It was all about tyre choice as the rain held off at Spa, and McLaren made best use of the Michelin intermediates to keep Kimi Raikkonen's slim championship hopes alive for another race.

The Finn won in Belgium for the second year in succession, having got away from the grid behind team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya.

While the Colombian romped away unchallenged, Kimi faced a tough first few corners as Jarno Trulli tried to force his way through.

Once the race settled down it became clear that the McLarens had the pace to control the race, and so it proved.

The race changed shape when Giancarlo Fisichella, charging from his penalty induced 13th grid slot, lost control up the hill away from Eau Rouge and slammed the barriers at frightening speed, bringing out the safety car.

This caused a mass charge into the pits, with Raikkonen holding back the pack as his team mate made his stop.

Several cars, Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari and both Pizzonia and Webber in the Williams included, took the opportunity to change onto dry tyres. However, they immediately found them impossible to use and promptly pitted for a second time.

With Jacques Villeneuve the only man not to stop bar the two Minardi's, the 1997 Champion suddenly found himself in second place as the safety car pulled off the track, with Ralf Schumacher benefitting from a stop the lap prior to Fisichella's crash to jump up to third in the Toyota.

Indeed, Ralf was the fastest man on the circuit at this point and, had he not changed to the dry tyres, would have undoubtedly finished higher than the seventh place he eventually managed. Jarno Trulli in the second Toyota also ran well early on but was similarly hindered by the tyre fiasco and eventually crashed into retirement.

Fernando Alonso again drove an intelligent and reserved race, inheriting second late in the proceedings when Montoya retired, and still looks safely on course to become the youngest World Champion in history.

In third place with a stunning late race charge was Jenson Button, the Englishman simply brilliant as he picked off Villeneuve, Rubens Barrichello and Mark Webber to claim a well-deserved podium place for BAR-Honda.

The second BAR of Takuma Sato was typically very fast in the early stages, but a mid-race coming together with the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher put both of them out of the race and got the Stewards interested too. Michael had, indeed, been among the fastest cars on track prior to his unfortunate exit.

Webbers performance deserves credit as, had he not been delayed at the first pit stops it may have been him on the third step of the podium.

The Australian drove possibly his finest race of the year and was among the very fastest on the circuit after changing to dry tyres with just a few laps to go.

Barrichello, too, changed to dry tyres at the same time and also deserves mention for a measured and carefully driven race to fifth and points for Ferrari in the battle for third in the constructors cup.

Jacques Villeneuve drove brilliantly to take a good sixth for Sauber, having opted to stay out when the rest pitted under the safety car, ahead of the unfortunate Ralf Schumacher in seventh.

The final point goes to Tiago Monteiro, the Jordans coming on strong in the race with Narain Karthikeyan finishing in 11th.

Red Bull had David Coulthards car suffer an engine failure midway through the race, while Christian Klien soldiered on to bring his car home ninth ahead of the second Sauber of Felipe Massa.

Massa would have finished considerably higher but for a late decision to change to dry tyres, a decision which rendered his car undriveable and forced him to visit the pits again to reverse the situation. Prior to this he had been running fourth.

The Minardi's of Christijan Albers and Robert Doornbos finished in 12th and 13th, the last remaining runners.

The main interest prior to Montoya's exit was in wondering how McLaren would make 'the switch' and swap Montoya and Raikkonen's running order. The proof came when Montoya pitted, and instantly, Raikkonen lapped an incredible two seconds faster than anyone else had managed at that point of the race.

So Raikkonen has kept the dream alive for at least one more race. The Stewards will be looking, too, at the Montoya-Pizzonia incident, as it appears the Brazillian Williams stand-in punted the McLaren off the track in what was, it must be said, not the first time this season that Montoya has let a high points finish slip from his grasp.