McLaren and Red Bull make their mark at Spa as F1 show gets back on the road

Jenson Button enjoys the win
Tipped for a pole to chequered flag win by BB F1 blogger James Frankland, McLaren's Jenson Button did the business at Spa to give his team a boost in their Constructors' Championship bid
McLaren driver Jenson Button dominated the Belgian Grand Prix to win from pole position, staying out of trouble in a large first-corner melee that eliminated several runners and caused the safety car to be deployed for four laps while hundreds of carbon fibre shards were cleared from the track.
Fernando Alonso was amongst those whose races ended at La Source, caught up in an accident triggered by Romain Grosjean squeezing McLaren's Lewis Hamilton on the run to the first corner. The two cars touched, Hamilton slewed into the back of the Lotus and pushed Grosjean into the first corner, cartwheeling over Alonso's Ferrari with Sergio Perez caught up as well.
Button used the pace of his McLaren to good effect, building an advantage over the rest of the field as soon as the safety car departed. Kimi Raikkonen, expected to shine on this circuit, suffered from a lack of grip and gradually went backwards in the early stint before recovering to finish third. Sebastian Vettel was the big mover, going from tenth at the start to finish second on the road, 13.6 seconds behind the McLaren driver but unable to make inroads into Button's lead.
Alonso's DNF meant there was an opportunity to make inroads into his championship lead and the 18 points scored by Vettel move him into second place in the Driver's Championship behind Alonso, the gap reduced from 40 points to 24. Should Alonso fail to finish again, and Vettel capitalise with a victory, the Red Bull driver will go into the lead of the championship and so backing him at 3.7511/4 might be a shrewd move. Alonso himself admits the Ferrari is the slowest of the four leading cars so perhaps his time at the top is coming to an end.
Hamilton's DNF has widened his odds from 7.613/2 at the start to 8.27/1 now - somewhat surprising given that he still has the same points gap to Alonso, 47, that he had going into this weekend, but he has lost an opportunity to reduce the gap by failing to finish in Belgium. Alonso himself has widened slightly from 2.0811/10 to 2.447/5 and is still the favourite, but with eight races to go he cannot afford to draw any more blanks.
Red Bull have extended their title lead by eight points over nearest challengers McLaren, who have moved away from Lotus thanks to Button's win, with Lotus only managing third with Raikkonen.
Previously I've suggested that McLaren need both cars scoring points in order to have any chance of overhauling Red Bull, and while only Button scored today it is the #3 McLaren which has needed to step up recently. Hamilton can be expected to bounce back in Monza next weekend, and with Red Bull traditionally struggling in Italy - Vettel's 2011 win notwithstanding - getting behind McLaren at 4.3100/30 might be wise at this stage.