The Belgian Grand Prix - in pictures

Red Bull's Sebastien Vettel started the race on blistered tyres but, nontheless, he made a quick getaway and maintained his lead from pole position into the first corner. Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton, who started second, had to jostle for position with Felipe Massa, and Mark Webber, who started third, was swamped by the chasing pack Photograph: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Hamilton, in the Mclaren, and Kamui Kobayashi, in the Sauber, collided on lap 13 as Kobayashi tried to sweep around the outside of his rival Photograph: Lars Baron/Getty Images

Debris was sent flying into the air as the Brit ran off into the barriers Photograph: John Thys/AFP/Getty Images

Hamilton was helped into the medical car and driven back to the pits. "I'm not really quite sure what happened but I hit the wall pretty hard," he said afterwards. Photograph: Lars Baron/Getty Images

The safety car was inevitably deployed, causing the pack to bunch up and triggering a spate of pit-spots Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

Jenson Button, who started the race in lowly 13th, took a gamble by fitting the hard tyres at his first stop and the option tyres in subsequent stops Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/EPA

It proved a canny decision as he outpaced those ahead of him and performed a number of bold overtaking manoeuvres to get high into the points Photograph: Valdrin Xhemaj/EPA

Mark Webber also climbed back into to contention and might have rivalled Vettel and Fernando Alonso for the lead had he not lost communication with his pit crew and failed to come in for a stop Photograph: Vladimir Rys/Getty Images

Vettel and Webber took control of the track, leaving Alonso in third place until Button surged past him in the closing laps Photograph: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP

Vettel took the chequered flag to earn his seventh victory in the last 12 races - a victory which extends his lead in the championship to 92 points over Webber Photograph: Thierry Roge/Reuters

The German said the win owed less to driver skill than other victories: "We had a lot of concerns going into the race after qualifying and weren't quite sure about the tyres blistering. After the safety car, it was key to get past Alonso and get a gap to make it more comfortable - it was certainly more tyre management than usual." Photograph: Mark Thompson/Getty Images