Sebastian Vettel takes the victory at Spa Francorchamps

It’s a Red Bull one two punch with Webber in second.

A fantastic drive by McLaren’s Jenson Button.

Martin Hines looses his fight with cancer at the age of 64

Jenson Button: I think if I had stayed in 13th after the start it would have been a lot easier to challenge these guys.

Turn 1 was mayhem caused by the guys up front. di Resta hit my rear wing, damaged my rear wing, half the endplate was gone and driving to Eau Rouge someone’s rear wing came off and went through my front wing and took the mirror off.

It was a bit scary. The guys said keep going until lap five, we did – then put options on and did rest of race with them.

It was a enjoyable race. You’re always going to say what could have been, but it’s a good finish to get on the podium after Seb drove into me last year!

All weekend the car felt great for me the balance has been phenomenal, it felt like we had made a step forward from Hungary so to come away with third is disappointing but you have to take third into account.

Who knows what would have happened if we had qualified third – hopefully in two weeks we can turn it all around.”

Pos Driver Team Time
 1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h26.44.893
 2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +     3.741
 3.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +     9.669
 4.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +    13.022
 5.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    47.464
 6.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    48.674
 7.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +    59.713
 8.  Massa         Ferrari                    +  1m06.076
 9.  Petrov        Renault                    +  1m11.917
10.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth          +  1m17.615
11.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +  1m23.994
12.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +  1m31.976
13.  Senna         Renault                    +  1m32.985
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

Luca Filippi sprints to Spa victory

 Photo: gp2media

Scuderia Coloni driver ends Belgium weekend on a high

Luca Filippi snatched a second win in the 2011 season at the wheel of the Scuderia Coloni car in an action packed sprint race at Spa-Francorchamps. The Italian who drove flawlessly from P5 on the starting grid was joined by Jules Bianchi and Josef Kral on the podium.

As the lights went off, poleman of the day Kral made a perfect start to keep the lead, but it was Johnny Cecotto who made the strongest impression on the rest of the field. The Venezuelan chose the right side of the straight line from P9 to pass Fairuz Fauzy on the inside of Turn 1 and take P2. Further down, Filippi overtook both Dani Clos and Fairuz Fauzy to come out in third place at the end of the first lap.

As Kral stayed in control and built up a 2.9s gap with Cecotto, the Ocean driver was fighting hard to keep an overzealous Filippi at bay. The Italian passed the Venezuelan at Eau Rouge, but Cecotto fought back and regained his position quickly. Behind the battling duo, the action was just as intense with Bianchi overtaking Clos on the last corner, the Spaniard having just lost a position to newly crowned GP2 Series Champion Romain Grosjean. At the entrance of Turn 1, Bianchi made a move on Grosjean but ran a bit too wide and lost a position to Clos.

By Lap 7, Filippi had eventually passed Cecotto, and was the quickest man on track – one second faster than race leader Kral. But the Safety Car was deployed after Fabio Leimer lost the rear of his Rapax car at Eau Rouge and crashed heavily into the barrier. Although his machine was severely damaged, the Swiss driver walked away uninjured.

At the re-start, Kral stayed in the lead, but Filippi did not let him get away, overtook him after Eau Rouge and sprinted to victory. Behind them, Cecotto was under pressure from Fauzy, Grosjean with Clos in tow. The Malaysian driver eventually was out of the equation when he went a bit too wide at Turn 1 and it looked as though Cecotto would be able to breathe a little bit better while Grosjean, Clos and Bianchi were once again busy fighting each other off. The three men ran side by side after Turn 1, and at the bottom of Eau Rouge, Bianchi passed to take P4 and set his sight on Cecotto for P3. He did the job in the last corner and chased after Kral.

Cecotto lost a position to Grosjean and Clos and while the Ocean driver was fighting the Spaniard to regain his position, Sam Bird joined in on the fun and overtook both for P5. While Filippi extended his lead, Bianchi disposed of Kral in the last lap. The Arden man was then Grosjean’s prey, but Kral managed to keep the Dams man at bay to retain P3. Grosjean finished in fourth ahead of Bird and Clos.

With this result, Filippi has moved up to fifth in the drivers’ standings, nine points behind Giedo van der Garde who is still in second. As for Bianchi, after a strong Belgium weekend and two second places, the Frenchman is now third in the drivers’ standings, one point behind the Dutchman at Addax. The fight to become Vice Champion in two weeks time at Monza will be another GP2 classic.

Photo: gp3media

Richie Stanaway wins on GP3 debut

Stunning drive from the young New Zealander as Lotus ART take teams crown

Pole sitter Richie Stanaway drove a brilliant race today to win on his GP3 Series debut weekend. The New Zealander finished 4.007 seconds ahead of his teammate James Calado to lead the second Lotus ART 1-2 of the weekend. The result ensured that Lotus ART sealed the teams’ title for the second season in a row with one round remaining.

When the lights went out Stanaway briefly lost the lead to Jenzer Motorsport’s Nico Müller, but the young driver kept a cool head and fought back to regain his place at the front and from then on the race was sewn up. Stanaway built up a commanding lead, which was as much as 6.1 seconds midway through the race, to take the victory. Series contender Alexander Sims had another disappointing morning when a first lap clash ended his race prematurely.

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs made his way up into third by the end of lap 1 and soon passed Müller for second spot, but the podium position was short lived when the Brits’ bad luck returned and an engine problem ended his race. Further back the Lotus ART duo of Calado and Valtteri Bottas were on the move with both drivers up into the points. Calado went on to haul himself up into the top three, but Series leader Bottas was unable to make in six podiums in a row after a clash with Melker saw the Dutchman retire and the Finn drop down the order and out the points for the first time since Germany.

With the chequered flag in sight Calado was fast catching Stanaway but the Brit ran out of laps and had to settle for second and after a battle with the Lotus ART driver Müller took the final podium spot. Birthday boy Michael Christensen held on to fourth despite pressure from Simon Trummer in the closing laps, and Alex Fontana claimed the final point on his GP3 debut weekend.

Bottas leaves Belgium with a slashed lead of just five points in the Series ahead of his teammate James Calado. Lotus ART lead the teams’ standings by 45 points, but the battle for second spot is still raging. MW Arden and RSC Mucke Motorsport both have 31 points in second and third respectively.

With five drivers still in the hunt to become the 2011 GP3 Series champion. Don’t miss the final round in Monza on September 09-10-11.