Formula 1:Jenson Button thrust himself back into Formula One world title contention with a faultless pole-to-flag Belgian Grand Prix victory after avoiding the first-corner chaos that accounted for four drivers.
Championship leader Fernando Alonso was the biggest casualty, ending his run of 23 consecutive races in the points, along with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.
The accident was instigated by Lotus' Romain Grosjean, and not for the first time this year on lap one, whilst Sauber's Sergio Perez was also forced into retirement.
Button's 14th career triumph means he is still 63 points adrift of Alonso, but the 32-year-old McLaren star cannot be discounted after finally finding some form of late.
Reigning champion Sebastian Vettel, who had started 10th after a poor qualifying by his and the team's standards, finished second to close the gap to Alonso to within a race win at 24 points.
Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen found himself on the podium for the sixth time this year and is 33 points down in the standings in fourth, one point behind Mark Webber who was fifth in the race.
Hamilton remains static at 47 points behind Alonso, but with one less race remaining at eight, and heading to Italy next weekend on the back of a week to forget at Spa-Francorchamps.
On Wednesday Hamilton was left mourning the loss of a close aunt, Diane, who lost her battle against cancer.
After some inappropriate tweets were deleted on Saturday following qualifying, Hamilton incurred the wrath of team principal Martin Whitmarsh on Sunday after posting telemetry data following an engineers' briefing earlier on Twitter.
It showed a comparison between qualifying laps of Hamilton and Button from Saturday, but it also offered their rivals vital information as to the performance of the car.
The tweet was deleted around an hour later on the orders of Whitmarsh, but worse was to follow for the 27-year-old within seconds of the start of the 44-lap race.
From seventh on the grid Hamilton was clipped by the Lotus of Romain Grosjean attempting to cut across the Briton.
As the rear-right tyre of Grosjean's car hit the front-left of Hamilton's McLaren, it sparked a chain reaction which resulted in the exit of four cars at the first corner La Source hairpin.
As the mayhem unfolded Grosjean and Hamilton collected Alonso and Perez, the latter duo having started from fifth and fourth.
On-board replays showed Grosjean's Lotus flying over the front of the Ferrari, missing the head of the Spaniard by inches.
After clambering out of their wrecked cars Hamilton could be seen tapping his right forefinger against his helmet at Grosjean, the suggestion obvious that he blamed the Frenchman for the accident.
Unsurprisingly the safety car was immediately deployed, staying out for the opening four laps, with Button leading a procession of cars, followed by Force India duo Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta.
On lap five the field was reduced to 19 as Pastor Maldonado, who would have been investigated for a clear jump start that led to a shake of the head from race director Charlie Whiting, lost his front wing, pulling off track at Les Combes.
Up ahead, though, Button did not put a wheel wrong throughout the remainder of the race, while others behind scrapped over the minor placings.
A delighted Button, interviewed by the legendary Belgian racing driver Jacky Ickx on the podium, said: "I still can't get used to this - talking on the podium it's quite strange. But this circuit is so special to most drivers, the way it flows and the history, so to get a victory here is very special in what has not been an easy year for me. We can enjoy this for a little while before we head to Monza where we can hopefully do the same."
Last year's winner Vettel, after his problems in qualifying, said: "The start was not so good, and after the first corner where a lot of cars went off it was pretty crazy.
"We made the right call to stay out (rather than pit a second time), and we picked up pace. So after a poor start to the weekend it was good to come back and I had a lot of fun racing a lot of people."
Raikkonen, who experienced a number of issues with his car in the race, said: "It was not the easiest day for me and the team.
"The car was not exactly as to our liking, but we got some good points for myself and the team."
The stewards face a busy afternoon as they are investigating a number of incidents, including the first corner smash and the jump start by Maldonado. Also on their agenda is a sharp manoeuvre by Michael Schumacher in front of Vettel as he entered the pits and two unsafe releases involving Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen and Webber.