Sebastian Vettel scored his eighth victory of the season with an impressive drive in the Red Bull RB7 at Monza.

The championship leader achieved his maiden win back in 2008 for Toro Rosso and this latest triumph, his eighteenth career Grand Prix victory means Sebastian Vettel is edging closer towards the drivers’ title.

Jenson Button won the battle over Fernando Alonso for second position, with Lewis Hamilton having to settle for fourth after spending much of the race stuck behind Michael Schumacher.

As for Mark Webber – Vettel’s closest challenger in the points prior to the weekend – crashed out following a clash with Felipe Massa.

Alonso had briefly raised the tifosi’s hopes for success by surging his Ferrari to the front in a spectacular start from fourth on the grid. Vettel was slow away from pole position and was immediately attacked by Hamilton’s McLaren before Alonso appeared down the inside, taking a bit of the grass along the way.

Carnage further back prompted the safety car. Tonio Liuzzi losing control of his HRT under braking and spun down the inside grass before slamming into Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes and Vitaly Petrov’s Renault in the middle of the Rettifilio.

Rubens Barrichello’s Williams and Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber picked up damage in the consequent traffic jam, while Bruno Senna, Sebastien Buemi and Adrian Sutil had to trundle through the gravel in avoidance.

The race restarted on lap four with Schumacher taking advantage over Hamilton to move into third for Mercedes.

Webber was taking sixth from Button during this moment of time, both having lost ground at the start. But when the Red Bull attacked Felipe Massa into the Rettifilio a lap later, Webber ended up tagging the Ferrari into a spin and damaging his front wing, which then folded under the car and caused him to crash at the Parabolica.

The sister Red Bull was faring better with Vettel seeking an opportunity to get by race leader Alonso. On lap five, the championship leader had better acceleration – thanks to a short gear ratio – to make a brilliant around-the-outside-pass at Curva Grande. After that, Vettel was unstoppable, storming away and holding a 15-second margin as he notched up yet another victory.

Alonso then came under attack from Schumacher and Hamilton for a while, but soon the latter pair were too busy fighting each other. The Mercedes’ supreme straight-line speed and some firm defending from the seven-time world champion kept Hamilton at bay.

Button caught the Schumacher-Hamilton duel, and was able to pass both in quick succession on lap 16 – taking Hamilton when he had to abruptly back off as Schumacher closed the door shut at the Curva Grande, and then slicing down the outside of the Mercedes into Ascari.

That left Button in clean air to chase down Alonso – who he overtook shortly after the second round of pit-stops when the Ferrari got a poor exit from the Rettifilio.

The battle between Schumacher and Hamilton was exciting. The Mercedes’ had the straight-line speed advantage but had to defend quite aggressively to prevent the McLaren getting by. It didn’t help that Hamilton was hitting the rev-limiter as he tried in vain to pass the Silver Arrow.

Hamilton eventually pass Schumacher on the approach down to Ascari on lap 27, and then mounted his own pursuit of Alonso – catching the Ferrari on the final lap but running out of time to try a pass.

Massa recovered from the Webber incident to finish in sixth position for Ferrari behind Schumacher.

Sergio Perez looked assured of seventh on a one-stop strategy until his Sauber’s gearbox failed, which meant Jaime Alguersuari could take the place after a strong drive from P18.

Paul di Resta, Senna and Buemi recovered from their first-corner delays to complete the points-scorers for Force India, Renault and Toro Rosso respectively.

A fine start and a safe passage through the first-lap chaos saw Pastor Maldonado run as high as sixth place for Williams. But he did not have the race pace to remain there and slipped down to P11 by the chequered flag.

Behind the delayed Barrichello, the high attrition rate allowed Lotus duo of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, and Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock, to take potentially useful finishes in P13 through P15.

So a fantastic result for Red Bull Racing. This result proves that the team had firmly conquered its Monza weak spot by dominating the Italian Grand Prix thanks to Sebastian Vettel. The German can actually win the world championship in Singapore. Currently he is 112 points clear with 284. Alonso moved to second place today with 172, with Button and Webber third on 167 and Hamilton fifth with 158.

