The race started on dry track. Mark Webber, from pole, "forgot" to start and the result was him loosing 6 places. Lewis Hamilton took advantage of this and took the first place, with Jenson Button being second after the first lap.
A few minutes later some rain drops appeared, causing many drivers to loose the braking point for the bus stop chicane. One of them has been Rubens Barichello, who crashed on Fernando Alonso, and ended his 300th anniversary race.
The Spaniard took a risk and immediately switched to intermediate tyres, while the safety Car entered the track the very next lap. It seemed good for him, provided that the raind would have continued. But it did not. He switched again to the hard component and re-entered the track in the last places.
Back in front, Lewis Hamilton was increasing his lead, with the help of his team-mate Jenson Button, who held Vettel, Kubica and Webber behind him. Sebastian Vettel made his move during braking for the bus stop, but a mistake lead him on Button. Button retired and Vettel had a front wing change and re-entered the race. He was also handed a drive-through penalty for this incident, which dropped him further behind, practically ending his race.
The problems for Red Bull continued as during lap 28, Liuzzi crashed on him, and punctured his tyre. he changed his tyres after completing almost a full lap on the punctured one and re-joined ahead of Yamamoto, who was in the last place.
Some time later Spa made another decision and the rain started dropping. Most drivers pitted and changed their tyres with intermediates, while some of them had chosen full wets. Lewis Hamilton run wide in Les Combes, but managed to just miss the wall and continued without loosing the lead.
The rain continued heavier, and Alonso, after a crash, caused the Safety Car to re-enter the race on lap 38. As the race started again, Hamilton was on the lead, followed by Mark Webber and Robert Kubica in a great finish for Renault.
The race results are as follows :
01 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1hr29.04.268
02 Mark Webber RBR-Renault +1.5 secs
03 Robert Kubica Renault +3.4 secs
04 Felipe Massa Ferrari +8.2 secs
05 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes +9.0 secs
06 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP +12.3 secs
07 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP +15.5 secs
08 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari +16.6 secs
09 Vitaly Petrov Renault +23.8 secs
10 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari +29.4 secs
11 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes +34.8 secs
12 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari +36.0 secs
13 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari +39.8 secs
14 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth +1 Lap
15 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault +1 Lap
16 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth +1 Lap
17 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth +1 Lap
18 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth +1 Lap
19 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth +1 Lap
20 Sakon Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth +2 Lap
Ret Fernando Alonso Ferrari +7 Lap
Ret Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +29 Laps
Ret Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth +39 Laps
Ret Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 43 laps
