Formula One

JENSON BUTTON DOMINATES THE BELGIAN GRAND PRIX

ROMAIN GROSJEAN PENALIZED WITH A ONE RACE BAN.

GREAT PODIUM FINISH FOR VETTEL AND KIMI.

FERNANDO ALONSO CONTINUES TO LEAD THE DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP WITH 24 POINTS.

“This is a great weekend for the team, and for me as well.

It is a good 25 points, and if we can keep fighting for victories like this there is still a small chance I can fight for that championship.

“But going to Monza, I don’t think about the championship. We go there to do best job we can and bring back home most points we can.

As I said before the race, it is a massive long shot to win the title, but today proves you can claw back 25 points very, very quickly

We were not sure what to do with strategy, whether it would be one or two, or if some thought it was three stops.

When Nico got into second it did help a little bit. I could feel the car and not push too hard, but at that point I still didn’t think it would be one stop.

And then on lap 12 the tyres started working. The car was really consistent and I could drive and I could control degradation of tyres. [It’s a] great feeling to go so much further than everyone except for Sebastian.”

SEBASTIAN VETTEL, Finish Position: 2nd, Start Position: 10th

“I’m happy with that today. Qualifying wasn’t as we planned it to be yesterday, but today the car seemed to be back to as we know it. The start was poor; I think I was the only one not to gain positions through the first corners, so we had to fight our way back, which wasn’t easy, but I enjoyed it a lot. The strategy worked perfectly for us and we had the pace, which was the best thing about today. The car worked well and we didn’t struggle. Congratulations to Jenson and Mclaren on the win. We’ve got a lot of back to backs this season and I’m looking forward to Monza later this week. We had a great race there last year – it’s always a great atmosphere and we’ll be pushing hard.”

Kimi Räikkönen, P3, E20-05
“I made a pretty okay start, similar to Jenson [Button]’s and I overtook the Sauber. I saw a lot of action in the mirrors but luckily it missed me. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the pace today. My car wasn’t great all weekend and we couldn’t find a competitive setup. On new tyres it was okay, but we had to use a lot of downforce to prevent sliding. That meant we were very slow on the straight. You could see this in my battle with Michael [Schumacher]. Each time I passed him he just went straight back past down the Kemmel straight. My only chance was to go for a gap at Eau Rouge. Luckily it paid off and I managed to stay ahead of him that time. We didn’t have the pace today and it wasn’t an easy race, so P3 was not too bad.”

Romain Grosjean, DNF, E20-04
“When your life is all about racing, not being allowed to attend an event is probably one of the worst experiences you can go through. That said, I do respect the verdict of the Stewards. I got a good start – despite being disturbed by Pastor’s early launch, which I think was the case for everybody at the front – and was heading into the first corner when the rear of my car made contact with the front of Lewis [Hamilton]’s. I honestly thought I was ahead of him and there was enough room for both cars ; I didn’t deliberately try to squeeze him or anything like that. This first corner situation obviously isn’t what anyone would want to happen and thankfully no-one was hurt in the incident. I wish to apologise to the drivers who were involved and to their fans. I can only say that today is part of a process that will make me a better driver.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal
“It’s been a tough day for the team but we fully respect the Stewards’ decision. Romain won’t be driving at Monza but he still has our full support. We’ll announce the name of his replacement a bit later in the week. As far as the race is concerned, unfortunately we didn’t have the pace for Kimi to challenge Jenson [Button] or Sebastian [Vettel]. We had to look closely at the strategy during the race to see if we should switch to one stop, but in the end a podium finish still brings us some good points. Of course, everyone talks about ‘the win’, and this is something we all want. We were not fast enough for it today, so we all need to keep working hard for this goal.”

Pos Driver Team Time
 1.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           1h29:08.530
 2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +    13.624
 3.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +    25.334
 4.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +    27.843
 5.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    29.845
 6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    31.244
 7.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    53.374
 8.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +    58.865
 9.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:02.982
10.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +  1:03.783
11.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +  1:05.111
12.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +  1:11.529
13.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:56.119
14.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap
15.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +     1 lap
16.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +     1 lap
17.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap
18.  De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth               +     1 lap
19.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +        30
20.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +         5
21.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +         1
22.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +         1
23.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +         1
24.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              +         1

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