Vettel wins Belgian Grand Prix in Red Bull one-two

By Jens Marx Aug 28, 2011, 13:43 GMT

Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium - Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel won the Belgian Grand Prix Sunday for his seventh victory in 12 races to move closer to a successful defence of his world title.

The 24-year-old German took the chequered flag 3.741 seconds ahead of team-mate Mark Webber as Red Bull's domination of the season continued at Spa-Francorchamps.

McLaren's Jenson Button was third, followed by Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher in a Mercedes on the 20th anniversary of his F1 debut and team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Adrian Sutil (Force India), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Vitaly Petrov (Renault) and Pastor Maldonado (Williams) completed the top 10.

Lewis Hamilton's hopes of a late challenge on Vettel in the second half of the F1 season were dashed when the McLaren driver's race ended on lap 13 in a crash while attempting to pass Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi, forcing a safety-car phase.

'I'm not really quite sure what happened - I hit the wall pretty hard,' Hamilton said.

'As far as I was concerned I was ahead of whoever I was racing and then I was hit by them. I think we were struggling, we were massively slow on the straights, I guess that's why we were in that position. But we might at least have got a podium.'

Vettel ended a three-race spell without a victory, putting him on 259 points in the standings, with Webber on 167, Alonso on 157, Button on 149 and Hamilton on 146.

Vettel started on pole but had to make way for Rosberg who spurted from fifth on the grid to take the lead.

Vettel was in the pits after five laps for new tyres, but was in the lead five laps later after a flurry of pit stops by other drivers.

After Hamilton's crash and the safety car, Vettel pitted again for fresh tyres, rejoining behind Alonso and Webber. He soon got past his team-mate and then overhauled Alonso for a lead he was not to relinquish.

'We had a lot of concerns going into the race after qualifying and weren't quite sure about the tyres blistering,' Vettel said.

'The team took the risk and we had reason to be confident, but you never know until you get out there.

'We both stopped early on so the main target was to see how the tyres were over the first few laps. But the pace was steady and I was feeling comfortable and got back into the lead.

'After the safety car it was key to get past Alonso and get a gap to make it more comfortable. It was certainly more tyre management than usual.'

Schumacher was delighted with his fifth place after he started the race last on the grid following an incident in qualifying on Saturday when he lost his left rear tyre in the first session.

'This is a special weekend for me,' the seven-time world champion said. 'And although it wasn't too good yesterday, luckily it finished well. I had a good feeling earlier in the day. My wife is here and she said it would be a good race.'