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At the end of Lap 19 the race was go again. It wasn't until Lap 23 that Kubica and Rosberg were declared under investigation. On Lap 24 the stewards finally came up with the view that Felipe Massa's pit-stop release had been unsafe and a lap after that, that Rosberg and Kubica should have drive-throughs. It had taken them almost half an hour to work out that the BMW and the Williams had committed a simple infringement. Thus Kubica didn't have to serve his stop/go until Lap 27 and Rosberg at the end of Lap 28.
In all that ocean of time Rosberg was able to build a huge lead on Jarno Trulli, while Giancarlo Fisichella was holding up Kubica and the rest.
Kubica's delay cost him badly but Rosberg was so far up the road that he was able to rejoin in P4 ahead of David Coulthard and Lewis Hamilton. The Red Bulls had gained a huge advantage in the Safety Car lottery, but on Lap 28 Webber's car began to lose gears. He lost places and then drove his car back into the garage.
This left the order on Lap 30 as Trulli (not stopped), Alonso, Rosberg, Coulthard, Hamilton and Glock. Alonso was trying to hunt Trulli down and Hamilton was all over the back of DC's gearbox but finding no way past.
Trulli finally pitted at the end of Lap 33 and was able to rejoin in P8 behind Nick Heidfeld but in front of Kazuki Nakajima and the strongly recovering Kimi Raikkonen. Hamilton's problem was that Coulthard was losing over a second a lap on the Alonso/Rosberg battle.
Nakajima finally got ahead of Trulli on Lap 38 into Turn 7 and Raikkonen followed him a lap later. Hamilton used Turn 7 to get by David Coulthard on Lap 42 even though DC moved across on Lewis in what looked like the braking zone.
Rosberg pitted for the second and final time on Lap 40 and rejoined in P7, while Alonso was so far down the road from the DC vs Hamilton battle that he took his final stop and still exited in the lead.
Hamilton and Coulthard then both pitted on Lap 42 and while Lewis had a problem-free stop, DC tried to go too early and almost replicated the Felipe Massa incident. The small delay meant that he was now behind Trulli on the track.
On Lap 44, Timo Glock found himself in P2 and Kimi Raikkonen in P4. Both had yet to stop for a second time and while Glock pitted on Lap 46 and rejoined in P5, Raikkonen was able to go on till Lap 50 and also rejoined in P5 after Trulli's Toyota coasted into retirement with no gearbox.
It was Trulli coasting back to the pits that brought out the second Safety Car of the day. Felipe Massa wasn't expecting to see a slow-moving car as he approached the tunnel corner and spun his car without hitting anything. Adrian Sutil got distracted by the Ferrari and drove his Force India into the barriers there just after Massa departed the scene, bringing out the SC.
At this stage Alonso's lead over Rosberg was a massive 18.5 seconds. Hamilton, in third place was closing on Rosberg at a second a lap and had reduced the gap to five seconds.
As they lined up behind the Safety Car for the second time the order was: Alonso, Rosberg, Hamilton, Glock, Raikkonen, Vettel, Heidfeld, Coulthard, Nakajima, Button, Kovalainen.
The race was GO again on Lap 54 and Alonso showed he had no great worries by opening up a 3.7 gap in one lap alone. In two laps he re-established the gap at 6.1 seconds. Hamilton has never liked the softer Bridgestone tyre and though he was only a second away from Rosberg till the flag he didn't look prepared to make a move on the Williams driver.
Though the two Safety Car periods looked like bringing into play the two-hour rule, 61 laps were just about possible. On lap 58 Kimi Raikkonen lost concentration going into the Turn 10 chicane, launched his car up the kerbs and into the barriers giving up his four points for 5th place.
Fernando Alonso duly took the historic win, followed home by Nico Rosberg scoring his best GP result and a surprisingly circumspect Lewis Hamilton. Timo Glock picked up valuable constructor points in 4th, Vettel took 5th, Heidfeld 6th and David Coulthard nursed an ailing Red Bull - light on brakes - to 7th.
It was a fantastic race, producing an F1 lottery of a result. Though Mclaren and Ferrari had been dealt the same cards by the surprise Safety Car, it was Ferrari's pit-stop system that had cost them Massa's result and Raikkonen's error that had cost them any points at all.
Alonso will be very relieved that the stewards weren't paying too much attention on the opening lap and Rosberg will be glad that the stewards acted so slowly to impose his Stop/Go penalty. But just as it was bad news for F1 to reverse the Belgian result, it would be bad news to have any thing detract from what has probably been the best race debut in F1 history.