Italian Grand Prix race results, 53 laps:

1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h20:46.172
2.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +9.590
3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +16.909
4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +17.471
5.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +32.677
6.  Massa         Ferrari                    +42.993
7.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
8.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
9.  Senna         Renault                    +1 lap
10.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
11.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
12.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
13.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault              +1 lap
14.  Trulli        Lotus-Renault              +2 laps
15.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +2 laps

Fastest lap: Hamilton, 1:26.187

Not classified/retirements:
Ricciardo     HRT-Cosworth                 40 laps
Perez         Sauber-Ferrari               34 laps
Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               23 laps
Sutil         Force India-Mercedes         11 laps
Webber        Red Bull-Renault             6 laps
D’Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth              3 laps
Petrov        Renault                      1 lap
Rosberg       Mercedes                     1 lap
Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth                 1 lap

World Championship standings, round 13:

Drivers:
1.  Vettel       284
2.  Alonso       172
3.  Webber       167
4.  Button       167
5.  Hamilton     158
6.  Massa         82
7.  Rosberg       56
8.  Schumacher    52
9.  Petrov        34
10.  Heidfeld      34
11.  Kobayashi     27
12.  Sutil         24
13.  Alguersuari   16
14.  Buemi         13
15.  Di Resta      12
16.  Perez          8
17.  Barrichello    4
18.  Senna          2
19.  Maldonado      1

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          451
2.  McLaren-Mercedes          325
3.  Ferrari                   254
4.  Mercedes                  108
5.  Renault                    70
6.  Force India-Mercedes       36
7.  Sauber-Ferrari             35
8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         29
9.  Williams-Cosworth           5

Next race: Singapore Grand Prix, Marina Bay. September 23-25.

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel took his twenty-fifth career pole position with a sensational lap around the legendary Monza track.

His margin over rival Lewis Hamilton was an impressive 0.4 seconds and by taking the top spot, it underlines the speed of the Renault-powered RB7 and maintains the team’s perfect record in qualifying this season.

The McLarens will start the Italian Grand Prix in second and third, with Hamilton edging out team-mate Jenson Button by 0.052 seconds.

Racing in front of the passionate tifosi, Fernando Alonso took fourth for Ferrari ahead of Mark Webber’s Red Bull and team-mate Felipe Massa.

The Renaults and Mercedes completed the top ten, with Vitaly Petrov in seventh, Michael Schumacher out-qualifying Nico Rosberg to eighth, with Bruno Senna completing the Q3 field without setting a lap time.

Senna’s last-gasp Q2 effort knocked Force India’s Paul di Resta out by just a tiny margin of 0.006 seconds. He will share the sixth row with his team-mate Adrian Sutil.

The Williams pair takes up row seven, while the Saubers struggled in qualifying after a promising practice session and will sandwich Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi in P15 and P17. Buemi’s team-mate Jaime Alguersuari was again the unfortunate midfielder knocked out in Q1 and will start the race in P18.

Jarno Trulli led the tail-end group for Team Lotus out-qualifying team-mate Heikki Kovalainen. Timo Glock got close to Kovalainen’s pace despite concerns that his Virgin Racing’s Drag Reduction System was sticking open.

As for the back row of the grid, Daniel Ricciardo will start ahead of his veteran HRT team-mate Tonio Liuzzi for the first time in only his fifth appearance in Formula One.

Qualifying positions for the Italian Grand Prix, Monza:

1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m22.275s
2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m22.725s
3.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m22.777s
4.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m22.841s
5.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m22.972s
6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m23.188s
7.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m23.530s
8.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m23.777s
9.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m24.477s
10.  Bruno Senna           Renault              No time
11.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m24.163s
12.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m24.209s
13.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m24.648s
14.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m24.726s
15.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m24.845s
16.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m24.932s
17.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m25.065s
18.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m25.334s
19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m26.647s
20.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m27.184s
21.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m27.591s
22.  Jerome D’Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m27.609s
23.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         1m28.054s
24.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m28.231s

107 per cent time: 1m29.854s

иконография

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel took his seventh Grand Prix victory of the season in a thrilling Belgian Grand Prix. He led home a Red Bull Racing one-two with Mark Webber close behind following a bad start off the grid.

This was the perfect result for Vettel following three disappointing races. To win his seventeenth career Grand Prix at the magnificent Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Vettel is well on his way to take the drivers’ title come the end of the championship.

McLaren’s Jenson Button made some stunning overtaking manoeuvres to recover from P13 to finish in third. His team-mate Lewis Hamilton had to retire following a clash with Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi.

Fernando Alonso was a contender for race victory but fell down to fourth in the final stint on the Prime tyre.

As for Michael Schumacher, celebrating his twentieth anniversary since making his Formula One debut, the seven-time world champion drove a solid race from last on the grid to take fifth, ahead of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.

