Smash and grab at Spa

The race for the Formula One drivers championship turned into a four-way fight at the Belgian Grand Prix yesterday after a multi-car first-lap crash put title leader Jenson Button out of the race.

The race for the Formula One drivers championship turned into a four-way fight at the Belgian Grand Prix yesterday after a multi-car first-lap crash put title leader Jenson Button out of the race. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen won the Grand Prix in Spa to move up to fifth in the standings, but the main beneficiary of Button's bad luck was Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel who grabbed third place and moved to third in the standings, leapfrogging teammate Mark Webber.

It was the 2007 world champion Raikkonen's first victory of the season and though the Finn is too far off the pace in the championship race, 20.5 points now separate the top four, with five Grands Prix left. And the German Vettel pledged to fight the faltering Button all the way for the title. "It's still open. It's a little bit crazy, to be honest. It's up and down but we're still in reach and it shows how important it is to be consistent," he said.

Button crashed out when he was hit from behind by Renault's Romain Grosjean as the pack approached Les Combes corner. Button, who still holds a 16-point lead over Brawn GP teammate Rubens Barrichello, did not know much about the incident. "I got a very good start. I made up something like four places," said Button, who has not finished on the podium since winning the Turkish GP on June 7. "I got hit from behind, it didn't matter anyway because we weren't competitive here. As we were going down the straight through turn five, Grosjean out-braked himself. It's frustrating to be taken out like that." In the aftermath of the Button crash, Lewis Hamilton, of McLaren, and Torro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari also collided, leading to the safety car being deployed.

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