2007 Belgian Grand Prix

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Belgium  2007 Belgian Grand Prix
Race details
Race 14 of 17 in the 2007 Formula One season
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Date September 16, 2007
Official name LXIII ING Belgian Grand Prix
Location Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Spa, Belgium
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 7.004 km (4.352 mi)
Distance 44 laps, 308.176 km (191.492 mi)
Pole position
Driver Ferrari
Time 1:45.994
Fastest lap
Driver Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari
Time 1:48.036 on lap 34
Podium
First Ferrari
Second Ferrari
Third McLaren-Mercedes
Lap leaders
The race winner, Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen.

The 2007 Belgian Grand Prix was the fourteenth race of the 2007 Formula One season, returning to the F1 calendar after a year's absence. It was held on 16 September at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Spa, Belgium.

Going into the race, McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton led the Drivers' Championship by three points from team-mate Fernando Alonso and 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 driver Mark Webber.

Report

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 only a couple of days beforehand.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos. No. Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 Grid
1 6 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:46.242 1:45.070 1:45.994 1
2 5 Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:46.060 1:45.173 1:46.011 2
3 1 Spain Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes 1:46.058 1:45.442 1:46.091 3
4 2 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:46.437 1:45.132 1:46.406 4
5 10 Poland Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1:46.707 1:45.885 1:46.996 141
6 16 Germany Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:46.950 1:46.469 1:47.334 5
7 9 Germany Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:46.923 1:45.994 1:47.409 6
8 15 Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:47.084 1:46.426 1:47.524 7
9 12 Italy Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:47.143 1:46.480 1:47.798 8
10 4 Finland Heikki Kovalainen Renault 1:46.971 1:46.240 1:48.505 9
11 3 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:47.143 1:46.603 222
12 11 Germany Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:47.300 1:46.618 10
13 14 United Kingdom David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:47.340 1:46.800 11
14 7 United Kingdom Jenson Button Honda 1:47.474 1:46.955 12
15 18 Italy Vitantonio Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:47.576 1:47.115 13
16 17 Austria Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota 1:47.522 1:47.394 15
17 19 Germany Sebastian Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:47.581 16
18 8 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:47.954 17
19 22 Japan Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:47.980 18
20 20 Germany Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari 1:48.044 19
21 23 United Kingdom Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 1:48.199 20
22 21 Japan Sakon Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari 1:49.557 21
Source:[1]
Notes

Race

Pos. No. Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 6 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 44 1:20:39.066 1 10
2 5 Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari 44 +4.695 2 8
3 1 Spain Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes 44 +14.343 3 6
4 2 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 44 +23.615 4 5
5 9 Germany Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 44 +51.879 6 4
6 16 Germany Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 44 +1:16.876 5 3
7 15 Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 44 +1:20.639 7 2
8 4 Finland Heikki Kovalainen Renault 44 +1:25.106 9 1
9 10 Poland Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 44 +1:25.661 14
10 11 Germany Ralf Schumacher Toyota 44 +1:28.574 10
11 12 Italy Jarno Trulli Toyota 44 +1:43.653 8
12 18 Italy Vitantonio Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 43 +1 Lap 13
13 8 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Honda 43 +1 Lap 17
14 20 Germany Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari 43 +1 Lap 19
15 22 Japan Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 43 +1 Lap 18
16 23 United Kingdom Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 43 +1 Lap 20
17 21 Japan Sakon Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari 43 +1 Lap 21
Ret 7 United Kingdom Jenson Button Honda 36 Hydraulics 12
Ret 17 Austria Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota 34 Fuel pressure 15
Ret 14 United Kingdom David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 29 Hydraulics 11
Ret 19 Germany Sebastian Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 8 Steering 16
Ret 3 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1 Suspension 22
Source:[4]

Championship standings after the race

  • Bold text indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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External links


Previous race:
2007 Italian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
2007 season
Next race:
2007 Japanese Grand Prix
Previous race:
2005 Belgian Grand Prix
Belgian Grand Prix Next race:
2008 Belgian Grand Prix

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