The 28-year-old comfortably held on to his fourth successive pole on the short
run down to the tricky opening corner, La Source hairpin.
Hamilton, however, then appeared to hit the compression of Eau Rouge hard,
seemingly losing a degree of momentum, allowing Vettel to close and
comfortably flash by.
As far as Hamilton was concerned, that was it, game over in terms of trying to
claim back-to-back victories for the first time in three years.
From that point on, Vettel was not troubled once as the rain race control had
suggested was 60 per cent likely to arrive never materialised, nor did a
safety car, which is prone to appear at this event.
There was one possibility on lap 27 as four cars into one tight corner, the
Bus Stop Chicane, did not go.
It culminated in the Williams of Pastor Maldonado clipping one Force India in
Adrian Sutil, before running into and taking out the second of Paul Di
Resta, earning the Venezuelan a drivethrough penalty.
Di Resta had started from a career-high fifth on the grid following a
brilliantly-executed gamble in qualifying.
But again, in light of the recent structural changes made to the Pirelli
tyres, race pace was lacking and it was unlikely Di Resta would have
finished in the points even if he had taken the flag.
At that stage, with Vettel clear of Alonso, Ferrari brought in the Spaniard
for a second stop in the hope race director Charlie Whiting would unleash
the safety car.
Alonso had worked himself into second place, initially making up four places
on the grid at the start to move up from ninth to fifth.
In the early laps Alonso passed McLaren’s Jenson Button and Mercedes’ Nico
Rosberg to claim third, and shortly after stop one he swept down the inside
of Hamilton at La Source as the Briton ran wide.
Unfortunately from Alonso’s perspective the safety car remained in the pits,
ensuring the 32-year-old never came within sniffing distance of seeing the
rear of Vettel’s car.
When Vettel made his second stop after 30 laps the remaining 14 were a coast
to the line, and a further strengthening of his championship advantage as he
finished 17 seconds ahead of Alonso and 28 up the road from Hamilton, it was
that easy.
Behind Vettel and Alonso in the standings Hamilton is up to third, but 58
points adrift.
As for Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen, who came into the race 38 points down on Vettel
and the German’s closest challenger, the Finn is 63 behind after retiring
for the first time in 39 races, stretching back to the German Grand Prix of
2009 when he was with Ferrari.
Suffering a brake issue that forced him into the pits after 26 laps, it also
ended the Finn’s record-breaking run of 27 consecutive races in the points.
Behind the podium trio, Rosberg was fourth ahead of Mark Webber in his Red
Bull, followed by Button, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, Romain Grosjean in his
Lotus, Sutil, with Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo completing the top 10.
The interviews that followed were conducted against a backdrop of boos,
apparently for a Greenpeace protestor who tried to make his way on to the
podium.
Despite that, a ruffled Vettel said: “It was a fantastic race for us from
start to finish.
“It helped on the first lap getting a tow off Lewis through Eau Rouge.
Once I passed him we could control the race.
“So a great result, with the car better than we expected going into the
race which I really enjoyed a lot.
“Fortunately there was no rain, so no need for any critical calls to be
made, and a comfortable afternoon for us.”
Recognising he never once had an opportunity to challenge Vettel, Alonso said: “We
had to recover some places because we were not okay yesterday (during
qualifying).
“We were then okay from the start, but the race was a little boring once
we had second place.”
Despite failing to follow up pole with a win, Hamilton said: “We had a
tough race, these guys were faster than us, but I’m happy with the result.
“When we started we felt we didn’t have as good a package as Red Bull and
Ferrari. We’ll try and do what we can in Monza, but from Singapore I hope we
can be strong from there.”
Final positions after race (44 Laps):
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1hr 23mins 42.196secs
2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:23:59.065
3 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:24:09.930
4 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:24:12.068
5 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:24:16.041
6 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:24:22.990
7 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:24:36.118
8 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus F1 Team 1:24:38.042
9 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:24:51.743
10 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:24:55.666
11 Sergio Perez (Mex) McLaren 1:25:04.132
12 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:25:08.936
13 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari 1:25:10.454
14 Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:25:22.632
15 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Williams 1:25:29.652
16 Giedo van der Garde (Ned) Caterham at 1 Lap
17 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams at 1 Lap
18 Jules Bianchi (Fra) Marussia at 1 Lap
19 Max Chilton (Gbr) Marussia at 2 Laps
Not classified:
20 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 26 Laps completed
21 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus F1 Team 25 Laps completed
22 Charles Pic (Fra) Caterham 8 Laps completed
(Edited by Giles Mole)