Spa-Francorchamps, 16th September 2007

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro are unbeatable in the 2007 Constructors' championship following Sunday's resounding one-two in the sunny Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. McLaren's points have been taken away following the FIA World Council judgement on Thursday. Ferrari have 161 points to BMW Sauber's 90, so they are now uncatchable.

The Driver's championship is still open, however. Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa finished an excellent one-two, but Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were three-four. Hamilton now leads the championship by just two points from his teammate, while Alonso is eleven points ahead of Raikkonen, who is seven ahead of teammate Massa.

The Ferraris led off the front row into the tight La Source hairpin where Massa slightly locked up, tempting Alonso to go wide around him which pushed teammate Hamilton even wider around him. The second McLaren ran right off the circuit but was able to get back on without problems, rejoining in fourth place.



At the end of lap one, Raikkonen already had a 1.3s gap to teammate Massa who was pushed by Alonso and Hamilton before a small gap to fifth placed Nico Rosberg, followed by Heikki Kovalainen, Mark Webber, Nick Heidfeld (who had lost two places) and Ralf Schumacher.

Raikkonen would gradually ease away from Massa during the opening stint, while the second Ferrari would do the same to the McLarens. But the silver cars remained just a couple of seconds apart. As expected, the four pulled away from the rest, where the one-stopping Kovalainen steadily dropped back as the BMW Saubers recovered, Kubica after a ten place hit on the grid due to an engine change.

The two-stoppers began to pit on lap 14. Raikkonen had pulled out a 5.4s gap over teammate Massa, with a similar gap back to Alonso, but Hamilton was only three seconds behind his teammate in fourth place. After their first stops, Raikkonen's lead had dropped to 4.8s, but Massa's margin to Alonso had risen to more than double that. Hamilton was still around 2.5s behind his teammate.

In the second stint, Raikkonen's lead would fluctuate by as much as two seconds, but it was still 5.9s when the Finn pitted on lap 31, while the Ferraris' margin back to the first McLaren was now 14 seconds. Hamilton, however, had dropped further behind his teammate.

Raikkonen was only two seconds ahead of Massa when they emerged from their second stops, now on softer tyres, which they both were surprised to find quite favourable. That gap rose to nearly 4.7s over the final 12 laps, with the Ferraris ensuring their one-two with some carefull laps which saw their margin over the McLarens come down from 14s to just under ten at the chequered flag. Hamilton also dropped back from behind his teammate, but as ever, the first four finished but this time with the Ferraris ahead of the McLarens.

Nick Heidfeld managed to overtake Rosberg for fifth place at the first stop, but the Williams driver sealed sixth place with Mark Webber scoring an excellent seventh. Kovalainen was pushed all the way to the chequered flag by Robert Kubica but hung on to score the final championship point.