Belgian Grand Prix in 90 seconds

By Martin Brundle BBC F1 analyst

Giancarlo Fisichella's pole position and second place finish at the Belgium Grand Prix isn't so much of a shock when you look at the basic ingredients and where Force India has been heading of late.

They've been gathering pace and threatening to do this for a while but haven't delivered - in Germany last month, Fisichella's team-mate Adrian Sutil started seventh on the grid.

It's an amazing result - Fisichella

In Spa both Force India drivers were near the top 10 from the beginning of practice.

This was the first race of the year requiring a medium-downforce set-up on the cars, and their package simply worked from the get-go with regard to grip, balance, and straight-line speed. Fitting new tyres and making small front-wing changes seemed to make them go ever faster.

Fisichella raised his game, too. In qualifying he wasn't fastest in any of the three sectors on his pole lap but had pure pace all the way round and, fuel-load corrected, he was genuinely faster than eventual race-winner Kimi Raikkonen.

I honestly believe that if Fisichella had been a little bit sharper on the re-start after the first-lap safety car, and hadn't got caught by the power-boost Kers of the Ferrari up the hill, he would have waltzed off and won by several seconds.

He should have backed the pack up at the restart and then bolted like a rabbit.

He had a fundamentally fast package and he clearly wasn't overwhelmed to be at the front; he knows how to win a race even if his memory is a bit rusty.

It really struck me when Fisichella was behind Raikkonen that he was using 10% less track than the Ferrari - that's always a sign that a car is handling nicely and the driver is confident.

Button has the points, the car, the silky smooth speed, and all the ingredients to be the 2009 world champ. But does he have the head?

Further down the pack, we also saw his team-mate Sutil steaming past people with tremendous pace.

Force India clearly has, along with McLaren and Brawn, the best engine on the grid in Mercedes Benz. With the engine will come other knowledge with regard to installation, electronics, and transmission which is handy.

Furthermore, McLaren's Simon Roberts is the team's chief operating officer and so there is clearly some fast tracking going on.

Are Force India relying heavily on McLaren-Mercedes know-how? The answer is they are not 'McLaren-Lite' - their chassis and aerodynamics are very different and they are developing their own package.

McLaren are busy trying to rescue their own season without sorting Force India. Any help they were giving will stop now for sure!

Domenicali pleased to get first win

Force India definitely don't have the McMerc Kers system installed, so you have to say that it's all Force India in terms of making the car work. This is an experienced team who have somehow survived the Jordan/Midland/Spyker/Force India ownership changes of recent years.

What I think we saw in Spa was the effect of the ban on in-season testing. The big teams just can't relentlessly pound round and leave the little teams for dead; that's why we are seeing ever closer and more unpredictable racing too as cars are developed on the hoof.

Small teams have to get it right first time; they have no option or plan B.

Interestingly, Force India told me after the race that they would have to lose only one member of staff to meet the severe 2012 cost-cutting criteria. They already have a low team head-count and overheads and what we are seeing is how a small, focused group of people can really make a difference.

Force India also think they have an effective low-downforce setting to meet the high-speed demands of the next race in Monza on 13 September and that they are on a genuine roll. Time will tell.

Do I think they'll go to Italy, Singapore and Japan and do it all again?

I think they'll not populate their customary back of the grid places for sure, but I'd be surprised if they had clear race winning pace. They hit a sweet spot in Spa with the combination of aerodynamics, track conditions and tyres and they made it count.

Mixed feelings for Red Bull drivers

In this bizarre championship battle, Jenson Button is giving everybody an open goal to aim at and they all keep missing.

His Brawn GP team-mate, Rubens Barrichello, started fourth on the grid but his engine revs bogged down and anti-stall system kicked in for the second time this season. He did well to stay out of trouble but only grabbed two points for seventh place.

Once the team recognised Barrichello's problems off the start, they were quite smart in switching him to a regular two-stop strategy and he drove a good race, but it could have been so much better for him and major pain for Button.

Red Bull are still not entirely sure what happened to their weekend; even an hour before the race they were still wondering where the relative pace they had shown on Friday had disappeared to. And they were not alone in that; similar discussions were going on at Brawn and McLaren.

When I spoke to Mark Webber on Saturday morning his mind was already on the race and working out how to outfox the Kers runners up the hill; as far as he was concerned he was already at or near the front of the grid.

If he hadn't served a drive-through penalty for being dangerously released during a pit stop he would have had a solid result. He looked thoroughly dejected on the BBC after the race.

ANDREW BENSON BLOG If Button does not get himself together sooner rather than later, the title that seemed to be his for the taking could slip through his fingers

Red Bull don't have one driver consistently collecting the big points and that compounds their problems.

Sebastian Vettel finished third in Belgium having had some early dramas in the race and a very poor first lap. In the end he was just 3.8 seconds away from winner Raikkonen and that just shows how well the Red Bulls should have done.

Button himself is now coming off five dismal races by his 2009 standards. It was hardly his fault that he crashed in Spa.

If you are being Mr Sensible thinking about your race and protecting your championship lead and then a gung-ho new boy runs you off the road what can you do?

Button and Hamilton crash out at Spa

However, Button shouldn't have been so far back on the grid in the first place. He made a second consecutive and crucial mistake in qualifying to find himself in the danger zone for the race.

The bottom line is he has taken 11 points from five GPs and is still 16 points clear at the top of the championship.

He has the points, the car, the silky smooth speed, and all the ingredients to be the 2009 world champ. But does he have the head? I sense he might rebound from Spa.

Martin Brundle was talking to BBC Sport's Sarah Holt

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version