McLaren and Button are back with a bang!

Now that recess is over, the Formula 1 season began with a bang... literally. The bang came on the very first corner right after the start of the race when Lotus's Romain Grosjean took out the championship contenders in Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez. He was subsequently fined 50,000 Euros and given a 1 race ban for causing a dangerous accident. Despite this hiccup, it was a sunny day at the office for Jenson Button and the rest of the McLaren team as they literally stormed through the race to take the win in convincing fashion.

Button led the race from the start after qualifying in Pole position and no one else on the grid was in any position to challenge him for the entire race. A superbly balanced drive coupled with the pace of the McLaren meant Button was racing solo for most of the race. The win was his first at Spa and he was joined on the podium by Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and 4 time Spa winner, Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen. They were followed by the first of the two Force India cars of Nico Hulkenberg and his teammate Paul di Resta took the final points by finishing in 10th place. Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who still has a lot to prove this season, finished in 5th place followed by Vettel's teammate Mark Webber who had a fight on his hands the entire race. Michael Schumacher, Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo rounded up the top 10. Here are the complete results of the race.

Grosjean's collision breathed renewed life into Vettel's title defense and the result moved him into second place with 140 points behind Alonso with 164 points for the Driver's Championship. They are closely followed by Mark Webber with 132 points and Kimi Raikkonen with 131 points. Here are the complete standings.

The season now heads to the high speed Monza circuit for the Formula 1 Gran Premio Santander D'Italia 2012 (Italian Grand Prix) to be held from September 7th to the 9th.