. Rosberg + 36.208
9. Webber + 36.959
10. Glock + 41.490
11. Sutil + 42.636
12. Buemi + 46.106
13. Nakajima + 54.241
14. Badoer + 1:38.177
Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:47.263
Not classified/retirements:
Driver Team On lap
Alonso Renault (B) 27
Trulli Toyota (B) 22
Button Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1
Grosjean Renault (B) 1
Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1
Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1
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