Vettel cruises to victory at Belgian Grand Prix

Vettel cruises to victory at Belgian Grand Prix
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Summary Sebastian Vettel stretched his Formula One lead to 92 points in a Red Bull one-two finish.

World champion Sebastian Vettel won the Belgian Grand Prix and stretched his Formula One lead to 92 points in a Red Bull one-two finish with Australian Mark Webber.Vettels compatriot Nico Rosberg stormed into the lead at the start in his Mercedes before Vettel overtook on the third lap.Webber made a shocking start from third place, wrestling with the anti-stall device as others roared past, but escaped the early mayhem triggered by Brazilian Bruno Senna on his Renault debut. Senna picked up a drive-through penalty for causing a collision.There had been serious doubts about the durability of Vettels cars tyres after both Red Bulls suffered heavy degradation in qualifying but in the end the fears proved groundless as the team managed their pit stops effectively.McLarens Lewis Hamilton, last years winner at Spa, crashed heavily at Les Combes on the 13th of 44 laps while challenging for fourth place.Hamilton was unhurt but the incident brought out the safety car while debris was cleared.Britains Jenson Button carved his way up the field from 13th on the grid and finished third for McLaren. Ferraris Fernando Alonso, who finished fourth, looked a real threat before fading.Seven times champion Michael Schumacher, the sports most successful racer, celebrated the 20th anniversary of his Formula One debut at Spa with a fighting fifth place after starting in last position.Rosberg was sixth, ahead of compatriot Adrian Sutil for Force India and Ferraris Brazilian Felipe Massa in eighth.Renaults Russian Vitaly Petrov was ninth and Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado collected his first point in Formula One for Williams in 10th.Vettels victory was the 24-year-old Germans seventh in 12 races so far this year, with seven rounds remaining worth a maximum 175 points.It was Red Bulls second one-two of the season and Vettels first win since Valencia in June. He now has 259 points to Webbers 167 after his 17th career win.It was more management than usual but the car worked brilliantly, said Vettel. I enjoyed every lap today...if the car does what you want it to do, this place is really fun.We had reason to be confident (about the tyres). Otherwise the alternative would have been to change the set-up and start from the pit lane.

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