Mark Hughes' GP report: only Greenpeace rivals Vettel

The main interest in this race was watching the Greenpeace anti-Shell banner unfold before the start. The race itself unfolded within a few corners of the first lap, as Sebastian Vettel screamed his Red Bull past Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes and proceeded to open up an ever-greater distance to his pursuers for the rest of the afternoon.

Having climbed onto the roof of the main grandstand with a giant banner protesting Shell's planned oil drilling in the Arctic, the activists abseiled to unveil the words: 'Arctic Oil? Shell No!' Shell is the Belgian Grand Prix's title sponsor.

The protesters sat suspended in their harnesses, looking upon a field of cars, the first 14 of which were starting on the option medium tyre.

Hamilton led the pack away into La Source, Vettel the meat in a sandwich comprising Hamilton in the lead on the inside and Jenson Button's McLaren to the left, Nico Rosberg's Mercedes just behind them but able to nip inside of Button as they exited the turn ahead of Mark Webber's slow-starting Red Bull, which had dragged its clutch off the line.

Fernando Alonso - having jiggled his Shell-backed Ferrari around the very slow-starting Force India of Paul di Resta, then skittered down the inside of the Lotuses - dived into the turn in sixth place, but was able to hook inside Webber as they accelerated down the hill towards Eau Rouge.

This was almost an exact replay of their duel in the race here in 2011, but this time it was Alonso who prevailed, his steering wheel display showing 300km/h (187mph) in seventh as he cut across to make the apex. From ninth to fifth in the first few hundred metres, Alonso wasn't finished yet.

Vettel swiftly claimed the lead from Hamilton © XPB

But at the front, Hamilton, who had felt the Mercedes slide through La Source, was conservative through Eau Rouge. Even then, he still had a fairly lurid slide through there, checking his momentum as Vettel absolutely nailed the Red Bull and got himself sucked into the leader's slipstream.

"I got a massive tow through there," he recounted, "and that gave me a big advantage over Lewis as we went up the hill and down the straight."

The Mercs were struggling all weekend through Eau Rouge - having been just 10th and 14th fastest out of there in qualifying, with the Red Bulls first and third fastest, almost 10km/h quicker. Now on full tanks, that disparity only seemed to be exaggerated. Furthermore, Seb had saved his KERS and now had more of it to deploy than Lewis.

"I had a bit of KERS left, but then as he came by I saved it for later in the lap," explained Hamilton, who hadn't even been able to defend as the Red Bull took the lead and immediately began to pull quickly away.

Behind, Rosberg had Button in his wake, Jenson in turn making the McLaren wide, desperately fending off Alonso.

Into Les Combes to begin the downhill twists and turns of the middle sector, Vettel continued to pull away and as they reached the bottom of the valley, the sky was mainly blue, the track temperature a moderately warm 27C and the threat of rain had receded almost to nothing.

Hamilton and the rest of the pack were soon left trailing © XPB

The protesters would have had a great view at the end of the first lap as Vettel went across the line 1.4s ahead of Hamilton, then Rosberg, Button, Alonso, Webber, di Resta, Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber and Romain Grosjean - soon to be passed by Lotus team-mate Kimi Raikkonen - as the snarling, snaking pack headed back down to Eau Rouge and the adventures beyond.

This report is now hijacked by Greenpeace. The movement's Sabine Huyghe said: "If Shell keeps racing to drill in the Arctic then we'll all lose. An oil spill in the Arctic would be a disaster, threatening a region of breathtaking beauty. I came here because I'm determined to do whatever I can to stop Shell before it destroys the Arctic. I know F1 fans care about environmental destruction and are appalled as I am that Shell is trying to protect its reputation by throwing money at events like this."

Back to the racing. Vettel's lead was out to 2.8s at the end of the second lap as DRS was enabled, Hamilton edging away in turn from Rosberg, who headed a 12-car swarm of DRS-enabled cars down the 200mph Kemmel Straight.

On the fourth lap, with Vettel's lead out to more than 3.5s, Alonso was able to tow past Button for fourth in the first DRS zone at the end of that long straight. Button fell further victim to Webber there on the fifth lap, and a lap later Alonso went by Rosberg for third.

At the end of that lap he was 3.1s behind Hamilton but gradually hauling him in. Vettel's day meanwhile was passing by in a speed blur, so much so that his radio was soon crackling with messages about saving the tyres. As he said afterwards: "We had massive pace."

Raikkonen's day was going less well. A visor rip-off had somehow found its way into the left-front brake duct, blocking the cooling air to the disc, which was soon overheating to over 1000C.

Raikkonen skates off the track as his brake problems get too much © LAT

At this temperature the carbon fibre simply oxidises, rapidly shedding layers of itself into black dust, which is what was ejected from the wheels as Kimi braked. They continued working for the time being and he held his own, even began making up places as others ahead of him began to pit for their first tyre changes.

Pre-race, the strategy seemed poised between one and two-stop, but with a warmer track than forecast thermal degradation of the rear rubber was apparent and almost everyone began to migrate to a two-stop.

Hamilton pitted from 4.3s behind Vettel at the end of lap 11, rejoining on another set of options. Rosberg was in a lap later, then Alonso and Webber together on the 13th lap and finally Vettel.

Only Webber's car was fitted with hards. "Because he was trapped behind Rosberg, we put him on a short middle stint on the hards as we wanted to get him on the faster options at the end for as long as possible, when the others would be on the hards," explained Christian Horner.

