Button Shines at Spa-Francorchamps

Belgium Grand Prix has a long and deep motor racing history where the first Formula 1 race was held in 1925. The Spa-Francorchamps race circuit where the race was held boasts a distance of 7.004 km with 44 laps. This year turned out to be a disappointment for Hamilton and Alonso fans and a perfect pole to chequered flag race for Jenson Button who went on to secure the top step.

The race started with Jenson Button on pole, maintaining his lead by avoiding the collision at the first corner when Romain Grosjean of Lotus triggered a series of crashes by ramming his rear right wheel into Lewis Hamilton of McLaren-Mercedes. The collision resulted in a chain reaction that also took out Fernando Alonso of Ferrari and Sergio Perez of Sauber-Ferrari. The incident was a very close call for Alonso who escaped with inches to spare from being hit by Grosjean’s Lotus when it came flying overhead. Alonso reported minor back pain due to the crash. Grosjean was handed a hefty 50,000 Euro fine and a one-race ban to boot for this costly mistake which means he will not be seen at the next Formula 1 Grand Prix at Monza.

After the initial retirement of 4 drivers, Pastor Maldonado of Williams-Renault had to retire in the fourth lap as he crashed into Timo Glock of Marussia after the restart of the race. This led to him being awarded a 10-place penalty for the Italian Grand Prix starting grid. Narain Karthikeyan of HRT also had to retire due to a wheel-nut problem at his second pit stop which led to a loose front wheel causing him to spin out thereby eliminating him from the race.

This left only 18 classified drivers who finished the race out of which the top 3 positions were bagged by Jenson Button of McLaren-Mercedes, Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull-Renault and Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus-Renault respectively. Button did some extraordinary driving, maintaining the first position throughout the race. “I’m sorry to all the fans if it wasn’t very exciting at the front” he said cheekily. Lewis Hamilton was reported congratulating Button saying that he did an “absolutely brilliant job” while skilfully keeping up his neat lap times.

The 2012 Belgium Grand Prix also marked the occasion of legendary racer Michael Schumacher’s 300th Grand Prix. The occasion was celebrated by presenting the veteran F1 racer with a front wing and nose that bore the name of all the F1 races he participated in. A special cake in the form of his helmet was also included in the ceremony. The racer driver’s 300th milestone was also marred by a small incident involving Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull-Renault near the pit entry. Schumacher finished at 7th position with a disappointing 6 victory points.

The classified drivers ranking at the end of the race stands as shown in the list below:

The Belgium Grand Prix ended with Button and the runners up taking to the podium amidst a wildly cheering crowd where he dropped down to the ground with his girlfriend Jessica Michibata on one side and his boss Martin Whitmarsh and Lewis Hamilton to the other for the photo-shoots and interviews.