The Lotus F1 team added yet another podium to their string of strong finished this season, with Kimi Raikkonen finishing third in an eventful Belgian Grand Prix. Teammate Romain Grosjean's inexperience came to the fore yet again as the Frenchman initiated a first corner pileup which took out four cars including himself.

Raikkonen had a good run to the Turn 1 La Source hairpin, gaining a place on the slow-starting Kamui Kobayashi. The safety car was summoned out after the crash involving Grosjean behind. As the car pulled in at the end of Lap 4, Kimi was caught napping on cold tyres as Nico Hulkenberg overtook the Finn at the line for second. Raikkonen could not quite reply and tucked behind the German. As the laps progressed, Michael Schumacher caught up from behind and overtook Kimi at the end of the 11th lap, with the Lotus pitting immediately after for fresh hard-compound rubber.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel put in the drive of the day at the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa today, overtaking cars on track and making a one-stop strategy work to take a well deserved second place. Teammate Mark Webber had an equally eventful afternoon as he brought the RB8 home in sixth.

A first lap pile up at the La Source hairpin at Turn 1 meant Vettel lost several positions and was down in 12th place when the safety car was deployed. He put that setback behind and began a steady climb up the field, first re-passing Felipe Massa's Ferrari, who had jumped him at the restart, at the Bus-Stop chicane on Lap 7. The world champion followed that up with an identical move on Webber at the same corner two laps later. He was then held up briefly be the Williams of Bruno Senna, who was faster on the straight. Calls to the pitwall to change strategy to get rid of traffic turned out to be premature, as he managed to get past Senna at Bus-Stop and into clear air.

Scuderia Ferrari are still in hot pursuit of the top teams as the season progressed to Belgium, with championship leader Fernando Alonso starting 6th on the grid after qualifying today. Felipe Massa was further back in the standings, with a P14 effort.

Former double world champion Fernando Alonso, who has punched above the Ferrari's weight all season delivered a trademark impressive performance this afternoon. He had to make an option-medium shod run to guarantee safety in Q1, which saw him up in 4th on the board. The next session saw the Spaniard post a 7th fastest lap. He bettered that time in Q3 to a 1:48.313 lap, which initially had him classified 6th for the start. However a penalty for Pastor Maldonado in third means Alonso moves up a spot to fifth.

The Mercedes AMG F1 team had a disappointing qualifying session in Spa Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix today, with Michael Schumacher lining up 13th and Nico Rosberg on the back row.

Schumacher, marking his 300th grand prix weekend with a special platinum coloured helmet, did not have much to celebrate as his W03 simply did not have the pace to challenge for a top-10 position. His 1:49.081 fastest time in Q2 was four tenths of a second off the cut for the third session. He lines up 13th alongside Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

Jenson Button claimed his first pole position since the Monaco Grand Prix of 2009 with his former team Brawn, as the Briton took top spot in Qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix today. Kamui Kobayashi pulled a rabbit out of the hat to qualify his Sauber in 2nd place ahead of many established names while Pastor Maldonado qualified in a strong 3rd place for Williams.

Kimi Raikkonen qualified in 4th place for Lotus whileSergio Perez capped a brilliant day for Sauber qualifying in 5th place ahead of championship points leader Fernando Alonso.

Lotus F1 team's Kimi Raikkonen starts the Belgian Grand Prix in fourth place after being pegged back by unexpected opposition in the final qualifying session today. Teammate Romain Grosjean had a difficult outing and lines up eighth for the race.

The team had to drop plans to run their much talked-about double DRS ‘Device' following the torrential rain on Friday which denied them the opportunity to further test the system. The Device is said to be worth about half a second a lap and would have been a significant advantage in qualifying and the race.