Just five days after the Italian Grand Prix, Formula One competition moved its base to Spa-Francorchamps in eastern Belgium for the Belgian Grand Prix, the fourteenth race of the season. It was a changed face of Spa-Francorchamps that greeted teams and spectators alike after a two year absence, the result of massive works reshaping areas such as the Bus Stop chicane and final corner.

Having tried out the new layout during testing here in July, Panasonic Toyota Racing brought in a new aerodynamics package designed specifically for the new course. The first practice session went smoothly for both drivers as they worked steadily through their scheduled programs, with Jarno Trulli finishing in eighth and Ralf Schumacher in 12th.

In the afternoon’s practice, which started to an ambient temperature of 19 degrees C and a track temperature of 28, the speed of the Toyota drivers continued to improve, with both marking times in the vicinity of one minute and 47 seconds. Trulli’s 1’47”491 saw him finish the day in fifth, with R. Schumacher directly behind in sixth with a time of 1’47”946.

Fastest on day one at the Belgian Grand Prix was McLaren’s Fernando Alonso with a time of 1’46”654.

Running back-to-back with the Italian Grand Prix, the Belgian Grand Prix continued on Saturday with the morning’s practice and afternoon’s qualifying.

Panasonic Toyota Racing continued to perform strongly, with both drivers finishing the morning’s practice in the top 10, giving the team their best chance of getting both drivers through to the final period of qualifying for the first time since the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The first period of qualifying proved trouble-free for both machines, seeing them move unsurprisingly through to period two. The second period was not as positive for the team, with Ralf Schumacher striking out with understeer that forced him off the run line in corner one. The end result saw him finish in 12th despite being just 0.13 seconds behind Jarno Trulli who finished in 10th.

Trulli continued in good form, with a faultless time attack in the final period seeing him finish in ninth; however, he moved up to eighth on the grid after Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber), who had finished in fifth, was dropped back ten places for an engine replacement ahead of qualifying.

Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) secured his third pole for this season (13th to date) with his time of 1’46”137.

The Belgian Grand Prix marks the fourteenth race since the start of the season and the final Grand Prix of the European round.

In the Italian Grand Prix the previous week, Panasonic Toyota Racing was left behind at the start by rival drivers. A thorough investigation into the cause proved worth their while as both machines performed well in the starting dash into the first corner. However, right in front of Trulli was the machine of Nick Heidfeld who went off the track, resulting in Trulli losing his position to not only his team mate Ralf Schumacher, but also to Heikki Kovalainen (Renault) and David Coulthard (Red Bull), to be in 11th at the end of the first lap.

To make matters worse, he was overtaken in the third lap by Kubica, then by Adrian Sutil (Spyker) in the fifth to find himself in 13th. In the second half he found better pace and fought back, but had only recovered to 11th by the end of the race.

Starting on a heavier load of fuel than his team mate, Ralf Schumacher switched to a one-stop strategy part the way through the race and maintained a solid pace to stay within the top ten. He put in a spirited fight hot on the heels of eighth-placed Heikki Kovalainen (Renault) and Kubica in ninth in a bid for a points finish, but was unable to convert his efforts, going on to finish the race in 10th, the same position he had started from.

Result:
Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) scored his fourth victory of the season and 13th to date after starting from pole position.