Spa's warm tarmac carpets challenges drivers as proved in qualifying when Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa failed to qualify in the top 10. Button started in pole position (his first pole position for McLaren Mercedes) followed by Kobayashi and Malaldo.
This race was special for Michael Schumacher because this was his 300th race. He started in 13th. After the formation lap Kobayashi had a lot of smoke coming from his brakes however the race started as usual. Just before the first corner Hamilton, Alonso, Grosjean and Perez crashed out. At first the crash was contrevertial about who was to blame however looking at the footage closer it is clear that Grosjean cut into the side of Hamilton forcing him to go over the top of Alonso and pushing Perez off the track too.
Maldonado got off to a great start however was clipped during the crash and later on had to retire from the race with a broken front wing. Also, Kobayashi, who did so well to get to 2nd position then spent the rest of the race at the back.
The only person who got something out of this crash seemed to be Michael Schumacher getting up to 5th position.
After 10 laps Button was still leading the race with Hulkenberg up to 2nd, Raikkonen in 3rd and Schumacher in 4th.
There was no more incidents in the race however lots of battling for position especially from Sebastian Vettel who by lap 38 had made it to 2nd position from 11th.
By the end of the race, Jenson Button had maintained his position, finishing first (being the only driver to lead for every single lap of a race this year) followed by Vettel, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Massa and then Webber. A unusual result with the big teams like Ferrari and McLaren not ruling the top ten.
Despite Fernando Alonso going out early this race, he is still winning the drivers championship with 164 points, leading with 24 points over Sebastian Vettel who is coming 2nd in the overall standings.