Vettel wins in Belgium

Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull has won the Belgian Grand Prix.

Mark Webber (Red Bull) was second and McLaren’s Jenson Button was third.

Nico Rosberg remarkably led at the end of the first lap of today’s race.

From fifth on the grid, the German had made up three place heading into the opening La Source hairpin before the Mercedes blitzed its way past the Red Bull of reigning champion Sebastian Vettel along the Kemmel straight.

From second on the grid Lewis Hamilton dropped to fourth, and although the McLaren star claimed third almost immediately from the Ferrari of Felipe Massa, he soon lost that again to the Brazilian on the straight.

Early in lap two Hamilton then dropped to fifth after being passed by Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari.

There were a number of collisions at the first corner, the most notable seeing Bruno Senna – in his first race with Renault – running into the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari.

The Spaniard, who had started a career-high sixth on the grid, then retired with severe damage to his front wing and front-left suspension midway through the first lap.

The 44-lap race began in dry conditions and with the expectation it would primarily remain so for an hour or more, in contrast to the previous two days as rain had blighted practice and qualifying.

Yesterday’s conditions, however, had thrown up a tyre issue, with the first two qualifying periods mainly wet and the top-10 shoot-out dry.

It was understood both Red Bulls were carrying severely worn rubber on their fronts, potentially necessitating early pit stops, whilst Hamilton was believed to have one front tyre with more wear than normal.

After four laps, and with Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Jenson Button in his McLaren having made early pit stops, Vettel was back in the lead after passing Rosberg on lap three, followed by Massa, Alonso and Hamilton.

On lap five a breathtaking tussle unfolded, with Alonso first squeezing past Massa, swiftly followed by Hamilton, with the duo moving up to third and fourth.

At the end of the lap Vettel’s tyre problem, like that for team-mate Webber, came to fruition, as the German also made an early stop.

That handed the lead back to Rosberg, but again that was shortlived as Alonso netted top spot by flying past Rosberg down the Kemmel straight.

Hamilton then followed suit on Rosberg a lap later to take second, which became the lead at the end of lap eight as Alonso made a surprise early stop.

Emerging on track in eighth place, Webber performed a daring pass on the double world champion, squeezing past on his left at the bottom of Eau Rouge.

After also falling behind the Force India of Adrian Sutil, Alonso then managed to take the German coming out of Eau Rouge on lap 10 before pulling out a move on Webber on the Kemmel straight.

After 10 laps Hamilton relinquished his lead to Vettel, who seconds earlier had complained of blistering already to his front tyres.

That prompted McLaren to inform Hamilton over the radio of the situation, adding: “Remember what we had talked about. Take it easy please.”

After 12 laps Vettel led by 5.5 seconds from Alonso, followed by Webber, before Hamilton then crashed out of the race on lap 13.

Having passed the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi for fourth coming out of La Source, the Japanese then attacked the Briton down Kemmel.

As they approached the right-hander Les Combes at the end of the straight, Kobayashi’s front-right tyre hit the rear-left on the McLaren.

Hamilton ploughed nose first into a barrier, careered through a polystyrene advertising hoarding before continuing to a halt.

After a few moments to compose himself, Hamilton emerged from the cockpit of his car, with the accident prompting a safety car because of the amount of debris.

It also sparked a wave of pit stops, the outcome of which saw Alonso take the lead ahead of Webber, Vettel, Massa, Rosberg and Sutil.

Michael Schumacher, who had started at the back of the grid, had risen to ninth, with Button 11th and Paul di Resta in his Force India 13th.

The safety car exited at the end of lap 16, and at the end of the Kemmel straight on lap 18 Vettel had moved from third to first.

Come the end of lap 26 it was Button who was the man on the move as he had powered his way past Petrov, Schumacher, Sutil, Massa and Rosberg to climb to fourth.

At that stage Button found himself 16.4secs adrift of Vettel, who was 5.3secs ahead of Alonso and 8.2secs clear of Webber.

With blistering tyres, Alonso was the first of the frontrunners to pit again for fresh rubber at the end of lap 28, a move covered by Red Bull a lap later as they brought in Vettel.

From seventh, eighth and ninth, Rosberg, Massa and Petrov also made further stops, with Webber pitting on the following lap.

For all of a kilometre Button then led the race before being easily picked off by Vettel down the Kemmel straight, resulting in him taking on a fresh set of softs at the lap 31.

With 10 laps remaining Vettel led by seven seconds to Alonso, with Webber a further 2.5secs down and Button another 6.6secs behind.

Webber soon made his way past Alonso, while Button eased past on lap 42 to claim a podium place from 13th on the grid.

Up ahead, however, Vettel made it seven wins from 12 races this year to strengthen his grip on claiming back-to-back titles by opening up a 92-point cushion over Webber who finished second.

Vettel is in such a commanding position he has now scored more points this season – 259 – than he did in winning the title last year with 256.

With 175 points up for grabs, Alonso is now 102 behind, with Button 110 adrift and Hamilton 113.

Behind the leading quartet Schumacher claimed a stunning fifth place to appropriately mark the 20th anniversary of his F1 debut, with team-mate Rosberg sixth, followed by Sutil, Petrov and Massa.

Williams’ Pastor Maldonado grabbed 10th to net his first point of the season, finishing just ahead of Di Resta.