Raikkonen, Alonso and Button on the podium at Spa

Under a grey, fuzzy sky and a drying track, the drivers were ready for the start of the last Grand Prix on European ground for the 2005 season. It promised to be a very stringent and dangerous race.

The two Minardi drivers weren't on the grid before the formation lap. Doornbos and Albers were still in the pits and had to start last.
In the La Source, Jarno Trulli almost passed Kimi Raikkonen but the Finn was able to keep the the Italian behind him. Juan Pablo Montoya, who started on pole, took the lead, followed by team mate Raikkonen, Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso. Michael Schumacher overtook his brother Ralf to take 5th place while B.A.R's Takuma Sato was able to come through in 6th after having passed 4 cars during his start.

Both McLaren's quickly pulled away from the pack while the other runners were rather closely together. Giancarlo Fisichella was the best man of that pack. The Roman took a good start gaining two places to 11th while in the following laps he quickly overtook David Coulthard, with Felipe Massa in sight.

After 6 laps, Juan Pablo Montoya was still in first position, but Kimi Raikkonen was less than a second away from his McLaren team mate. Alonso was already far behind after 10 laps and got chased by Michael Schumacher.

In lap 10, Giancarlo Fisichella was up in 6th place after several consecutive overtaking manouvres. He lost control of his Renault in Eau Rouge and hit the tyre barriers hard. Not much was left complete of his car while the Italian was completely disappointed. To clean up the track the safety car had to come out on the track.
All of a sudden almost all drivers came into the pits starting with Juan Pablo Montoya. Kimi Raikkonen held up all other drivers so that his teammate was sure of the first place while he gave his crew time to complete Juan's stop.

When the safety car left, Juan Pablo Montoya was still in the lead while Jacques Villeneuve was second. The latter missed his braking point at La Source and dropped two places to get on with the race just in front of Alonso. Both men almost hit each other as Villeneuve wildly threw himself in front of the Spaniard who could just avoid an accident. Few moments later Takuma Sato hit Michael Schumacher before taking La Source. After 14 laps, 3 drivers were already in the pits because of their involvement in a crash.

Just behind Juan Pablo Montoya, the youngest Schumacher, was pushing hard to keep up with the McLaren. The Toyota of Ralf was faster in the descent of the circuit.
In third position was the second McLaren of Raikkonen followed by Jacques Villeneuve who still had to come in for his first pit stop.

With still 26 laps to go, David Coulthard's engine started to smoke and the Red Bull lost a lot of oil on the track. Again a yellow flag situation.

Meanwhile Montoya got company of the youngest Schumacher whose Toyota was faster in the descent of the circuit. Just like Villeneuve he had not yet pitted and was on a hot pace. Montoya could feel the breath of the German in his neck.

When Villeneuve came in for his first pit stop in the 20th lap, Alonso moved up one place to 3rd, already around 10 seconds behind Raikkonen. Villeneuve rejoined the track in 8th position.

In the 23rd lap Jenson Button was able to overtake Jacques Villeneuve. It was a tense fight where both men proved why they are in Formula One. They drove 5 consecutive corners side by side but the Canadian finally lost his 8th place to Button.

A lap later Ralf Schumacher came in for his first stop and changed his tyres from wet to dry. After having made several spins he quickly realised the mistake and came in the next lap to get wet weather tyres again. Raikkonen took advantage of this incident and bad decision of Toyota to take the second place back. Fernando Alonso was in 3th position, followed by Felipe Massa and Rubens Barrichello who returned strong from a 15th position before the safety car situation (crash of Fisico).

In the front, Kimi Raikkonen was pushing hard to overtake his team mate. Raikkonen is still focused on the Drivers Championship and needs the extra points of a race win.

With only 12 laps to go Fernando Alonso came in for his second pit stop. The Spaniard was able to hold his 3rd position when he came back on the track.
Juan Pablo Montoya came in for his second pit stop, one lap after Alonso. Raikkonen took the lead, but he still had to come in for his final pit stop. When Kimi came out of the pitlane 2 laps later he was seconds ahead of Montoya and had the race win within reach.

As the race came to a close, Jarno Trulli hit a Jordan and crashed into the barriers in Les Combes. The Toyota wreckage resulted in yet another yellow flag situation.

Jenson Button on his behalf made up for his bad start and was able to overtake Rubens Barrichello, who was 4th at that time. Button finally made it to the podium after Montoya was unlucky to get hit by a backmarker. This was good news for the Renault team and for Fernando Alonso.
Surprise of the day is the performance of Tiago Monteiro. The Portuguese was able to collect 1 point for the Jordan Team.

This was, as usual, a very exciting race at the circuit of Francorchamps. Fernando Alonso wasn't able to insure his first championship title, but he did a great job finishing just behind Raikkonen. The Spaniard and Renaults advance in the two championships only decreases with two points.
After the early crash of Giancarlo Fisichella it didn't look good for Renault in the Constructor's Championship, but when Juan Pablo Montoya slipped of the track after a collision with the Williams of
Antonio Pizzonia, the sky turned blue for the Renaults.
It will be a very tensed fight between the Renaults and the McLarens in the last 3 races of the Championship. Next pit stop for the F1 circus is Brazil.