F1 News
Date: 2/September/2012
Jenson Button claimed a perfect lights-to-flag victory in Sunday’s eventful Belgian F1 Grand Prix, marking his 14th career win and first ever at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
Button used his pole position to safely negotiate the turn one hairpin, escaping the carnage that saw five drivers eliminated after a collision between Button’s McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Romain Grosjean.
Grosjean, who began the race in eighth, had turned diagonally across seventh-place starter Hamilton as the field shuffled towards turn one.
Hamilton became pinched between the Lotus and the inside of the track, with his front-left wheel hitting Grosjean’s rear. The pair then slammed into the Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez, plus World Championship leader Fernando Alonso.
Alonso was lucky to escape injury when Grosjean’s car bounced across the nose of his Ferrari. Hamilton made his feelings clear as he climbed out of the cockpit and remonstrated with Grosjean, pointing to his helmet in a ‘What were you thinking?’ type-gesture.
Grosjean, 26, is competing in his first full F1 season. He has taken three podiums, but also been involved in several early-race incidents. The FIA appears to have lost patience, banning the Frenchman from next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza and fining him 50,000 Euros.
An FIA statement declared: “The [race] stewards regard this incident as an extremely serious breach of the regulations which had the potential to cause injury to others. It eliminated leading championship contenders from the race.
"The stewards note the team conceded the action of the driver was an extremely serious mistake and an error of judgement. Neither the team nor the driver made any submission in mitigation of penalty.”
A bitterly disappointed Grosjean responded: “When your life is all about racing, not being allowed to attend an event is probably one of the worst experiences you can go through. That said, I do respect the verdict of the Stewards.”
Reflecting on the incident, Grosjean said that he believed he was clear of Hamilton.
“I honestly thought I was ahead of him and there was enough room for both cars; I didn’t deliberately try to squeeze him or anything like that.
“I wish to apologise to the drivers who were involved and to their fans. I can only say that today is part of a process that will make me a better driver."
Lotus plans to field a reserve driver in place of Grosjean at Monza.
By the time Grosjean’s punishment was announced, Button had won the race by almost 14-seconds. The Englishman was never headed, even during his pit stop at half-distance.
Button said: “Turn One looked pretty crazy - in my mirrors, I could see cars all over the place.
“For me, it was all pretty straightforward though. We got to lap 12 and the team asked me how the car was feeling; I told them that the balance was getting better and better, so we were able to get to lap 20 before pitting.
“We need to score big points in both world championships - and today was exactly what we required. Until I can’t mathematically fight for the drivers’ world championship, I won’t give up on it. I think I showed that today.”
Button, who previously took victory in the Australia season opener, joins Alonso and Mark Webber (Red Bull) as the only multiple winners of the season so far. The result also moves Button up to sixth in the World Championship, 63 points from Alonso.
Red Bull’s reigning world champion Vettel finished runner-up to Button at Spa, despite starting just tenth on the grid, with the surviving Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen completing the podium in third.
Alonso’s first non-score of the year has cut his title advantage from 40 to 24 points over new nearest rival Vettel.
The Spaniard praised the safety of modern F1 cars and, although he didn’t attribute blame directly on Grosjean, felt that young drivers are picking up some bad habits in the lower classes.
Alonso said: “I’m fine, except my left shoulder hurts a bit: I went to the medical centre immediately after the accident but everything is alright, the pain only comes from the whiplash.
“I had no idea what happened: I had overtaken the two Saubers when I felt as though I had been run into by a train! I am lucky to be able to get back in the car in just a few days. The level of safety of these cars is very high and today we saw further proof of that.
“I am not angry with Grosjean, he definitely didn’t do it on purpose: it was a case of me being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Rather, I think that certain drivers should try and take fewer risks at the start: it’s a bit of a tendency currently in the junior formulae, but it would be better, if right from the start of their career, they got used to respecting more strictly the rules relating to behaviour on track.”
Monza, Ferrari’s home event, will form round 13 of 20.
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