The complete 2011 Belgian GP review

PRACTICE

Practice one

The result was a poignant one on paper: as he started the weekend where he would celebrate the 20th anniversary of his remarkable Formula 1 debut at Spa in 1991, Michael Schumacher was quickest in opening practice for this year's Belgian Grand Prix.

But the timing screens were more than a little deceptive, for Schumacher and team-mate Nico Rosberg were the only men who managed any flying laps on slick tyres before the characteristic Spa rain arrived.

A long period of silence then followed before the field decided it was definitely worthwhile getting some wet running. Jenson Button finally set the fastest intermediate tyre time in the closing minutes, eight seconds down on the Mercedes' dry pace.

Bruno Senna's return to a race seat with Renault did not begin well as he crashed at Turn 9, where Paul di Resta would also bin his Force India shortly afterwards.

Practice two

There was more rain for the afternoon, although it did clear sufficiently for a whole 10 minutes in dry running in the middle of the session.

Mark Webber made the most of this to go quickest for Red Bull, with Fernando Alonso's Ferrari next up, 0.140s adrift.

The McLarens were third and fourth, followed by Felipe Massa, Rosberg and good runs from Sauber's Sergio Perez and Force India reserve Nico Hulkenberg, in an unusual afternoon appearance.

And soon after all those times were set, the clouds opened again and the field returned to ambling around on a damp track ruing how little they had been able to learn today.

Practice three

Some drivers remarked that the wet conditions that greeted them on Saturday morning were as bad as they'd faced in Canada. Lewis Hamilton graphically summed it up by lighting up the rears unintentionally on the way back from Stavelot - twice. Aquaplaning was at a premium.

So for half an hour the track lay more-or-less dormant. When finally they did come out, it was the Toro Rossos that starred for much of it, trading fastest times frequently - even when more fancied runners arrived on track.

Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil found their Force Indias equipped to challenge Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari - but while it was wet enough for the extreme wet Pirellis, with the exception of Mark Webber, no one else had a look in. Part of the reason for this perhaps is that many were already conserving their meagre supply of treaded Pirellis - something that would be grumbled about up and down the pitlane for much of the day.

The rain abated in the last half an hour and it was Schumacher who was the first to try intermediates. It was a wonderfully wild lap, as if the great man was simply having some fun on his anniversary weekend, but it was also good enough for second fastest. This triggered a flurry of activity from the rest. And while the Toro Rosso remained competitive until the end, eventually Webber overhauled them to set the ultimate pace.

QUALIFYING

1st Sebastian Vettel

"The conditions in Q1 and Q2 were very tricky. The main target was to get through. In Q3, I was trying to make my way around in the first two laps, trying to get the temperature into the tyres, then in the last two laps, the last one in particular, I tried to push as hard as I can. It was a very good lap."

2nd Lewis Hamilton

"The front wing was quite badly damaged [after the Maldonado clash in Q2] - my sidepod, and I thought my front suspension was damaged. I think the front toe-in is probably a little bit out, but fortunately the guys did a great job to put it back together. clearly we're quite strong. We didn't really know where we expected to be today but the team has done a fantastic job to come here with some new components which has been fantastic to see and they seem to have worked quite well."

3rd Mark Webber

Probably went a bit too hard on the slicks initially, as I felt comfortable. You never know if the lap you are on is the lap that is going to be the lap around here, obviously with the sprinkling here and there. And as we finished quali it started raining again. I probably could have built up a little bit slower, to have, a slightly better run-in to the back part of the third and fourth lap but that's how it goes."

4th Felipe Massa

"It was a very difficult but good qualifying for the team. We have put ourselves in a good position to score points tomorrow. In Q3, when I was on dry tyres for the first time in today's qualifying and obviously using the soft compound, the track was drying quickly with the conditions improving every single lap. In Q1 and Q2 especially it wasn't easy with the car being set up for the dry conditions."

5th Nico Rosberg

"The conditions were difficult, because it was changing all of the time. In the last session the track was dry enough for slicks, so it was okay.

