Vettel takes controlled win at Belgian Grand Prix

F1 Grand Prix, GP Belgium, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Sebastian Vettel has secured the win at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. He passed pole sitter Hamilton in the first lap and did not come under threat at any time. Fernando Alonso finished second while Lewis Hamilton completes the podium in third place.

The Spa-Francorchamps racetrack is entirely dry on race day, but the skies are still very cloudy. No rain is expected though for the race.

As the lights went out, everybody made a clean start, getting through La Source without any incidents. Hamilton kept his first place, but as soon as he passed through the Raidillon, Vettel hauled him in and passed the Mercedes, immediately pulling a gap, until 2 laps later he's being told to take care of his tyres.

Mark Webber starting from third had a less impressive start as he fell back behind Rosberg and Alonso as well, the latter moving up from his 9th place on the grid. Di Resta had a very sluggish start and ended up in 7th.

On lap 4 Alonso makes his move on Button and passes the McLaren on the Kemmel straight. 2 laps later Alonso moves up another place as he passes Rosberg while Webber also gains a position by taking on Button.

On lap 9 Perez passes Grosjean, but the squeeze he gave Grosjean at the end of the Kemmel straight put him under investigation, as he essentially pushed Grosjean off the track. Grosjean had no other option to move onto the grass and miss the next corner, causing him to lose another place to Massa as well. 5 minutes later, a drive through penalty was confirmed for Perez.

On lap 10 Massa is the first to pit, followed by Hamilton in lap 12. Rosberg pits one lap later.

Hamilton's stop puts him on track right behind Grosjean and soon passes him, only to get passed again by the Lotus one lap later. In lap 14 Hamilton finally gets past Grosjean for good, but by that time Alonso pitted as well and joined the two right. 2 turns later Alonso also gets past Grosjean, and one lap later he also gets Hamilton as the latter missed his apex through La Source.

By lap 16, Vettel is leading again after passing Button. The latter didn't stop yet while Vettel made his first stop one lap earlier. Alonso is 5 seconds down, ahead of HAM GRO ROS WEB RIC GUT MAS PER DIR RAI SUT HUL VER MAL VDG BOT CHI BIA PIC.

On lap 18 Button pits and takes on the harder tyre and rejoins in 7th place.

At the same time Raikkonen is driving his heart out. In an impressive way he managed to get past Perez through the outside of turn 9, and one lap later he takes Gutierrez on the entry of Rivage, turn 8.

A few laps later there's an interesting fight going on between both Force India's and Perez. With three abreast came out of La Source, with eventually Sutil taking the lead into Raidillon. Perez followed, dropping Di Resta down two places in a single corner.

On lap 27 Raikkonen retires from the race. Ever since the beginning of the race, his front brakes seemed to overheat, throwing off a lot of dust and glowing red hot. He appeared to have it under control better, but then he failed to make the apex on turn 27 and decided to turn around and enter the pits to stop his car.

On lap 28, Gutierrez with both Force India cars behind him tries to get past Maldonado through busstop. Maldonado's front wing gets clipped in the event, with the latter subsequently turning right to make it to the pits. Di Resta didn't see that coming and ran over the front right wheel of the Williams, badly damaging his car and ending his race. Maldonado still got back to the pits and continued with new tyres and a new front wing. Sutil meanwhile got past Gutierrez in the next corner and was waving angrily at the Sauber driver for weaving, both on corner entry and exit.

One lap later Alonso pits for hard tyres, while Webber makes his second stop as well, changing form hard to soft. Vettel stopped one lap later and rejoined still in the lead.

On lap 39, Maldonado serves a stop and go penalty, handed for causing the collision with Di resta on lap 28. At the same time, Gutierrez is handed a drive through penalty for going off track and gaining an advantage.

On lap 40 Massa gets past Grosjean to move up into 7th. The latter is starting to suffer with his tyres due to the long final stint in his one stop strategy. Another lap later Ricciardo gets into the points by passing Perez on the Kemmel straight.