A chaotic start had seen Mark Webber stutter off the grid (once again) and fall from third to eighth, as Nico Rosberg burst through to second and then slipstream past Vettel to take a shock lead for Mercedes by Les Combes, with Felipe Massa, Hamilton and the fast-starting Alonso next up.

Rosberg’s lead lasted until lap three, when Vettel activated his Drag Reduction System and eased ahead on the Kemmel Straight. But the tyre issues that had been feared prior to the race started early for the Red Bulls, with Webber pitting after just three laps, and Vettel coming in from the lead next time around due to blistering.

That put Rosberg back in front, though he had Alonso right behind as the Spaniard had swiftly passed Hamilton, then outbraked team-mate Massa when the sister Ferrari lost momentum in a failed move on Rosberg. Hamilton also capitalised to further demote Massa as the shuffle unfolded.

By lap seven Alonso used a combination of DRS and KERS to sweep past Rosberg on the Kemmel Straight to move into the lead, with Hamilton doing likewise on the following lap.

The Ferrari and McLaren managed to keep their initial tyres intact until laps eight and eleven respectively, but the Red Bulls’ earlier pit stops had worked out better for them – and as Hamilton pitted from the lead, Vettel was sweeping around the outside of Rosberg in an epic move into Blanchimont ready to head the field again.

Shortly beforehand, Webber had produced a similarly spectacular move on Alonso into the Eau Rouge as the Ferrari emerged from its pit stop, though Alonso would repass the Red Bull next time around.

Hamilton’s challenge then ended on lap 13, when a brush of wheels with the yet-to-pit Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber on the run into Les Combes. The McLaren spun into the barriers, prompting a safety car period.

With the Safety Car out on track, Vettel immediately pitted for a fresh set of Pirellis, which meant that although Alonso was able to lead again from the restart, the champion was soon easing ahead once more with a DRS pass.

From then onwards Vettel was effectively untouchable, pulling away from Alonso through the next stint and clinching his first win since Valencia. When the Ferrari switched to the Prime for the final run to the chequered flag, Alonso’s pace tailed off dramatically and he found himself being passed by first Webber, then Button.

The Hungarian Grand Prix winner had driven another epic race, getting the Prime tyre out of the way in the first stint, then overtaking car after car to move himself into podium contention. Button secured his place on the rostrum by passing the troubled Alonso with two laps left.

Michael Schumacher took a superb fifth place from the back of the grid – like Button using the Prime tyre in the opening stint then charging spectacularly. His Mercedes team-mate Rosberg drifted back to sixth as the race progressed, ahead of Force India’s Adrian Sutil and the Renault of Vitaly Petrov.

An additional pit stop to replace a deflating tyre left Massa in ninth spot, while Pastor Maldonado put behind his qualifying controversy to score the final point for Williams.

Bruno Senna’s return to Formula One resulted in P13 for Renault. This was a bad result following his impressive qualifying form. It didn’t help he was quite ambition at La Source which ended in a tangle with Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso. This first-corner clash earned the Brazilian a drive-through penalty.

Virgin’s Timo Glock was also given a drive-through after being adjudged to have triggered further multi-car mayhem at the back end of the pack.

So a great result for Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing. His lead in the drivers’ championship looks increasingly omnipresent with 259 points, ahead of Webber on 167, Alonso on 157, Button on 149 and Hamilton on 146. Massa remains sixth with 74, but Schumacher’s fifth hoists him clear of the ninth-place scrap with 42 points to Rosberg’s 56.

In the constructors’, Red Bull Racing had a very profitable day, garnering 43 points to bring their leading score to 426 ahead of McLaren on 295 and Ferrari on 231.

Belgian Grand Prix race results, 44 laps:

1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h26.44.893
2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +3.741s
3.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +9.669s
4.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +13.022s
5.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +47.464s
6.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +48.674s
7.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +59.713s
8.  Massa         Ferrari                    +1m06.076s
9.  Petrov        Renault                    +1m11.917s
10.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth         +1m17.615s
11.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +1m23.994s
12.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +1m31.976s
13.  Senna         Renault                    +1m32.985s
14.  Trulli        Lotus-Renault              +1 lap
15.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault              +1 lap
16.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
17.  D’Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +1 lap
18.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +1 lap
19.  Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth               +1 lap

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:23.415

Not classified/retirements:

Perez         Sauber-Ferrari               27 laps
Ricciardo     HRT-Cosworth                 13 laps
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             12 laps
Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari           6 laps
Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari           1 lap

World Championship standings, round 11:                