6th Jaime Alguersuari

"This was my best ever performance and the best for the team this year. I think I have to be very happy with this and also because my team-mate came very close to Q3, which shows we have done a good job, not just on the car but in the way we managed the session, being the first out of the pits to get a clear track.

7th Bruno Senna

"Just getting to Q3 was a massive victory. I knew that I could push, especially on the last few laps, because I did not have much to lose in that situation. I didn't want to make a mistake, go off and crash, so in that sense I wasn't pushing 100%. But I was pushing where I knew I could push and get away with outbraking myself a little bit. Where other people made mistakes I didn't and the result is there.

8th Fernando Alonso

"Traffic was a factor, because I did not complete a clean lap in Q3. Apart from the traffic, we were not competitive enough to fight for the pole, so I was never at the level of the top three. In these temperatures, on a damp track, fourth was what was possible for Ferrari.

9th Sergio Perez

"It was a very difficult but good qualifying for the team. We have put ourselves in a good position to score points tomorrow. In Q3, when I was on dry tyres for the first time in today's qualifying and obviously using the soft compound, the track was drying quickly with the conditions improving every single lap. In Q1 and Q2 especially it wasn't easy with the car being set up for the dry conditions."

10th Vitaly Petrov

"This was one of the most difficult qualifying sessions this year because the conditions kept changing. Then I spun in Q3, I don't know why it happened, it was not even a fastest lap."

11th Sebastien Buemi

"It was not easy this afternoon, because the track dried very quickly after the rain actually stopped falling," he said. "Therefore you had to get a good lap at just the right time. I managed to do that right up until the end, when I made a small mistake. I am a bit angry with myself for that."

12th Kamui Kobayashi

"Because of our timing at the end of Q2, when we were running intermediate tyres on the drying track, I took the chequered flag a little bit earlier than the others. This meant with the rapidly improving track conditions my time then just wasn't good enough for Q3."

13th Jenson Button

"It's a bit of a shock being down in 13th, especially after Q1 where I was quickest by a second. It was a miscommunication. I should have kept pushing on my second lap, but I didn't realise I only had that lap to go. I cooled the car down and tried to look after the tyres again for the next lap, but there wasn't a next lap."

14th Rubens Barrichello

"Today was a lost opportunity. We had bad traffic. It was conditions that I really like, the conditions were mysterious, and if you look at my laptime, even though I was behind Kovalainen, if I had a little bit more of a gap I would have made Q3 easily. But like I told him later, it's not his fault because his car is not competitive. I was in a bad place of the track."

15th Adrian Sutil

"The conditions were difficult, but the car was good. Q1 was not perfect because we went into the pits too early but P14 was enough even though it wasn't representative of performance. Q2 was looking good. I had one flying lap, and that was quick enough for P5 but then I smashed it into the wall. It was my mistake, maybe I pushed a bit too hard.

16th Heikki Kovalainen

"It was a pretty good lap, especially in the middle sector where I managed to get everything out of it. The first sector and the last sector were getting wet, so after the first sector I was down, but was able to gain time. You only need a few corners that are drier to make a difference and I was able to do a lap to get into Q2."

17th Paul di Resta

"I was caught out by the rain in sector three. It was very dry at the start, but I lost it on the brakes and spun. But there was time to do another lap in Q1 but when halfway it I was called in to the pits because I was safe. There were definitely a few mistakes there, but I'm pretty sure we would have been able to go faster than Heikki Kovalainen with another lap and reached Q2."

18th Jarno Trulli

"It was looking pretty good until traffic pretty much ruined my second run, but the car felt good as the track was drying up and we were definitely on the right strategy for the conditions so it's a shame we couldn't make the most of it. But when everyone's out like that trying to get times in you're always going to have some issues with traffic, and it's unlucky it hit my last run in Q1 today."

19th Timo Glock

"Qualifying was okay, but for some reason we had a lot of trouble in the first stint, on the first set of tyres, because we made a change from free practice 3 to qualifying and maybe it wasn't the correct one. Then I came in for a new set of intermediates and it was okay, even though on the data it looked more like a rally lap!"

