Raikkonen takes third straight Spa win

The McLarens were no match for the Ferraris and had to settle for third and fourth, with Fernando Alonso finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton and narrowing the rookie's championship lead to just two points with three rounds remaining.

The result meant that, pending McLaren's decision to appeal their penalty, Ferrari are constructors' champions.

Massa had briefly challenged Raikkonen on the outside at the start, before settling into second place.

Just behind, the McLarens were also wheel to wheel into La Source. Alonso edged Hamilton onto the extended run-off area, but the Briton found excellent traction and accelerated back on track level with his teammate.

They then ran side by side into Eau Rouge, with Alonso holding on around the outside at the first part of the corner before claiming third as the track turned right.

Raikkonen proceeded to dominate the race, easily establishing a four second lead over Massa and maintaining it to the flag.

The McLarens ran longer stints, but simply lacked the pace to get on terms with the leaders, and fell 20 seconds adrift in the middle stint.

Hamilton went four laps further on his second fuel load in a bid to vault ahead of Alonso, but the Spaniard found more speed on his fresh tyres than his teammate could muster from his very light car, and Hamilton rejoined six seconds behind him.

He pushed hard to close the gap, even going off the road briefly at Pouhon, but had to settle for fourth.

The result means that Hamilton is now two points ahead of Alonso, with Raikkonen closing to within 13 points of the leader.

Nick Heidfeld lost ground running wide at La Source on the first lap, but jumped ahead of Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber in the first stops and then pulled away from them to secure fifth. Rosberg also edged away from Webber and finished sixth.

Renault's Heikki Kovalainen used a one-stop strategy to fend off the charging Robert Kubica for the final point. After his engine change penalty in qualifying, Kubica made good progress in the opening laps but lost time behind the one stopping cars in the middle stages.

The two-stopping Jarno Trulli again lost ground at the start and consequently spent the race in traffic. That meant he finished behind his one-stopping Toyota teammate Ralf Schumacher in 11th. Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi took 12th.

The star of the largely uneventful race was Spyker's Adrian Sutil, who used a relatively light fuel load to charge through the field to 12th in the opening laps. He ultimately finished 14th, right behind Honda's Rubens Barrichello.

Jenson Button retired the second Honda with hydraulic problems, the same failure that also eliminated Red Bull's David Coulthard.

Alex Wurz also dropped out after a messy race that saw him spin at the Bus Stop and then fall to last - behind Sakon Yamamoto - when he ran across the grass at Les Combes.

The race hardly even got going for Giancarlo Fisichella, who retired with a suspension problem on the opening lap.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Belgian Grand Prix
Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium;
44 laps; 308.176km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1h20:39.066
 2.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  +     4.695
 3.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +    14.343
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +    23.615
 5.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  +    51.879
 6.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  +  1:16.876
 7.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  +  1:20.639
 8.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  +  1:25.106
 9.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  +  1:25.661
10.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  +  1:28.558
11.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  +  1:43.633
12.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  +     1 lap
14.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  +     1 lap
15.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +     1 lap
16.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +     1 lap
17.  Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:48.036

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Button        Honda                (B)    37
Wurz          Williams-Toyota      (B)    35
Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)    30
Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)    9
Fisichella    Renault              (B)    2


World Championship standings, round 14:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:
 1.  Hamilton      97        1.  Ferrari              161
 2.  Alonso        95        2.  BMW Sauber            90
 3.  Raikkonen     84        3.  Renault               39
 4.  Massa         77        4.  Williams-Toyota       28
 5.  Heidfeld      56        5.  Red Bull-Renault      18
 6.  Kubica        33        6.  Toyota                12
 7.  Kovalainen    22        7.  Super Aguri-Honda      4
 8.  Fisichella    17        8.  Honda                  2
 9.  Rosberg       15
10.  Wurz          13
11.  Webber        10
12.  Coulthard      8
13.  Trulli         7
14.  R.Schumacher   5
15.  Sato           4
16.  Button         2
17.  Vettel         1
 
       
All timing unofficial