Belgian GP 2005
SEPTEMBER 11, 2005
Race Notes - Raikkonen wins Belgian GP
© The Cahier Archive
Kimi Raikkonen won the Belgian GP, at Spa-Francorchamps, taking his sixth victory of the season in his McLaren-Mercedes. World championship leader Fernando Alonso in his Renault, finished second, 28.3 seconds behind. Jenson Button finished third in his BAR-Honda, 3.6 seconds further behind.
Fourth place went to Mark Webber in the Williams-BMW, Rubens Barrichello in the Ferrari was fifth, Jacques Villeneuve in the Sauber-Petronas was sixth, Ralf Schumacher in the Toyota was seventh and Tiago Monteiro took the final point in his Jordan-Toyota.
At the start, on a damp track, Trulli got past Alonso for third, and Michael Schumacher got past his brother for fifth.
On lap 10, Montoya led Raikkonen by less than a second, followed by Trulli in third five seconds further back, Alonso, Michael Schumacher, Takuma Sato, Button, Fisichella, Massa and Coulthard
On lap 10, Fisichella touched a curb coming out of Eau Rouge and crashed, bringing out the safety car - and nearly all the field took advantage and pitted, Montoya racing ahead of Raikkonen so that his pitstop was completed when his team mate and the rest of the field arrived in the pits.
When the field restarted on lap 13, the order was Montoya, ahead of Jacques Villeneuve (who did not pit), Ralf Schumacher, Raikkonen, Alonso, Trulli, Massa, Barrichello, Monteiro and Micahel Schumacher in 10th.
At the hairpin, Sato ran into the back of Michael Schumacher taking both cars out. On the sam lap Ralf Schumacher and Raikkonen got past Villeneuve,
On lap 18, Coulthard's engine expired dropping oil at the hairpin.
At lap 19, the running order was Montoya, with Ralf Schumacher on his tail, Raikkonen in third followed by Villeneuve, Alonso, Massa, Barrichello, Webber, Button and Monteiro.
On lap 20, Jacques Villeneuve finally made his first stop taking on a lot of fuel and coming out in 8th.
On lap 24, Ralf pitted from second, taking on dry weather tyres, rejoining in fourth, and promptly spun at the top of the hill, pitting again on lap 25 for intermediates, coming out in 12th.
Massa made his final stop on lap 29 from fourth place, Barrichello and Klien on lap 31, Alonso, Webber, Karthikeyan and Trulli on lap 32, Montoya, Button and Pizzonia on lap 33, and Kimi Raikkonen on lap 34, rejoining ahead of his team mate Montoya.
On lap 36, Trulli crashed in his Toyota.
On lap 36 the order was Raikkonen ahead of Montoya, followed by Alonso, Barrichello, Button, Webber, Ralf Schumacher Pizzonia, Villeneuve and Monteiro in 10th.
On lap 39 Webber pitted to take on dry weather tyres, followed by his team mate Pizzonia, Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher on lap 40.
On lap 41, Montoya and Pizzonia made contact, putting both cars out.