Kimi, Ferrari Are Far Superior To McLaren In Belgium

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Kimi Raikkonen led Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa to a one-two sweep of the Belgian Grand Prix here Sunday.
The Ferraris were clearly quicker than the McLaren Mercedeses of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton who ended up third and fourth.
This was Raikkonen’s third straight win at Spa. The F-1 circus was happy to be back at the glorious track after a year away, even if this wasn’t the most classic Grand Prix that track has hosted.
Starting from pole, Raikkonen led all but two of the 44 laps while Massa headed the other two tours during the pit stops.
“I had some doubts about the car’s handling after yesterday’s qualifying,” Raikkonen said, “but everything went well. The car worked very well for the whole race: I was quick enough in the first part to control the race after that.”
The McLaren duo brawled on the opening lap.
Hamilton, who started fourth, managed to get alongside Alonso, who qualified third, as they came out of the La Source Hairpin just after the start.
Alonso pushed Hamilton off the track, and then the two McLarens were side-by-side as they screamed down the steep hill to the notorious Eau Rouge bend. For a moment it looked like neither driver would give way.
“At Eau Rouge it’s impossible to take two F-1 cars through there without taking each other out,” Hamilton said, “so I just lifted.”
That was it for the top four — Raikkonen, Massa, Alonso and Hamilton — who went on to finish in that order.
Starting sixth in his BMW Sauber, Nick Heidfeld got pushed back to eighth in the first corner. He battled his way past Heikki Kovalainen’s Renault, and then passed Mark Webber’s Red Bull Renault and Nico Rosberg’s Williams Toyota when they made early pit stops.
Heidfeld ended up sixth ahead of Rosberg who was delighted to prove that Williams was again the fourth best team with his fourth consecutive points finish.
Webber was delighted, too, taking a strong seventh place with a strategy that saw him (and Rosberg) pit before the rest of the field.
Kovalainen spent much of the race embroiled in scraps with Webber, Heidfeld and Robert Kubica, beating the latter by just .555 of a second to claim eighth place.
This was the first time in seven races that Kubica missed out on scoring points.
He spent much of his race stuck behind David Coulthard’s Red Bull that was on a one-stop strategy.
Most of the off track talk during weekend, of course, concerned the 10-hour World Motor Sport Council hearing that took place in Paris on Thursday and resulted in the stiff penalties and political strife outlined elsewhere in these pages.
“We could have all done without the distractions this weekend and the run up to it,” Dennis said after the race. “Hopefully we can now chill out a little bit, cool down and have a good end of season.”