20th Jerome D'Ambrosio

"I had a good feeling with the car, I was happy with everything and my performance in normal conditions was quite good. We got it a bit wrong with the strategy - we should have pitted really. But again, it's very difficult to make a call like that because it might have just rained a bit earlier and then it wouldn't have worked. So basically it could have been better but in terms of performance we are there, so it should be good for tomorrow's race."

21st Pastor Maldonado

"I wasn't happy with the lap because I got traffic with Rubens and Heikki. During the lap, I was improving and catching them, but at the last corner the traffic was there. It was a difficult moment for that group. There was a lot of time there because we have been competitive all weekend."

22nd Vitantonio Liuzzi

"We were improving lap by lap, but on my last lap I lost around eight tenths because I came up behind a slower car. I think we could have even caught Glock. In the end this was not to be, but we were still close to Virgin."

23rd Daniel Ricciardo

"There was one lap where you could make the most of it, but I missed it. We also had a bit of a mechanical problem that didn't help. It was a combination of things. Small mistakes cost quite a lot of time in these sorts of conditions."

24th Michael Schumacher

"Although I have some experience on three wheels at Spa, that wasn't enough to help me today! We can clearly see on the data that there were no signs and it [the right-rear wheel falling off] just happened. There's no one to blame. We are all humans and occasionally we make mistakes."

THE GRID

Pos  Driver                Team
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault
 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes
 3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault
 4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari
 5.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes
 6.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari
 7.  Bruno Senna           Renault
 8.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari
 9.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari
10.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault
11.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari
12.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari
13.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes
14.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth
15.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes
16.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault
17.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes
18.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault
19.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth
20.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth
21.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth *
22.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth
23.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth
24.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes

* 5-place penalty for causing a collision

RACE

Sunday dawned dry, but that didn't make the race look like any less of a lottery, for with the field having had barely half an hour of dry running in total across practice and qualifying, how the tyres were going to perform, whose dry set-up was going to work, and how the track and tyres would behave as rubber built up were all huge question marks.

Tyres were a particular quandary, with several teams - most notably Red Bull - concerned that their rubber had been blistering in Q3, and now they had to start the race on the same Pirellis.

"We had a lot of concerns going into the race after the damage we had on the tyres from qualifying, so we weren't quite sure," said poleman Sebastian Vettel. "We took quite a lot of risk."

Pre-race efforts to get dispensation to change tyres failed to pay off, with Pirelli arguing that the problem had only arisen because the teams involved have chosen camber settings against their recommendations - and the FIA sided with Pirelli, while underlining that teams had the option to change their set-up and start from the pitlane if they were worried.

No one took that option, though the Red Bulls both came in for new tyres within five laps of the start.

By that time quite a lot had already happened, as La Source proved typically eventful. Mark Webber's anti-stall system kicked in inappropriately and saw his Red Bull chug away slowly from third, as Felipe Massa and Nico Rosberg surged forward from fourth and fifth to challenge Vettel into the hairpin.

The champion held the lead, with Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton and Massa behind him. Slightly further back, La Source was living up to its reputation for chaos. Bruno Senna was the trigger, sliding into Jaime Alguersuari's Toro Rosso, which then clattered into Fernando Alonso's Ferrari. Alguersuari was left with smashed suspension, but the Ferrari escaped unscathed, powered over the run-off, and rejoined in fifth. Senna required a new front wing and would later get a drive-through penalty for the incident.

The chain reactions rippled down the order, with Timo Glock running into Paul di Resta, which led to the Lotus duo being squeezed into each other, and Jenson Button's McLaren picking up damage too.

Rosberg soon had Vettel, Hamilton and the Ferraris all over the back of him, though they were fairly busy with each other too as they all made ample use of the lengthy DRS zone on the Kemmel Straight. Alonso was soon past Hamilton for fourth, while Vettel took the lead from Rosberg on lap three. Massa then tried to attack the Mercedes but was held off, giving Alonso a chance to dive ahead into the hairpin after Les Combes. As the former champion ran wide, he took his team-mate with him and set off a three-abreast situation with the two red cars and Hamilton then ended with Alonso keeping his nose in front and Massa losing two places.

