With the weather conditions improved greatly with sunshine Trulli would lead the field away for the formation lap of the forty four lap Belgian Grand Prix. How many of the drivers had qualified with a wet weather setup would be seen early in the race by their performances relative to those who went with dry weather setup.

At the start Trulli would lead from Alonso, Coulthard and then Michael. Sato would have a spin and the safety car would come out with a huge crash at Eau Rouge. Bruni, Pantano and Sato were involved. It looked like Sato lost his front wing and would spin. Also involved was Mark Webber. All these driver were out of the race. Button, Massa and Baumgartner would all come into the pits. They were joined by Barrichello, Heidfeld and Panis.

Behind the safety car Trulli lead from Alonso, Coulthard, Schumacher, Raikkonen, Montoya, Fisichella and Pizzonia. Juan Pablo had jumped from eleventh to sixth while Kimi had come from tenth on the grid to be fifth. Rubens and Massa would come back to the pits where the Ferrari team would replace Rubens rear wing. Both would return after a lengthy pit stops but with the pace car both should be able to catch the field.

At the start of lap five the pace car would pull in and Raikkonen would pass Michael Schumacher going into Eau Rouge. Juan Pablo would start to put Michael under pressure. He would pass him in a brilliant move at the Bus Stop. The next lap and Kimi would pass team-mate Coulthard for third. It looked like Michael was running with a wet set up as opposed to Montoya's dry weather.

Lap seven and Kimi would be chasing the Renault pair in front. He would set a fastest lap, 1m:45.647. At the front Alonso would try to slipstream Trulli at the Camel Straight. Michael would be nine seconds behind the leaders, unable to match their pace. Team-mate Barrichello was in fourteenth. Lap eleven and Trulli would pit from the lead, indicating a three stop strategy. Alonso was now in the lead.

But Alonso would spin but would rejoin allowing Kimi to take the lead. But he would spin again this time ending up in the gravel and out of the race. It looked like his engine failed. For Coulthard his race would fall apart when he was to have a tyre failure and had to go half way around the circuit to get back to the pits. Kimi was leading Juan Pablo by 10.5 seconds.

He would pit on lap thirteen coming back out in fourth. This would leave the top been Montoya, Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella. Lap fifteen and Michael was just 1.5 seconds behind Juan Pablo. Juan Pablo would pit at the end of lap fifteen and would come back out in fifth. The following lap and Michael would pit coming back out in front of Juan Pablo. Leading the race was Pizzonia but he would stop the next lap and again it would be Kimi in the lead, with Button in second some 4.6 seconds behind the McLaren.

Juan Pablo was finding it difficult get get past Massa. In fourth Trulli was just 0.3 seconds behind Michael. Lap twenty and Trulli's pace would fall way seeing him passed by Michael and Juan Pablo right behind him. Fisichella would run wide went wide around a corner and would take off one of his barge boards and damage the underside of his car.

Lap twenty one and Juan Pablo and Trulli would touch at the Bus Stop. Juan Pablo was able to keep his car going while Trulli would spin back around and return to the race only to pit. Pizzonia would pass Juan Pablo for fourth as Juan Pablo had slowed. Button would pit from second on lap twenty one. The stewards would investigate Juan Pablo move on Trulli. Rubens would pit from seventh. At the front Kimi Raikkonen had been able to put about 12 seconds between himself and Michael.

Lap twenty four and Kimi's lead had dropped to be just 11.9 seconds in front of Michael. In third 11.3 seconds behind Michael was Pizzonia. Juan Pablo was a further 1.1 seconds back in fourth. Button was in fifth. Lap twenty six and Zonta who has started last was now in seventh. Pizzonia would lift his pace to stay in front of Juan Pablo. Lap twenty seven and Fisichella would pit from sixth. At the front Kimi would continue to lead from Michael by 13.2 seconds. But Michael would
start to chase Raikkonen setting a fastest lap and reducing the gap down to 12.1 seconds.

Juan Pablo would continue to challenge Pizzonia but on lap twenty nine he would pit from fourth. Kimi would also come in seeing Michael take the lead. Jenson Button would collide with Zsolt Baumgartner as one of his rear tyres failed on the Camel straight. Both drivers would retire. There was a lot of debris on the track, which would see the safety car come out. Lap thirty and Coulthard would pit. Both Michael and Pizzonia would also pit. They were joined by Zonta and Massa.

Lap thirty one and Kimi was to lose his lead over Michael with the Ferrari right behind the McLaren. But the following lap would see a great performance from Pizzonia come to nothing with his car stopping out on the circuit with a mechanical failure. As a result Juan Pablo was now in third. So the top eight was Raikkonen, Schumacher, Juan Pablo, Barrichello, Zonta, Massa, Fisichella, and the second Toyota of Panis.

Lap thirty five and the safety car would pull seeing Raikkonen keep his lead. Klein would pass Panis going into Le Source for eighth place. At the front Juan Pablo could not close enough on Michael to look at making a passing move. The following lap and Coulthard would pass Panis for ninth. Kimi had been able to pull out a 1.3 second lead over Michael. This would increase to 1.6 seconds with Juan Pablo 1.6 seconds behind Michael in third. But it would go wrong for Juan Pablo when he would slow with a punctured right rear tyre. He would drop to eleventh. A race that was looking good for the BMW WilliamsF1 team went wrong very quickly.

Juan Pablo would pit and get out of his car retiring from the race. Lap thirty nine and Coulthard would hit the rear of Klein's Jaguar. With Coulthard crawling back to the pits the safety car would come out again because of the debris over the track. David would pit with damage to his car. He would get a new nose and tyres and come back out to join the race. With just four laps left in the race the question was whether the safety car would come back in before the race ends. But it was announced that the safety car would come back in at the end of lap forty one.

So with three laps remaining the race would get under way again. Michael would be close to Raikkonen. But Kimi would set out to make sure that Michael could not challenge him He would set a fastest lap, 1m:45.108, to see Michael 2.3 seconds behind him. Zonta's engine would fail. With one lap remaining Kimi would still be in the lead. Michael was in second with Rubens in third.

Kimi would cross the line to take his second career victory. But with his second place Michael would secure his seventh Drivers title. Fourth and fifth was the Sauber's of Massa and Fisichella. Klein come in an excellent sixth. The final two point scoring spots were taken by Coulthard and Panis.

Pos Driver Team-Engine Time

1. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1h32:35.274
2. M. Schumacher Ferrari (B) + 3.131
3. Barrichello Ferrari (B) + 4.371
4. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) + 12.504
5. Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) + 14.144
6. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) + 14.705
7. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) + 17.970
8. Panis Toyota (M) + 18.693
9. Trulli Renault (M) + 22.115
10. Zonta Toyota (M) + 3 laps
11. Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) + 4 laps

Fastest Lap: Raikkonen, 1:45.108

Not Classified/Retirements:

Driver Team On Lap
Montoya WilliamsF1-BMW (M) 38
Pizzonia WilliamsF1-BMW (M) 32
Button BAR-Honda (M) 30
Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 29
Alonso Renault (M) 14
Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1
Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1
Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1
Pantano Jordan-Ford (B) 1