Kimi Raikkonen underlined his status as the modern-day Spa
master by chalking up his third consecutive victory at the majestic
Belgian track and keeping his world title hopes alive.
The Finn delivered a flawless lights-to-flag performance to lead
home team-mate Felipe Massa in a 1-2 finish for Ferrari that was
every bit as resounding as McLarens tour de force at Monza a week
earlier.
The MP4-22 was no match for the F2007 around Spas fast sweeping
corners and Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton had to settle for
third and fourth places.
By winning the intra-team battle Alonso made further inroads into
Hamiltons dwindling championship lead, whittling it to just two
points with three races remaining.
Raikkonens victory means he retains a slim chance of wresting the
title away from the McLaren duo, cutting his deficit to Hamilton to
13 points with 30 still up for grabs although he will have to
hope that the Mercedes-powered teams impressive reliability
falters.
After McLaren was stripped of all its points by the FIA last
Thursday, Ferrari only had to beat the BMWs at Spa to seal its 15th
constructors title which it duly achieved.
After a spectacular start and some action-packed opening laps, much
of the excitement in the race fizzled out and it all became rather
processional.
Both Ferraris got away well from the front row, while the McLarens
fought a pitched battle over third.
Hamilton tried to go round Alonso around the outside of La Source
but was given short shrift, the Spaniard running him very wide
across the asphalt apron on the exit.
Even so, Lewis got a better slingshot off the hairpin and drew
level with Fernando as they turned into Eau Rouge.
The pair then proceeded to drive side-by-side through the first two
parts of Formula 1s most awe-inspiring corner, Alonso finally
forcing Hamilton to cede on the right-handed climb through
Raidillon.
Heikki Kovalainen made an excellent getaway to vault from ninth to
sixth, which put him in a strong position as he was on a one-stop
pit strategy.
The penalty of carrying extra fuel and weight is greater at Spa
than at any other track, however, and the Finn was unable to avoid
back into the clutches of his pursuers.
Mark Webber was the first to pounce, getting a run on Kovalainen on
the long drag up the Kemmel straight and edging him towards the
inside on the approach to Les Combes to grab the preferred line
into the chicane.
By lap 11 both BMWs had got past too, courtesy of rather fraught
outbraking moves into the Bus Stop chicanes, demoting Kovalainen to
ninth.
Raikkonen soon stamped his authority on the race, edging steadily
away from team-mate Massa with each passing lap.
After six tours he was 2.4s to the good; by lap 12 he had doubled
that margin, giving himself a comfortable cushion ahead of the
first round of pit stops.
The McLaren duo simply had no answer for the Ferraris pace, Alonso
falling 9.7s behind Raikkonen by lap 12 with Hamilton a further
2.5s adrift.
Raikkonen and Alonso pitted together at the end of lap 15, and
their team-mates followed suit after one more circuit but it made
little difference to the order or gaps.
The middle stint progressed in much the same fashion. Ferrari, and
Raikkonen in particular, had the race by the throat, leaving the
McLaren drivers to wage a private duel for the final rostrum
place.
Raikkonen relinquished briefly the lead when he initiated the
second round of stops at the end of lap 31.
Massa and Alonso followed him in on successive laps, but Hamilton
who had taken on more fuel at the first stops and was on a longer
middle stint stayed out until lap 38.
The British rookie wasnt fast enough to capitalise, however, and
after taking on service he rejoined more than five seconds behind
Alonso.
The closing stages were enlivened by the shrinking gaps between the
two leading Ferraris and the McLaren pair as Massa and Hamilton
mounted last-gasp charges.
With a couple of laps remaining Massa had got Raikkonens lead down
to two seconds, but Kimi the Iceman remained unflustered and
coolly increased the gap back to 4.6s by the chequered flag.
Hamilton threw caution to the wind in his pursuit of Alonso until
a big scare on the penultimate lap when he got out of shape in the
middle of the 160mph Pouhon corner and had to drag the McLaren back
into line.
As so often this year, Nick Heidfeld finished best of the rest
behind the habitual top four, albeit a whopping 52 seconds shy of
the winning Ferrari.
After running wide at La Source on the first lap, the German the
opening stint behind Webber and Nico Rosberg, but leapfrogged both
with a later first stop.
Rosberg drove another yeomans race for Williams to finish sixth,
which finally hauled him above team-mate Alex Wurz in the drivers
points standings.
Webber capped a strong weekend by taking seventh for Red Bull,
although his team-mate David Coulthard fell victim to yet another
hydraulic problem with 15 laps to go.
Kovalainens one-stop strategy didnt really pay dividends,
although a bigger problem was the Renault R27s lack of raw
pace.
Nonetheless the rookie drove well again to fend off a marauding
Robert Kubica for eighth his sixth consecutive points-paying
finish.
Kubica paid heavily for the engine change penalty he incurred on
Saturday, which dropped him from fifth to 15th on the grid.
The Pole made good initial progress but lost ground behind the
one-stopping cars in the middle stint.
One man deserving a more than honourable mention is Adrian Sutil,
who performed superbly in the much-improved B-spec Spyker.
Helped by a fairly light fuel load, the young German made a
cracking start, making up four places on the opening lap.
He climbed as high as 12th giving the likes of Coulthard all the
pressure he could handle before ultimately slipping to
14th.
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The rest of the pack had no answer to the speed of the top 4
cars... Yesterday quali saw a 1second different 
