Jenson Button led the World Championship entering the Belgian race weekend with an 18-point lead over Brawn GP teammate Rubens Barrichello. Mark Webber was 2½ points behind Barrichello in third. Brawn GP led Red Bull Racing by 27½ points in the Constructors' Championship.
Rain affected the first practice session. Jarno Trulli posted the fastest lap followed by Button. The second session stayed dry throughout with Hamilton topping the session. Fisichella came sixth. This session was notable for 18 of the 20 cars coming within less than a second from the leader.
The first session would see five cars drop out and decide the final five grid positions. Badoer qualified 20th. Fisichella topped the session with Trulli finishing just behind him.
The final session would see the remaining 10 grid positions be decided. Räikkönen, driving the only KERS car in the top 10, came in sixth. The two BMW Saubers' new updates seemed to be lifting the whole team as Kubica and Heidfeld achieved their best qualifying positions of the season. Force India took their very first pole position with Fisichella. Trulli took second place.
As the race started, Hamilton and Rubens Barrichello had poor starts, Barrichello dropping to the back of the field. A crash at Les Combes brought out the safety car. Romain Grosjean ran into the back of Jenson Button, causing both to retire. Lewis Hamilton slowed, and Jaime Alguersuari ran into him; both crashed into the barrier and retired. The safety car came in on lap 5 with Fisichella still leading and Räikkönen right behind him. Räikkönen passed Fisichella through the Eau Rouge corner and into Les Combes.
Räikkönen and Fisichella pitted for the second time on the same lap, with Räikkönen emerging in front and keeping his lead. Vettel recorded the fastest lap of the race but was unable to catch the leaders. Räikkönen took the chequered flag for the first time this season with Fisichella scoring Force India's first-ever points with a second-place finish. Vettel finished third, followed by the two BMW Saubers and Heikki Kovalainen finishing sixth. Rubens Barrichello came in seventh with Nico Rosberg picking up the final point in eighth. Barrichello's car was smoking from the back for the last few laps and the car caught fire in parc fermé.
Button's failure to score reduced his championship lead as Barrichello closed the gap by two points. Vettel's third place moved him ahead of his teammate Webber. Räikkönen's win extended Ferrari's lead in the constructors' championship over McLaren. Fisichella was released from his contract at Force India and joined Ferrari until the end of the season. Force India announced that Vitantonio Liuzzi would replace Fisichella for the remaining five races of the season.
The information presented is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted for this article.
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