Raikkonen wins at Spa, Alonso finishes second

Kimi Raikkonen won an amazing Belgian Grand Prix in a race that saw some brilliant action and a number of tyre and strategy gambles thanks to wet weather…

 The Finn cruised to the chequered flag to take his sixth victory of the season, however team mate Juan Pablo Montoya’s late exit four laps from the end promoted championship leader Fernando Alonso to second meaning Raikkonen only took two points out of his lead.

McLaren dominated the weekend, having taken the front row in qualifying on Saturday they went on to storm ahead of the rest of the pack before Raikkonen took the lead from Montoya at the second round of pit stops. A ‘one two’ wasn’t to be though, as Montoya was hit from behind by a back marker in the closing stages for the second race in a row and was forced to retire.

Alonso took second place keeping his lead in the championship at 25 points with only 30 left to play for. Jenson Button produced a good drive to take third place and the final podium position.

Williams was happy with Mark Webber’s fourth place and four points for the team in what has otherwise been a season to forget for them.

Barrichello took fifth for Ferrari, but his team mate Michael Schumacher was put out of the race when he was hit from behind by BAR driver Takuma Sato. The world champion walked over to the Japanese pilot to make clear his feelings before giving him an angry tap on the head and walking away. Sato has been given a 10 place grid penalty for the next race for the incident.

Jacques Villeneuve took sixth for Sauber ahead of Ralf Schumacher in seventh who went off track after a gamble with dry tyres that didn’t pay off.

The big surprise of the results was Tiago Montiero’s stunning drive to eighth and a rare point for the Jordan team.

Montoya and Pizzonia’s tangle aside, as well as that of Schumacher and Sato, the only other major incident of the race was Giancarlo Fisichella’s major off half way through the race. The Renault driver was on a charge up through the pack when he lost it in Eau Rouage and went into the barrier at over 200mph in spectacular style. Fortunately, he walked away unharmed.

Off-track a number of announcements were made in terms of 2006.

Paul Stoddart announced the sale of Minardi to Red Bull, who plan to run a second ‘junior team’ next year and will continue using Michelin tyres, while Williams announced they would be switching to Bridgestone.