Note: This report was written before the stewards' decision to demote Hamilton from first to third place, and is an account of the race as it unfolded on-track. Click here for the stewards' verdict and here for the revised result.
Lewis Hamilton seized victory from Kimi Raikkonen’s grasp in a breathtaking climax to one of the most dramatic grands prix in recent memory at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday.
After squandering his pole position with a second-lap spin, Hamilton shadowed Raikkonen as the Ferrari driver looked set to end his eight-race victory drought with a fourth Spa win in as many visits.
But Hamilton put on a charge in the race’s final stint, and then capitalised brilliantly when a typical Ardennes shower caused havoc in the final three laps.
The last few minutes defied description as the lead changed hands several times and both Hamilton and Raikkonen flirted with disaster.
Lewis settled their gripping duel with an incisive pass at La Source, the same corner where he had erred and handed Kimi the advantage an hour and a half earlier, and then Raikkonen slammed into the wall with just one more circuit remaining.
The victory moved Hamilton another step closer to world championship glory, increasing his advantage to eight points over Felipe Massa, who finished a solid but outclassed second.
Ferrari’s hopes of another title now surely rest with Massa, as Raikkonen has fallen 23 points adrift and effectively out of the reckoning.
Nick Heidfeld profited from a late switch to intermediate tyres to take a totally unexpected third place for BMW Sauber, while Fernando Alonso equalled his best result of the season with fourth.
The race got underway in greasy conditions, but with the surface expected to dry rapidly, only Nelson Piquet Jr elected to start on intermediate tyres.
Hamilton and Massa accelerated off the line without too much trouble, but Heikki Kovalainen got a disastrous getaway from the inside of the second row and plummeted down the order, while fifth-place Heidfeld also lost half a dozen positions after contact with the Finn's McLaren.
Trulli took off the line like a rocket, slicing past six or seven cars on the sprint to La Source, where he survived a bump from Bourdais to emerge in sixth place – only to undo all his good work at the end of the first lap with a spin at the wet Bus Stop chicane.
Bourdais had been another to make up places off the startline, climbing from ninth to fourth before being passed by Alonso at the top of the hill into Les Combes.
Meanwhile there were some anxious moments in the Ferrari pit as the two red cars ran wheel-to-wheel on the long drag up the Kemmel straight before Raikkonen prevailed into Les Combes.
As they plunged down into the valley halfway round the first lap, Hamilton appeared to be streaking away, but Raikkonen hauled him in on the climb back up to the Bus Stop and the gap stood at 1.5s as they crossed the line to complete the first lap.
Then came a crucial mistake from Hamilton: a half-spin at the La Source hairpin.
He just barely held onto the lead, but Raikkonen took advantage of the McLaren’s lost momentum through Eau Rouge and swooped past on the straight.
Hamilton stayed within a second or so throughout the opening stint, confirming that he had the pace to challenge Raikkonen, but pitted one lap earlier than the Ferrari and came out in traffic while Kimi emerged on a clear track.
By the time the pit stop cycle had shaken out Raikkonen’s lead had grown to four seconds, which he extended by a further 2s before Hamilton pegged the gap at the race’s halfway point.
At that stage Massa was 4s further adrift, unable to match the pace of the top two but under no pressure from Alonso in fourth place.
Bourdais was holding on well in fifth, keeping Robert Kubica at bay and even pulling out a margin over the BMW before the second round of pit stops, while the one-stopping Vettel was in close attendance in seventh.
At the front Hamilton slowly began to reel in Raikkonen again, trimming his deficit to around five seconds as the second stops approached.
At this stage, though, a crucial victory still looked very much on the cards for the Finn; Hamilton seemed to have blown his chances with that lap two spin.
Two factors then conspired to change the complexion of the race and bring the Briton back into contention.
First, he showed his customary preference for the harder compound tyres that went onto the front-running cars for the final stint and started catching Raikkonen, initially quite quickly.
By lap 29 he was just 2s behind, and while Kimi stabilised the gap over the next few laps, Lewis put on another spurt and whittled it down to 0.9s with four of the 44 laps remaining.
Clearly, it was now game on for the lead; but just to make things more exciting, the infamous Ardennes rain returned to provide a final sting in the tail of what had already been a thoroughly absorbing race.
Initially there was only a light drizzle to contend with on the lower reaches of the circuit, and with plenty of tyre temperature lap times were barely affected.
Then the rain started to fall more heavily. Hamilton demonstrated how tricky the conditions were becoming with a big sideways moment at the Bus Stop at the end of lap 41, which dropped him 2s behind Raikkonen again.
But Lewis always excels in changeable conditions where feel, instinct, reflexes and raw courage come to the fore, and as lap 42 progressed the McLaren closed inexorably back onto the Ferrari’s tail.
With a better exit from Stavelot Hamilton picked up the tow from Raikkonen through the flat-out Blanchimont kink and decided to pounce immediately at the Bus Stop.
Kimi had the inside line covered, forcing his opponent to try the long way around. The two cars briefly bumped wheels before Hamilton took to the asphalt run-off, rejoining the racetrack proper in front of Raikkonen.
Aware that the stewards might deem him to have gained an unfair advantage, Lewis promptly relinquished the lead again before crossing the line to start lap 43.
But he lifted only momentarily and immediately counter-attacked at La Source, diving down the inside under braking.
Over the final two laps the conditions worsened from tricky to downright treacherous, with the cars getting out of shape even in a straight line as the shallow-grooved dry weather tyres were unable to cope with the heavier rain now falling.
It seemed unthinkable to stop for intermediate tyres so close to the end, but such was the lack of grip on dries that it proved an inspired gamble, especially for Heidfeld who pitted with two laps remaining.
Meanwhile the leaders were slithering around, with both Hamilton and Raikkonen running wide over the asphalt apron at Pouhon and then incredible drama unfolding further down the hill at Les Fagnes when they came upon the slow-moving Williams of Nico Rosberg.
Both had to take avoiding action, with Hamilton sliding across the grass and momentarily handing the lead back to Raikkonen, only for the Ferrari to spin through 360 degrees on the exit of the corner.
Raikkonen’s afternoon – most of which had served as an emphatic reminder of just how good he can be when the mood takes him – then came to an abrupt halt as he lost control coming out of Blanchimont and speared across the road and into the barrier on the left.
Still it was far from plain sailing for Hamilton, as he tip-toed his way around the final lap as gingerly as he possibly could.
He survived a heart-stopping moment at Eau Rouge to take the flag for a superb victory, 14s ahead of Massa and 24s ahead of…Heidfeld!
The German had taken full advantage of his intermediate tyres and carved through the field in the last two laps, while Alonso – who had run fourth for most of the afternoon but switched to inters a lap later than Heidfeld – came home fourth.
Bourdais lost out in the late confusion and fell to seventh behind his team-mate Vettel and Kubica.
Toyota's Timo Glock took the flag in eighth place, but was later given a 25s penalty for passing Mark Webber under yellow flags, handing the final point to the Red Bull driver.
A combination of his poor start, a botched overtaking move on Webber and a consequent drive-through penalty, and a technical failure on the last lap consigned Kovalainen to a chastened 10th place.
Click here for the revised race result