Ballistic Belgium

Spa-Francorchamps, many a Formula 1 fans favourite circuit. It never fails to deliver the goods.

Jenson Button, who started on pole, got a speedy getaway but in his mirrors an over-eager Pastor Maldonado jump started off the line while Romain Grosjean locked with Lewis Hamilton, sending the McLaren like a bowling ball down a very expensive alley, taking Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez out with him. With carnage and Formula 1 debris spread over the track both Pastor Maldonado and Kamui Kobayashi pitted - a horrible race for Sauber after their best qualifying.

With the safety car out as the marshals cleared the track and several replays later Lap 5 and it was back racing.

Jenson Button left the rest of the pack and went on his merry way while Pastor Maldonado was in tangles once again, this time with Marussia driver Timo Glock. Maldonado pulled up and retired from the race.

Michael Schumacher, racing his 300th GP, showed he's still got the skills pulling a great move on kimi Raikkonen at the top of Les Combes meanwhile fellow German Sebastian Vettel was on a mission of gaining place... yep, Sebastian Vettel, you know the driver that can't overtake... well he put everyone in their place at Spa and showed he can definitely overtake! 

Trouble went from the track to the pit lane with Caterham performing an unsafe release of Heikki Kovalainen who went in to the back of a HRT about to pit. While further up a few laps later Mark Webber was also released in to the path of Felipe Massa, a close call but neither were affected.

Fighting for position were Marussia's Timo Glock and Charles Pic with some fine racing between them eventually Timo Glock makes his pass stick and stays ahead of his rookie teammate.

Out way ahead of the rest of the grid Jenson Button cruised (rather fast) to victory in Belgium followed by Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen - who's first time it was not winning or binning it at the circuit but a 3rd position instead.

Nico Hulkenberg had his best result this season finishing in 4th, a great result for the Force India team with team mate Paul di Resta in 10th. Toro Rosso also had a positive race with both their driver double point scoring, Jean-Eric Vergne finishing in 8th and Daniel Ricciardo finishing behind him in 9th.

Subsequently after the first corner collision at Spa Romain Grosjean was handed a one race ban and fined - the first ban since 1994! 

Pastor Maldonado was also given two penalty's for Monza; a five place grid drop for jump starting and another 5 place grid drop for colliding with Timo Glock. 

RESULTS:

Fastest Lap: Bruno Senna: 1:52.822

Podium:

[1st-Jenson Button, 2nd-Sebastian Vettel, 3rd-Kimi Raikkonen] 

48

Two years on, he may be gone but he's not forgotten, how could you ever forget someone like Shoya Tomizawa. His smile, personality and his racing talent are all greatly missed.

'On the track and beyond, we will always follow your line'

[The day his name went down in history -His first win in Qatar, the first ever win in the new Moto2 series. The look of disbelief, one of what should have been many more trophies] 

Race in Peaee Shoya ♥

Check mate in Brno

Back on European soil at Karel Abreham's circuit and home Grand Prix in the Czech Republic.

MotoGP:
On thursday it was announced that Honda rider Casey Stoner will be flying out to Australia after medical specialists confirmed he needed an operation on his ankle. He posted photo's of his injury to his Twitter account shortly after the Indy GP and how he managed to ride a 1000cc bike in his state i do not know - it's true MotoGP rider's are machine's. With all the intentions of riding this weekend Stoner now faces being out for a lengthy amount of time, he says he hopes to be fit and ready for the penultimate race at Philip Island, Australia (28th october) which will be his last home GP before his retirement at the end of this season.
As well as Stoner not being able to race at Brno, Ducati rider Nicky Hayden was also absent from the weekend. He stayed back in the US to recover from his hand injury as advised.
*Neither were replaced by test riders, however Jonathan Rea will be testing the Honda on Monday and is set to replace the Australian until he returns.

Jorge Lorenzo started from pole and had an impressive start, with the pocket rocket Dani Pedrosa on his exhaust. Both Tech 3 riders, Ben Spies and Valentino Rossi all got off to a good start too, battling for 3rd and 4th.
The black cloud loomed over Ben Spies once again, this time he faced clutch problems off the line and after momentarily battling for 3rd he rapidly dropped down the field in to 13th where he remained till he took a tumble in the gravel, another retirement for the Texan.
Who said MotoGP was always boring?! Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa gave us some antagonising action for 1st place, countlessly changing the lead right to the end. Pedrosa definitely gave his team a taste of what he hopes next year will be like! Pedrosa took it down to the wire and won the race ahead of Lorenzo.
Away from the front two Cal Crutchlow had a lonely race in 3rd, where he finished the race on his Tech 3 Yamaha - he made history and became the first driver to step on the podium in 12 years!! Let's hope there's many more podium celebrations to come!
Rookie Stefan Bradl had his best MotoGP race of the year finishing in 5th after battling with Alvaro Bautista and Valentino for much of the race, hard to believe it's only his first season in the the premier class. Rossi finished the race in 7th after a blowout of oil in the early stages of the race meant he had no boot grip, he also dropped off the pace after tyre issues hampered his race.
Home rider Karel Abraham finished in 9th.

[1st-Dani Pedrosa, 2nd- Jorge Lorenzo, 3rd-Cal Crutchlow]

Next Up:

After back to back races MotoGP now has 3 weeks to recover from two eventful GP's. 

The next race will be a tough one as we head to San Marino otherwise known as Misano World Circuit  Marco Simoncelli, renamed in memory of Super Sic who lived a few miles away. The GP will be held from 14th-16th September.