With Vettel in the pits for fresh rubber at the end of lap five, Rosberg regained the lead for a few laps before Alonso and Hamilton cruised past him with DRS moves.

The Ferrari and McLaren lasted out until laps eight and 10 respectively on their first set of the much-questioned soft tyres, but while they had been preserving their rubber, the Red Bulls had been flying on fresh sets of soft Pirellis.

Despite having fallen to eighth with his frustrating start, Webber's new-tyre pace was such that as Alonso rejoined after his pitstop, the Red Bull was charging up alongside him. They braved it out side by side into Eau Rouge, before Webber slipped ahead with an absolutely astounding piece of driving.

"Both of us are very experienced, we both don't give much too easily, so it was a good battle and very, very rewarding that it worked out okay," said Webber, "but it takes two guys doing a good job to get all that right obviously, so it's more rewarding when you can do it with someone like Fernando because he's a world-class driver and he knows when enough is enough. Obviously my attitude might have been a bit different with someone else, let's say, but in the end, it worked out for me today."

It did briefly, anyway, for next time around Alonso re-passed the Red Bull on the Kemmel Straight, moments after both had overtaken the yet-to-stop Adrian Sutil as the race turned into yet another feast of wheel to wheel action.

Vettel wasn't being outdone in the flamboyant overtaking stakes either. Just as Rosberg looked poised to regain the lead with Hamilton's pitstop, the Mercedes found the #1 Red Bull roaring around its outside on the approach to Blanchimont.

Not all the passing moves were so successful. On lap 12 Hamilton overtook Kamui Kobayashi, another man still to make his first pitstop, between La Source and Eau Rouge, but the Sauber came back at him on the run towards Les Combes. Contact was made, with the McLaren pitched into the barriers. At first Hamilton was bemused by the incident, but he later Tweeted his apologies having realised he had simply misjudged where the Sauber was.

The incident prompted a safety car period, and Vettel took advantage to dive straight into the pits and take on another set of fresh tyres. Webber should have done likewise, but radio problems led to him staying out and forming up behind new leader Alonso, with Vettel getting back out in third but with new Pirellis.

Vettel made good use of his grip advantage to swiftly overtake his team-mate then Alonso when racing resumed, and was then able to edge away by just enough to make Ferrari's hopes of maintaining a victory challenge look fairly forlorn.

But then Alonso had always anticipated that he might go into freefall in the closing stages, as Ferrari's tyre issues continued in the cool conditions of race day at Spa. Once everyone was on the harder tyre after the last stops, Alonso's pace was around a second slower than his rivals, and rather than giving chase to Vettel, he found himself struggling to hold off Webber, who established a Red Bull one-two on lap 37 with a straightforward DRS pass. The summer break had made Vettel's last win seem a very long time ago - but there had only been a three-race gap between victories, and now Red Bull had delivered another dominant result that cemented its drivers' one-two in the title standings. Vettel would leave Spa 92 points clear of Webber, with Red Bull 131 points ahead of McLaren in the teams' race.

Next to arrive in Alonso's mirrors was Jenson Button, after a quite remarkable charge by the Hungaroring winner. Damage from the first-lap confusion meant an early pitstop, but he used this to his advantage to get rid of the medium tyres and spend the rest of the afternoon charging on softs - grabbing another new set during the safety car period and then carving through the order in the middle stint. With two laps to go he was passing Alonso and clinching an unlikely podium finish from a race Button was sure he had the pace to win had he started higher up - or not been delayed on lap one.

Michael Schumacher was using similar tactics to Button, plus plenty of the sort of swashbuckling skill he used to deploy at Spa in his halcyon days. That resulted in a superb fifth place finish. It was an utterly appropriate way to celebrate his 20th anniversary in F1, and a strong hint that Schumacher's ability had not completely faded. His final pass was on team-mate Rosberg, whose early heroics had used up rather too much fuel, forcing him to slow down later on.

