Kimi Raikkonen claimed his fourth Belgian Grand Prix victory in five years to end an astonishing run of 26 races without a win for the 2007 world champion.

It was a chaos-filled event, though, with British duo Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton crashing out on the opening lap in an accident that also accounted for the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari and Renault's Romain Grosjean.

Despite Button failing to score points for the first time this season, the 29-year-old still has a 16-point cushion over Brawn GP team-mate Rubens Barrichello who was seventh, with Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel 19 points down after he came home third.

Raikkonen was hounded all the way in his Ferrari for the majority of the race by pole-sitter Giancarlo Fisichella, who gave Force India their first points in F1 after 30 races with a second-place finish.

Raikkonen, after his 18th career win, said: "We haven't brought new parts for the last few races as we are looking at next year.

"But my aim was always still to win a race because we are aiming for third in the (constructors') championship.

"We probably weren't the fastest in terms of lap time, but we were able to keep everybody behind us.

"Hopefully we can now win more."

Fisichella was delighted and disappointed in equal measure as he said: "It's a great result for us.

"It's a great day but I was quicker than Kimi and I'm a little bit sad because maybe I could have won the race as I was keeping pace with his car."

Vettel concedes anything is possible now over the remaining five races as he, Webber and Barrichello continue to reel in Button.

"If you look at the championship it's a good result," remarked Vettel.

"We lost too much ground in the first stint because of the guys ahead, but in the second and third the car was fantastic. It was a pleasure to drive.

"We've managed to take points out of the Brawns, so overall a big thank you to the team and to Renault (engine providers) after all the trouble we've gone through recently.

"It shows we are back."