Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel extended his lead at the top of the standings thanks to his victory in Belgium this afternoon.

The German started the race second on the grid as a result of yesterday's qualifying, but he managed to gain the lead from Lewis Hamilton during the first lap, having got into the Mercedes driver's slip stream.

From that moment on Vettel held on to first spot, despite some late pressure from Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

The Spaniard battled on for second spot, while Briton Hamilton took the final podium place.

Elsewhere, there was drama in the 38th lap when Pastor Maldonado was handed a 10-second penalty for causing a crash between Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta.

Result in full:

1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
2. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
3. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
4. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
5. Mark Webber (Red Bull)
6. Jenson Button (McLaren)
7. Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
8. Romain Grosjean (Lotus)
9. Adrian Sutil (Force India)
10. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)
11. Sergio Perez (McLaren)
12. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)
13. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
14. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber)
15. Valtteri Bottas (Williams)
16. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham)
17. Pastor Maldonado (Williams)
18. Jules Bianchi (Marussia)
19 Max Chilton (Marussia)

Not classified: Paul Di Resta (Force India), Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus), Charles Pic (Caterham)