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Lewis Hamilton drove to a much deserved victory at Spa Francorchamps ahead of Mark Webber and Robert Kubica in a highly eventful and exciting Belgian Grand Prix. Hamilton was the beneficiary of a mistake at the start by Webber who battled back from seventh to take second place. The win takes Hamilton to the top of the drivers' standings three points ahead of Webber. Mark Webber was also the beneficiary of a mistake by Kubica in the pit lane and as a result was able to snatch second place away from the Renault. Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel had bad races as the former crashed and the latter finished a disappointing 15^th after taking Jenson Button out of the race and serving a drive through penalty.

At the start, Mark Webber made a complete mess to hand the lead on a platter to Lewis Hamilton. Webber dropped from pole position to seventh within the first corner. Robert Kubica took second into the first corner followed by Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel. The drama did not cease as moments after the start, the rain started coming down and rather heavily at that. The final corner saw tragedy for Rubens Barrichello who slammed into Fernando Alonso owing to lack of grip in the wet and in the process ending his 300^th race in disappointment. Alonso on the other hand had to pit and rejoined in 16^th.

All the carnage prompted the officials to bring out the safety car for 2 laps. As the safety car retreated, Vettel who was in 4^th made his move on Kubica to take 3^rd. Michael Schumacher struck his 10 place penalty off in the space of a few laps as he moved from 21^st to 12^th by the 4^th lap. Vitaly Petrov also drove brilliantly to make up for his error in qualifying. He moved from last place to a place in the points by the 11^th lap.

Jenson Button who was running with slight damage to his front wing dropped further behind his team mate and this enabled Sebastian Vettel to get closer to the reigning champion. With team radios buzzing about possible showers Vettel got caught out by sudden showers at the final corner and ended up driving his nose into Jenson Button's car and in the process ending the latter's race. He promptly went into the pits for a change of nose but came out to hear news of a drive through penalty for causing an avoidable accident.  Vettel served his drive through penalty on the 21^st lap to rejoin in 14^th place. The dramatic set of events enabled the two Mercedes cars to move up to 5^th and 6^th while Kubica, Massa and Webber took positions 2, 3 and 4. The qualifying order had by now been completely ripped apart.

The first set of normal pit stops happened from lap 22 onwards with Adrian Sutil of Force India coming in for a fresh set of tyres. He was followed by Mark Webber, Kubica and Felipe Massa. Hamilton continued for one more lap before coming in for his pit stop but rejoined comfortably in the lead. Adrian Sutil by now was close at the heels of fellow German Schumacher who had yet to pit. He passed Schumacher with visible ease before Les Combes to take fifth place on lap 25.

Vettel's wretched race continued as an attempted overtaking maneuver on Vitantonio Liuzzi ended up in a puncture in his left rear tyre. He had to cover a whole lap with a flat tyre before heading into the pits and ultimately rejoined in 20^th without any hope of points from Spa.

Vettel's championship rival Hamilton was in a league of his own at the front of the field. He was almost 10 seconds ahead of second placed Kubica on lap 30 and also set the fastest time. Fernando Alonso meanwhile had fought back from falling to 16^th early in the race to battling for 8^th by lap 30.

Spots of rain reappeared on lap 33  as Spa continued to torment teams' strategies. Hamilton was told by his race engineer that he would be put on intermediates only if it was ‘absolutely necessary'. It looked more likely that the necessity would come as Hamilton started showing signs of difficulty with his slicks. He almost blew his race as he went into the gravel at ravage on lap 35 but survived to drive on. There was a flurry of activity in the pits as Schumacher, Kobayashi, Alonso, Rosberg, Petrov, De la Rosa and Alguersuari all pitted. Hamilton drove cautiously and eventually pitted too on lap 36.

There was pit lane drama as Robert Kubica missed his pit box in the pit lane due to a slide to let Mark Webber pass him. This changed the order to Hamilton, Webber, Kubica, Massa. Webber clearly having the rain to thank for much of his fortune. Behind the top four Sutil was going strong in fifth followed by Schumacher, Kobayashi and Alonso.

As conditions worsened the safety car came out on lap 39. Fernando Alonso's race meanwhile ended with a crash at Les Combes. The safety car stayed out on track till lap 40 bringing the front pack together. At the restart, Hamilton, Webber and Kubica dashed away with caution, Nico Rosberg made a brave move on team mate Michael Schumacher to move into 6^th.

There would be no more drama except for a few spins and missed corners as Hamilton drove to his much deserved first ‘official' victory at Spa. Mark Webber redeemed himself by finishing second after his nightmare start while Robert Kubica took a highly deserved 3rd place on the podium.

Force India's love affair with Spa continued as Adrian Sutil finished 5^th behind the solitary Ferrari of Felipe Massa. Rosberg and Schumacher drove a brilliant race to help Mercedes lift their gloom to finish 6^th and 7^th respectively. Kobayashi, Petrov and Alguesari completed the top 10. Petrov putting in another notable performance after starting from last place.  Sebastian Vettel's luck eluded him again as he finished a disappointing 15^th.

An ecstatic Hamilton had this to say after his race win, "It may sound an obvious thing to say, but I'll say it anyway: I love racing. It's in my blood, and I missed it so much during the summer break. So to finally get a win here at Spa - in the trickiest of conditions - is fantastic...It almost feels like this is my first win - it's just phenomenal!"

It was a wet and wild Belgian Grand Prix, but one that was exciting all the way through and arguably the best race of the season so far. The race was dictated heavily by the conditions and Lewis Hamilton tackled the weather better than anyone else in a race where a mistake was so easy to make.

Final Results:

Post Race:

The Force India F1 Team's Tonio Liuzzi has been moved up to tenth position in today's Belgian Grand Prix following a post-race drivethrough penalty handed to Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari for cutting a chicane while overtaking Tonio at the end of lap 42. The penalty elevates Tonio ahead of Alguersuari and gives him the final point available. The result makes it an excellent double points finish for the team.