Vettel hails "fantastic race"

Before the race, which was won by Red Bull’s reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel, two paragliders from the activist group initially flew over the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, trailing a banner slamming the Arctic drilling plans of race sponsors Shell.

A second group of four men who had evaded security and scaled the main grandstand overlooking the grid then unfurled a banner from the roof that read: “ARCTIC OIL? SHELL NO”.

Pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes had to settle for third behind Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who is now Vettel’s closest challenger, but 46 points adrift.

Despite the protests before and after the race, a ruffled Vettel said: “It was a fantastic race for us from start to finish.

“It helped on the first lap getting a tow off Lewis through Eau Rouge. Once I passed him we could control the race.

“So a great result, with the car better than we expected going into the race which I really enjoyed a lot.

“Fortunately there was no rain, so no need for any critical calls to be made, and a comfortable afternoon for us.”

Recognising he never once had an opportunity to challenge Vettel, Alonso said: “We had to recover some places because we were not okay yesterday (during qualifying).

“We were then okay from the start, but the race was a little boring once we had second place.”

Despite failing to follow up pole with a win, Hamilton said: “We had a tough race, these guys were faster than us, but I’m happy with the result.

“When we started we felt we didn’t have as good a package as Red Bull and Ferrari. We’ll try and do what we can in Monza, but from Singapore I hope we can be strong from there.”

Vettel hails "fantastic race"