Sutil showed very strong race pace to convert 15th on the grid to seventh in the race for Force India. His team-mate Paul di Resta reckoned he would have pulled off something similar from 17th - first-lap damage notwithstanding - had the safety car not spoiled his strategy. He finished 11th.

Massa had looked set for the top five, but not a podium, until a puncture forced an additional stop. He made it back to eighth, gaining that final place on the last lap when Vitaly Petrov's Renault slowed with brake problems. The Russian still salvaged ninth, while Pastor Maldonado turned things around after his Saturday controversy to finish 10th and score his maiden F1 point.

Several teams who had happier Saturdays than Maldonado found their weekends moving in the opposite direction. Toro Rosso had already lost Alguersuari on lap one, and then Sebastien Buemi's race ended in a clash with Sergio Perez, who was given a penalty and then retired with a problem at the rear of his Sauber. His team-mate Kobayashi was only 12th, having lost ground when he pitted too late under the safety car. And for qualifying star Senna, 13th place was the best that could be achieved following his lap one incident and subsequent penalty.

RACE RESULTS

The Belgian Grand Prix
Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium;
44 laps; 308.052km;
Weather: Dry conditions.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time

 1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h26.44.893
 2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +     3.741
 3.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +     9.669
 4.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +    13.022
 5.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    47.464
 6.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    48.674
 7.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +    59.713
 8.  Massa         Ferrari                    +  1m06.076
 9.  Petrov        Renault                    +  1m11.917
10.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth          +  1m17.615
11.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +  1m23.994
12.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +  1m31.976
13.  Senna         Renault                    +  1m32.985
14.  Trulli        Lotus-Renault              +     1 lap
15.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault              +     1 lap
16.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
17.  D'Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +     1 lap
18.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +     1 lap
19.  Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth               +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Webber, 1m48.883

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Perez         Sauber-Ferrari               27
Ricciardo     HRT-Cosworth                 13 
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             12
Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari           6     
Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari           1

World Championship standings, round 11:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel       259        1.  Red Bull-Renault          426
 2.  Webber       167        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          295
 3.  Alonso       157        3.  Ferrari                   231
 4.  Button       149        4.  Mercedes                   88
 5.  Hamilton     146        5.  Renault                    68
 6.  Massa         74        6.  Sauber-Ferrari             35
 7.  Rosberg       56        7.  Force India-Mercedes       32
 8.  Schumacher    42        8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         22
 9.  Petrov        34        9.  Williams-Cosworth           5
10.  Heidfeld      34       
11.  Kobayashi     27       
12.  Sutil         24       
13.  Buemi         12       
14.  Alguersuari   10       
15.  Di Resta       8       
16.  Perez          8       
17.  Barrichello    4
18.  Maldonado      1       
       
All timing unofficial

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

TEAM-BY-TEAM

Webber was quickest in two of the fairly inconclusive wet practice sessions, but it was Vettel who surged to another commanding pole, while the Australian lined up third.

Red Bull had the worst of the tyre concerns after qualifying and both its drivers pitted for new rubber by lap five in the race. Vettel had been leading after an initial exchange with Rosberg, while Webber lost five places off the start when his anti-stall kicked in. But both flew on fresh tyres, produced some outstanding overtaking moves, and were soon back up to first and third.

Vettel got some more fresh tyres under the safety car, then charged back past Webber and Alonso and went on to win. Radio issues meant Webber didn't pit at the same time, but he kept his rubber alive, overcame Alonso late on, and finished second.

McLaren

Hamilton qualified second while Button was only 13th, having misjudged his tactics in the drying part of Q2. Damage amid the first lap chaos then dropped Button even further back - but did allow him to modify his tactics and get rid of the harder tyres early. A brilliant charge thereafter eventually brought him to third.

Hamilton fought with the Red Bulls and Ferraris early on, led for a bit, and would have been in the podium hunt at least, but a clash with Kobayashi (who, unlike the McLaren, had yet to make a first pitstop) sent Hamilton into the Les Combes barriers.