Drivers:             
1.  Vettel       259
2.  Webber       167
3.  Alonso       157
4.  Button       149
5.  Hamilton     146
6.  Massa         74
7.  Rosberg       56
8.  Schumacher    42
9.  Petrov        34
10.  Heidfeld      34
11.  Kobayashi     27
12.  Sutil         24
13.  Buemi         12
14.  Alguersuari   10
15.  Di Resta       8
16.  Perez          8
17.  Barrichello    4
18.  Maldonado      1

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          426
2.  McLaren-Mercedes          295
3.  Ferrari                   231
4.  Mercedes                   88
5.  Renault                    68
6.  Sauber-Ferrari             35
7.  Force India-Mercedes       32
8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         22
9.  Williams-Cosworth           5

Next race: Italian Grand Prix, Monza. September 9-11.

икони

Sebastian Vettel maintains Red Bull Racing’s excellent qualifying form with yet another pole position, this time at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps.

The championship leader achieved his eighth pole of the season with a time of one minute, 48.298 seconds, to denied McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton from the top spot by a margin of four tenths of a second.

After setting the fastest time in two of the practice sessions at the Belgian Grand Prix, Mark Webber had to settle with third, with Felipe Massa once again out-qualifying his Ferrari team-mate to take fourth.

But the major talking point in this wet/dry qualifying session was a bizarre incident involving the Williams of Pastor Maldonado and Lewis Hamilton in Q2.

As track conditions rapidly improved and the lap times turned inside out, Hamilton banged his wheels with Maldonado going through the Bus Stop chicane as the McLaren completed a flying lap just as the chequered flag was out.

That moment elevated Hamilton to the top of the leader board but on the slowing-down lap, Maldonado appeared to retaliate for the contact on the run out of La Source, sideswiping the McLaren, which then needed minor impromptu repairs for the start of Q3.

Unfortunately the second McLaren of Jenson Button was out following the late-Q2 scramble, leaving the winner of the Hungarian Grand Prix down in P13 on the grid.

The end of Q3 was a similar topsy-turvy as the circuit began to dry out. Felipe Massa was able to take advantage of the improve track condition to out qualify his Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso for only the second time this season as they took fourth and eighth respectively.

Nico Rosberg put his Mercedes in fifth, while Jaime Alguersuari continue to impressive with an excellent sixth for Toro Rosso.

But the real hero of qualifying was Bruno Senna. The Brazilian was drafted in to replace Nick Heidfeld and despite not driving since Abu Dhabi last season, he was quick throughout qualifying and in the end, recorded the seventh fastest time on his debut for Renault. That’s three positions ahead of team-mate Vitaly Petrov, who shares row five with Sauber’s Sergio Perez.

Rosberg was the only Mercedes in the top ten as his team-mate was out even before setting a flying lap… Twenty years after making his Formula 1 debut in the Jordan – in which he qualified a superb seventh – Michael Schumacher’s anniversary weekend went dramatically downhill when his Mercedes shed a right-rear wheel on its out-lap at the start of Q1 and crashed heavily on the approach to Rivage, leaving the seven-time world champion at the tail end of the field.

Neither Williams made it beyond Q2, with Rubens Barrichello in P14 and Maldonado initially in P16. A five-grid penalty was given to the latter hours after qualifying for causing a collision and so Maldonado will start the race in P21. Adrian Sutil lines up P15 after crashing his Force India on the way out of Eau Rouge while holding fifth in Q2. A red flag was required while the debris was cleared up.

That completed a miserable qualifying session for Force India as a spin on his final Q1 run had already left Paul di Resta down in P17. With Schumacher and di Resta both missing the cut, Heikki Kovalainen made it to Q2 for Team Lotus and will start in P16.

Qualifying times from Spa-Francorchamps:

1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m48.298s
2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m48.730s
3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m49.376s
4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m50.256s
5.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m50.552s
6.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m50.773s
7.  Bruno Senna           Renault              1m51.121s
8.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m51.251s
9.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m51.374s
10.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m52.303s
11.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   2m04.692s
12.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       2m04.757s
13.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     2m05.150s
14.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    2m07.349s
15.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 2m07.777s
16.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        2m08.354s
17.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 2m07.758s
18.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        2m07.773s
19.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      2m09.566s
20.  Jerome D’Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      2m11.601s
21.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    2m08.106s*
22.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         2m11.616s
23.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         2m13.077s
24.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             no time

107% time: 2m10.339s

*Five-place grid penalty for colliding with Lewis Hamilton at the end of Q2