The 2007 Belgian Grand Prix (officially the 2007 Formula 1 ING Belgian Grand Prix) was the fourteenth race of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship, returning to the Formula One calendar after a year's absence. It was held on 16 September at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, near the village of Francorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium.

Report

Background Going into the race, McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton led the Drivers' Championship by three points from teammate Fernando Alonso and Scuderia Ferrari led the Constructors' Championship by 57 points from BMW Sauber after the exclusion of McLaren from the Constructors' Championship following the Ferrari/McLaren spy saga. Otherwise McLaren would have been leading the Championship.

The race also marked the 100th race start for Australian Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber.

Practice Ferrari tried the new traffic light system for the first time.

Qualifying The usual drivers were eliminated in the first qualifying session—Adrian Sutil and Sakon Yamamoto went out in the Spykers along with Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson in the Super Aguris, Rubens Barrichello in the Honda and Sebastian Vettel in the Toro Rosso.

The second qualifying session was unusual as six drivers in six different cars were eliminated—Alexander Wurz of Williams, Vitantonio Liuzzi of Toro Rosso, Jenson Button of Honda, David Coulthard of Red Bull Racing. Giancarlo Fisichella of Renault and Ralf Schumacher of Toyota. Fisichella was later relegated right to the back of the grid after changing his engine after qualifying.

This left seven different teams in the top 10. Heikki Kovalainen qualified tenth for Renault, just behind Jarno Trulli in the Toyota. Ahead of them were Mark Webber's Red Bull and Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber. Nico Rosberg did very well in the Williams to qualify on row 3 alongside Robert Kubica in the second BMW Sauber. However, the Pole was given a ten place grid drop for an engine change. Once again, McLaren and Ferrari occupied the top four places. Fernando Alonso pipped McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton to 3rd place, but Ferrari dominated, with Kimi Räikkönen beating Felipe Massa to get his 14th career pole and lock out the front row for the Italian team.

Due to FIA rules about the order in which penalties are applied, Kubica's penalty was applied first. This left him 15th and behind Fisichella. Then the Italian's penalty was applied, so Kubica ended up 14th. This meant Coulthard, Button and Liuzzi all gained two places as both drivers had been ahead of them.

Race The order from the start remained fairly unchanged with the Ferraris of Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa led away from Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, although there was a lot of pushing between the McLarens as Hamilton attempted to pass around the outside of turn one, but Alonso pushed him wide onto the tarmac on the outside of the corner.

Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault suffered a suspension failure on lap 2, making him the first retirement of the race. He had been running last. Also on lap 2, Alexander Wurz spun in the Williams, slipping to the back of the field.

Sebastian Vettel soon suffered a handling problem, probably caused by a collision, which eliminated his Toro Rosso from the race on lap 9.

Massa briefly took the lead on lap 16, but Räikkönen reclaimed it a lap later after his pitstop.

David Coulthard suffered a hydraulic failure in his Red Bull on lap 30. He was quickly followed with a fuel pressure problem for Wurz, who was still last, on lap 35, and the Honda of Jenson Button, which dropped out on lap 37 with another hydraulic failure.

Massa once again led for just one lap during Räikkönen's second stop, but he retook it the following lap.

Räikkönen finally came home to win from Massa, clinching the World Constructors Championship for Ferrari. Alonso, Hamilton, Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber, Nico Rosberg's Williams, Mark Webber in the Red Bull and Heikki Kovalainen's Renault rounded up the top eight. The only changes from the starting top eight were Heidfeld and Rosberg swapping places and Kovalainen passing Jarno Trulli's Toyota to take eighth.

The race was overshadowed by the death of former World Rally Champion Colin McRae in a helicopter crash during Saturday's qualifying.

Classification Qualifying Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 16 Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:46.2421:45.0701:45.994125 Felipe MassaFerrari1:46.0601:45.1731:46.011231 Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Mercedes1:46.0581:45.4421:46.091342 Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1:46.4371:45.1321:46.4064510 Robert KubicaBMW Sauber1:46.7071:45.8851:46.99614616 Nico RosbergWilliams-Toyota1:46.9501:46.4691:47.334579 Nick HeidfeldBMW Sauber1:46.9231:45.9941:47.4096815 Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1:47.0841:46.4261:47.5247912 Jarno TrulliToyota1:47.1431:46.4801:47.7988104 Heikki KovalainenRenault1:46.9711:46.2401:48.5059113 Giancarlo FisichellaRenault1:47.1431:46.603221211 Ralf SchumacherToyota1:47.3001:46.618101314 David CoulthardRed Bull-Renault1:47.3401:46.80011147 Jenson ButtonHonda1:47.4741:46.955121518 Vitantonio LiuzziToro Rosso-Ferrari1:47.5761:47.115131617 Alexander WurzWilliams-Toyota1:47.5221:47.394151719 Sebastian VettelToro Rosso-Ferrari1:47.58116188 Rubens BarrichelloHonda1:47.954171922 Takuma SatoSuper Aguri-Honda1:47.980182020 Adrian SutilSpyker-Ferrari1:48.044192123 Anthony DavidsonSuper Aguri-Honda1:48.199202221 Sakon YamamotoSpyker-Ferrari1:49.55721Source: Notes – Robert Kubica dropped ten places for engine change. – Giancarlo Fisichella started at the back of the grid for an engine change after qualifying.

Race Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 44 1:20:39.066 1 10 2 5 Felipe Massa Ferrari 44 +4.695 2 8 3 1 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes 44 +14.343 3 6 4 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 44 +23.615 4 5 5 9 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 44 +51.879 6 4 6 16 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 44 +1:16.876 5 3 7 15 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 44 +1:20.639 7 2 8 4 Heikki Kovalainen Renault 44 +1:25.106 9 1 9 10 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 44 +1:25.661 14 10 11 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 44 +1:28.574 10 11 12 Jarno Trulli Toyota 44 +1:43.653 8 12 18 Vitantonio Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 43 +1 Lap 13 13 8 Rubens Barrichello Honda 43 +1 Lap 17 14 20 Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari 43 +1 Lap 19 15 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 43 +1 Lap 18 16 23 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 43 +1 Lap PL 17 21 Sakon Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari 43 +1 Lap 21 7 Jenson Button Honda 36 Hydraulics 12 17 Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota 34 Fuel pressure 15 14 David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 29 Hydraulics 11 19 Sebastian Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 8 Steering 16 3 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1 Suspension PLSource: Notes – Giancarlo Fisichella "...elected to start from the pits with a lower-downforce set-up to try and enhance his chance of making up places."2007 Autocourse, Belgian race report – Anthony Davidson "...started from the pit lane after experiencing a front-end problem on the grid out-lap."

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings +/– Driver Points 1 Lewis Hamilton* 97 2 Fernando Alonso* 95 3 Kimi Räikkönen* 84 4 Felipe Massa* 77 5 Nick Heidfeld 56Source:

Constructors' Championship standings +/– Constructor Points 1 1 Ferrari 161 1 2 BMW Sauber 90 1 3 Renault 39 1 4 Williams-Toyota 28 1 5 Red Bull-Renault 18Source:

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Bold text indicates the 2007 World Constructors' Champions. Bold text and an asterisk indicates competitors who still had a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

See also 2007 Spa-Francorchamps GP2 Series round

References

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