Hamilton had to fight his way by Grosjean after rejoining and this lost him time to Alonso, who was able to dive the Ferrari inside the Mercedes into the Bus Stop on lap 14. "I didn't want him to get DRS on me on the run to Turn 5 [Les Combes]," explained Lewis, "so I decided to let him by so that I could get DRS on him. I did that, but he was still able to stay ahead. That Ferrari has had amazing straightline speed all weekend."

This indeed seemed to be the key to the red car's improved performance at Spa. By trimming the top of the front wing for the Spa/Monza package, the car seemed more efficient.

Ferrari was firmly back in business © LAT

Was that smaller front wing causing the rear to be supplied with a better airflow? And when the conventional front wing goes back on, will the flow to the rear wing be adversely affected? Was this genuine development progress from Ferrari or just a temporary removal of a problem when in low-downforce mode? The answers won't start coming in until Singapore.

Mention of Ferrari reminds us of Greenpeace's gripes with Shell. One of those activists on the top of the grandstand roof was Vanessa Hall. She said: "The only reason Shell can drill [in the Arctic] at all is because climate change is melting the Arctic ice cap, and they're going in to drill for more of the stuff that caused the melt in the first place — it's madness."

McLaren was hoping to get Button through on a one-stop and so as the leading two-stoppers had pitted, Jenson briefly led but was zapped by Vettel on his out-lap as they reached the Bus Stop chicane.

Vettel's chasers inevitably were delayed more than he by yet-to-stop cars he'd cleared and as Button pitted on lap 17, having just been passed by Alonso into the Bus Stop, Vettel led the Ferrari by 7s, with Hamilton just hanging on but unable to put a retaliatory move on Fernando.

Rosberg had dropped away a few seconds from his team-mate and was still trailed by Webber. Behind them was the yet-to-pit one-stopping Grosjean, the Lotus having little of its customary pace and soon to be passed by the fresh-tyred Button.

Raikkonen was trying to two-stop the other Lotus, but would retire after 25 laps when that left-front brake disc finally oxidised itself into nothingness. Even though the brake duct had been cleared of its blockage at the first stop, the temperatures of the disc had by then got the oxidisation process into a runaway state.

Before that, he'd been doing some demon moves on slower cars after his stop, his pass on Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber around the outside of Liege being particularly tasty.

As Vettel stretched his lead over Alonso, who in turn was untroubled by Hamilton, who in further turn was edging away from Rosberg, even the roof-top protestors were hardly on the edge of their harnesses. But the circuit's layout was making for some thrilling moments further down the field.

Perez was adjudged to have squeezed Grosjean off © XPB

Early in the race Sergio Perez had DRS'd his McLaren ahead of Grosjean on the approach to Les Combes, but was then adjudged to have not left sufficient room for the Lotus, which had left the track. Perez was given a drive-through.

On another occasion Perez and the Force Indias of di Resta and Adrian Sutil were three-abreast on the approach to Eau Rouge. Sutil later put an around-the-outside of Eau Rouge pass on Gutierrez.

On the 27th lap five cars headed almost as one into the Bus Stop chicane. Pastor Maldonado's Williams led Gutierrez, Sutil, di Resta and Hulkenberg. Gutierrez successfully dived inside the Williams and as Pastor found himself on the outside, he tried to cut back across, just as Sutil was arriving, slight contact damaging the Williams' front wing.

In the heat of the moment, Maldonado tried now to cut across to the pit entry just as di Resta was arriving and this hit was much bigger, sending Paul's car rearing into the air. He was out of the race. Maldonado was later awarded a stop/go penalty.

The second stops were by now underway. Rosberg was in on the 25th lap, with Hamilton, Webber and Alonso following in quick succession. Vettel stayed out until lap 30 but was so far ahead that he got out on his new options without even losing the lead. As he rejoined, Alonso was 7s behind.

Button was in third trying to make his one-stop gamble work, having been on these tyres for 13 laps and needing to do another 14. He was being caught rapidly by the two Mercs and Webber. He was asked if he thought he could hang on. "But there was no way they were going to do that distance," he explained. "The front left was wearing out."

Button didn't get the result he wanted, but McLaren showed progress © XPB

So on lap 34, before it was too late, he was brought in for a second stop, leaving him between two strategic stools. He rejoined a long way behind Webber who was trying like crazy to find a way by Rosberg's slower Mercedes. But with Nico on the hard tyre and Webber the medium, all he needed to do was repel the Red Bull long enough to ensure it used up the best of its rubber.

This duly happened, leaving Webber frustrated at a race that had all gone wrong in the opening seconds. Had it not been for that poor getaway, he might conceivably have been up with Vettel. The clutch had played up off the dummy grid too and the team was investigating the causes at the time of writing.

Behind Button, Grosjean in the one-stopping Lotus was coming under attack from Felipe Massa. The Ferrari had lost all functions on the steering wheel for a few laps early in the race, including KERS, but all had been restored with a reset and his pace was too much for the Lotus, Felipe going past for seventh in the DRS zone four laps from home.

Sutil was secure in ninth, but Perez on very old tyres (he'd stopped only once, plus his stop/go) in 10th was passed into Les Combes for the last time by Daniel Ricciardo, who had recently DRS'd himself past Toro Rosso team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne.

Vettel was being told to stay off the kerbs after setting his habitual fastest race lap. Doing as he was told, he crossed the line 17s clear. He didn't want the race to stop, the car getting lighter and feeling just better and better around this fabulous venue.

Alonso in second was comfortably clear of the very subdued Mercedes pairing of Hamilton and Rosberg. "We just didn't have the usual sting in our performance," accepted Ross Brawn. "We were relatively poor through Eau Rouge and didn't seem to have the efficiency of the Red Bull, or even the Ferrari."

For efficiency Red Bull had only one rival at Spa: Greenpeace.