Belgian Grand Prix

But let’s focus on the race first.
Lewis Hamilton had set the pace this weekend and seemed destined to walk away with the pace based on his pole in qualifying. Räikkönen was under a lot of pressure within Ferrari this week with respect to his #1 driver status, rumors were flying that he needed to do well otherwise the Scuderia would put their major efforts behind Massa. The Finn took the race to the Brit on the second lap when the youngster was caught out in a spin and it seemed like the gods were smiling on the tifosi as Räikkönen was chasing his fourth win in the forest. The race really was a bit of a snoozer up until it started to rain.
Once it rained, however, the McLaren was able to catch the Ferrari while both were running on dry tires and we saw about a minute of intense blocking and trying to make the most of the poor grip conditions. Eventually, Hamilton was able to pull away from Räikkönen and the Finn put it in the wall trying to catch up. The last lap was exciting to see if those that had changed tires would be able to swing passed everyone that hadn’t. Massa was a distant second place and Heidfeld, who stopped for intermediates, was able to charge up the field to finish third. Or so it seemed.

After the race and after watching the replay god knows how many times, the race stewards declared that Hamilton had gained an unfair advantage when trying to overtake Räikkönen (when the Brit didn’t have the line) and straightlined the chicane. He did give the position back, but immediately charged after the Ferrari and passed him only seconds later. The stewards (and 90% of Italy) said that wasn’t kosher and gave Hamilton a 25 second penalty which moved Massa up to the top spot and put Hamilton ahead of Alonso, but behind Heidfeld. I would pay more money than I am planning on spending for our fourth Ferrari to see the look on Ron Dennis’s face when they asked him for the constructor’s trophy back.

Being the fill-in-the-blank-yourself-here sportsman that he is, he immediately protested that this was an unfair decision. Mind you he should be happy that he didn’t get a ban for life from the sport for the actions of the McCheating from last year.

But anyway, this one will go down in the record books as a win for Ferrari with a small asterisk next to the record and an even smaller footnote. The result was enough to ensure Ferrari kept their lead in the constructor’s championship and Massa has pulled within two points of Hamilton in the driver’s title. Bernie and crowd must be happy that this is making for good television which will only allow them to charge more for advertising.
Heidfeld’s second place finish solidified his standing with the team; BMW is hoping to finish solidly behind McLaren and Ferrari this year. We didn’t have to deal with Alonso on the podium, not that the press corps is complaining.

Vettle was having one of the drives of his career with the Toro Rosso that had a strong showing all weekend and he was on track for a huge result if the rain hadn’t started. This team seems to have put their act together. Sebastian Bourdais finished two places back (but in the points) to prove that it wasn’t a totally freak result. Kubica posted points for his sixth place finish and Webber’s Red Bull captured the last point of the weekend.

Before I get all of the nasty emails about the sport being as exciting as grass growing, I would point out that there was a similarity to NASCAR this weekend. So long as you caught the start and the finish, you didn’t miss anything.
There will be no withdrawal pains this week, Monza is next week. If it is close, at least we know who the home town marshals will want to help!

Race Results

1	MASSA	Ferrari	1h22m59.394s
2	HEIDFELD	BMW Sauber	+ 9.3s
3	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 10.5s
4	ALONSO	Renault	+ 14.4s
5	VETTEL	STR-Ferrari	+ 14.5s
6	KUBICA	BMW Sauber	+ 15.0s
7	BOURDAIS	STR-Ferrari	+ 16.7s
8	WEBBER	Red Bull-Renault	+ 42.7s
9	GLOCK	Toyota	+ 67.0s
10	KOVALAINEN	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 1 lap, transmission
11	COULTHARD	Red Bull-Renault	+ 1 lap
12	ROSBERG	Williams-Toyota	+ 1 lap
13	SUTIL	Force India-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
14	NAKAJIMA	Williams-Toyota	+ 1 lap
15	BUTTON	Honda	+ 1 lap
16	TRULLI	Toyota	+ 1 lap
17	FISICHELLA	Force India-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
18	RÄIKKÖNEN	Ferrari	+ 2 laps, accident
19	BARRICHELLO	Honda	+ 26 laps, gearbox
20	PIQUET	Renault	+ 32 laps, accident
Fastest Lap	RÄIKKÖNEN	Ferrari	1m47.930s

NOTE: Hamilton was initially classified first, but had 25 seconds added to his race time for gaining an advantage through cutting the final chicane. Glock was initially classified eighth, but had 25 seconds added to his race time for passing under yellow flags.

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	76 Points
2	MASSA	Ferrari	74 Points
3	KUBICA	BMW Sauber	58 Points
4	RÄIKKÖNEN	Ferrari	57 Points
5	HEIDFELD	BMW Sauber	49 Points
6	KOVALAINEN	McLaren-Mercedes	43 Points
7	TRULLI	Toyota	26 Points
8	ALONSO	Renault	23 Points
9	WEBBER	Red Bull-Renault	19 Points
10	GLOCK	Toyota	15 Points
11	PIQUET	Renault	13 Points
12	VETTEL	STR-Ferrari	13 Points
13	BARRICHELLO	Honda	11 Points
14	ROSBERG	Williams-Toyota	9 Points
15	NAKAJIMA	Williams-Toyota	8 Points
16	COULTHARD	Red Bull-Renault	6 Points
17	BOURDAIS	STR-Ferraro	4 Points
18	BUTTON	Honda	3 Points

NOTE: Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	FERRARI	131 Points
2	MCLAREN-MERCEDES	119 Points
3	BMW SAUBER	107 Points
4	TOYOTA	41 Points
5	RENAULT	36 Points
6	RED BULL-RENAULT	25 Points
7	WILLIAMS-TOYOTA	17 Points
8	STR-FERRARI	17 Points
9	HONDA	14 Points

NOTE: Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.