It was Ferrari by a KERS

Ferrari did in fact win the race though it might be hard to tell with all the excitement about Giancarlo Fisichella's great second place.

In fact both Fisichella and Raikkonen drove great races at Spa, neither making any mistakes. Fisichella was simply "in the zone" the whole week end, his team mate Sutil was nowhere so it was not simply the case of the team bolting on a trick new aero bit.

Raikkonen used KERS to perfection and made no errors, enough to just stay ahead to the end. You will inevitably read about how "he did not deserve the win because he cheated on the first lap....yada yada". Rational people will agree with David Coulthard's view that going out wide at the La Source hairpin is not really much of an advantage at all as you pick up all sorts of crap on your tires. Going out wide does get you out of traffic but this has been done by drivers on the start of the Belgian GP for as long as I can remember ( In fact Jenson Button did precisely the same thing yet not a word was said) and it surely is something discussed with the stewards before the race.

As most of the race was decided on the first lap, let's look at some on board shots of the start. Note the absolutely demon start Barrichello had after he finally got going, that is an amazing piece of driving!

Hamilton also had a bad start. He was completely without fault in the accident that took him out and from the video it seems quite clear that it was not Jenson Button's fault either, Grojean had his wheel locked and was going straight when he collided with the BrawnGP. The first lap also took out Trulli and, as it turned out, Alonso who came out of the first corner with a front left damaged enough for the team not to be able to properly change the tire later on.

A final word about Webber, not sure where he was at but one could argue he made some dodgy blocking moves during the race, on Vettel during the first lap and later on Nakajima. Maybe he's channeling Black Jack Brabham!

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Belgian Grand Prix
Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium;
44 laps; 308.052km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  1h23:50.995
 2.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +     0.939
 3.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +     3.875
 4.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +     9.966
 5.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +    11.276
 6.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    32.763
 7.  Barrichello   Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  +    35.461
 8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +    36.208
 9.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    36.959
10.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +    41.490
11.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +    42.636
12.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +    46.106
13.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +    54.241
14.  Badoer        Ferrari               (B)  +  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


World Championship standings, round 12:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Button        72        1.  Brawn-Mercedes        128
 2.  Barrichello   56        2.  Red Bull-Renault      104.5
 3.  Vettel        53        3.  Ferrari                56
 4.  Webber        51.5      4.  McLaren-Mercedes       44
 5.  Raikkonen     34        5.  Toyota                 38.5
 6.  Rosberg       30.5      6.  Williams-Toyota        30.5
 7.  Hamilton      27        7.  BMW Sauber             18
 8.  Trulli        22.5      8.  Renault                16
 9.  Massa         22        9.  Force India-Mercedes    8
10.  Kovalainen    17       10.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      5
11.  Glock         16       
12.  Alonso        16       
13.  Heidfeld      10       
14.  Kubica         8       
15.  Fisichella     8       
16.  Buemi          3       
17.  Bourdais       2       
       
All timing unofficial

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