At last! Räikkönen wins eventful Belgian Grand Prix

McLaren driver’s first Formula One victory in over 20 races; Schumacher wraps up 7th title

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"Not before hell freezes over" is perhaps an exaggeration, but fans of the Finnish Formula One driver Kimi Räikkönen were beginning to despair that he would ever be able to compete against the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. However, Sunday’s eventful Belgian Grand Prix at Spa saw Räikkönen drive to a welcome victory, his first since Malaysia in 2003, fully 18 months ago.
      Räikkönen started from 10th place on the grid, but was soon up into 5th spot, and after the safety car was removed following a first-lap shunt, he swiftly overtook Schumacher and his McLaren team-mate David Coulthard, and got behind the Renaults of Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso.
      Räikkönen found himself in the lead by Lap 12 after Trulli went in for tyres and fuel and Alonso spun off twice and was forced to retire. Thereafter he was always in front, except immediately after pit stops on Laps 13 and 29 of the 44-lap race.
     
Spa is a notoriously "wet" race, but it was held in the dry this year, except for the qualifying on Saturday. This did not prevent a good deal of debris collecting by the track, as cars ran off or collided with one another. The safety car was called out three times in all, and on two occasions it bit deeply into Räikkönen’s comfortable lead over his rivals, most noticeably Michael Schumacher.
      The Finn nevertheless drove a canny race in a car that he said afterwards was suffering from gearbox problems, and he held off all challenges to win by a margin of 3.1 seconds.
      He even set the fastest lap-time on his penultimate lap.
      Schumacher was ultimately content to bring his Ferrari home in 2nd, and in so doing the German clinched a remarkable 7th Drivers’ World Championship. Rubens Barrichello took third place. The dominant Ferrari team had already wrapped up the Constructors’ title two weeks ago in Hungary.
     
The next grand prix will be held at Monza on September 12th. After this success in Belgium (David Coulthard brought the other McLaren home in 7th place despite running into the back of the Jaguar of Christian Klein), the McLaren-Mercedes team will be hoping for more balsam on the wounds of what has been a mostly disastrous season for them. Räikkönen, with seven retirements already this year, is lying 7th in the drivers’ table, Coulthard is 8th, and the team is no better than fifth.


Links:
  FIA: Belgian Grand Prix

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