Ferrari

Tyre temperatures issues yet again marred Ferrari's weekend, as although Massa did a fine job to qualify fourth, Alonso was only eighth.

The Spaniard needed just seven laps to turn that into the race lead, but could not keep Vettel behind when the Red Bull had fresher tyres after the safety car. Then when Alonso fitted the medium Pirellis, his pace deserted him and he fell to fourth behind Webber and Button.

Massa lost a little ground when an unsuccessful move on Rosberg left him vulnerable to Alonso and Hamilton, and a puncture later on didn't help. He finally made it back to eighth.

Mercedes

Being the only men to manage flying laps on slicks before the rain arrived on Friday morning meant Schumacher and Rosberg completed the first session of weekend in first and second places.

That was somewhat fortunate, but that luck deserted Schumacher on Saturday when his car shed a wheel on the out-lap in Q1, sending him into the wall and to 24th on the grid. Rosberg fared better and took a strong fifth.

The younger German then made a brilliant start and boldly overtook Vettel on lap one to lead for a spell. He couldn't hold on forever though, and would eventually fall back to sixth, having to save fuel in the closing stages.

It was Schumacher who passed him for fifth at the end, as the former champion reproduced some of his old flair and charged through the field, helped by getting the slower hard tyre out of the way quickly.

Renault

Senna's return to a race seat started badly when he crashed in opening practice, got a lot better when he qualified seventh - three places ahead of Petrov - then went downhill again when he clattered into Alguersuari at the first corner. That meant a pitstop for repairs, a drivethrough penalty and a 13th-place finish. Petrov was always in points contention but severe brake problems meant he had to tiptoe home to take ninth.

Barrichello and Maldonado were 13th and 16th in qualifying, but the latter would be demoted to 21st for a retaliatory clash with Hamilton.

Maldonado made up for it in the race with a strong drive to 10th and his first point, while a late pitstop to attend to a broken front wing left Barrichello 16th.

Di Resta was knocked out in Q1 for the first time in his F1 career - and was peeved that he was told to pit when there was time for another lap in the drying conditions. Sutil made it through and looked like he might reach Q3 but a crash at Eau Rouge left him 15th on the grid.

A strong race drive took Sutil to seventh, while di Resta made good progress to take 11th despite getting hit by Glock at the start and then pitting too late under the safety car because Sutil was already being attended to by the crew.

Perez reached ninth on the grid in qualifying while Kobayashi came close to a Q3 slot but had to settle for 12th.

That should have put them in good stead for the race given their usual tyre kindness, but Kobayashi had a collision with Hamilton, pitted too late in the safety car period, and then lacked the pace to recover, leaving him 12th. Perez tangled with Buemi, was penalised for this, then retired with a rear end issue.

Alguersuari celebrated a career-best sixth on the grid, but had nothing to smile about on Sunday, when a first-corner collision with Senna ended his race on the opening lap.

Buemi only narrowly missed Q3 and started 11th, but was also out early, in his case thanks to a collision with Perez.

Kovalainen made it to Q3 and took 17th, which became 16th when Maldonado was penalised. Trulli was 19th. Both suffered damage when they were forced together amid the first corner mess started when Glock hit di Resta, but they recovered well for 14th and 15th, Trulli ahead despite a broken floor, while Kovalainen had needed a new front wing.

Liuzzi and Ricciardo were at least able to outqualify Schumacher as they took 22nd and 23rd, and had a chance to get among the lower midfield in the chaotic early part of the race. But by the flag Liuzzi had been shuffled back to 19th and Ricciardo was an early retirement with a problem at the rear of his car.

Glock and D'Ambrosio qualified in their usual positions between Lotus and HRT. Glock then picked up wing damage and a penalty when he ran into di Resta at the start, but recovered to beat Liuzzi to 18th. D'Ambrosio secured 17th in his first home grand prix.

RACE DATA

The Race in Action

Full race lap times (H)

Full race lap times (V)

Lap chart (positions)

Lap chart (gaps)