Michael Schumacher sealed his seventh World Championship as Kimi Raikkonen won McLaren's first race of the season in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.

Schumacher only needed to score two points more than Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello to clinch the title and he did that just by finishing second behind Raikkonen.

Barrichello was third after a fine charge through the field following early problems. He can yet match Schumacher's points tally but would lose the title on wins this season.

The Finn scored McLaren's first win of a trying season - his second career triumph - despite late pressure from Schumacher after a safety car period, edging out the new world champion by 3.1seconds.

Felipe Massa scored a fine fourth for Sauber, one place ahead of team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella while Jaguar's Christian Klien scored his first points for sixth.

David Coulthard overcame a puncture and an accident to take seventh for McLaren while Olivier Panis finished eighth for Toyota.

Jenson Button also suffered a puncture and was forced to retire after damaging his BAR in the incident.

Schumacher suffered a nightmare start to the race as chaos reigned behind. The world champion started second but dropped to fourth as Alonso and Coulthard streamed past.

Behind the battle for the lead, the first lap was chaotic. Takuma Sato and Mark Webber clashed and as they spun across the track, Giorgio Pantano and Gianmaria Bruni also crashed out. That brought the safety car out.

The race restarted on lap five and Schumacher dropped back to fifth when Raikkonen eased past and lost out further as Montoya forced his Williams through at the second attempt.

Trulli pitted at the end of lap 10 to hand the lead to Alonso, but the Spaniard's time at the top was brief.

He spun at Malmedy on lap 12 when fluid from his Renault engine leaked on to his rear wheels. He controlled the spin and resumed but the fluid was still causing a problem and he went off for good at Rivage just a few yards later.

A dramatic lap also saw Coulthard's challenge effectively ended by a puncture when running second. The Scot dragged his car back to the pits but slipped to 15th.

All that left Raikkonen in the lead from Trulli, with Schumacher closing the pair down.

Schumacher overtook a misfiring Trulli for third on the road on lap 18.

Trulli was struggling for top speed and Montoya tried to take advantage. The Williams driver misjudged his move though and punted Trulli off, allowing Antonio Pizzonia to sneak past both. Montoya resumed in fifth but Trulli dropped to eighth. Raikkonen edged clear of Schumacher as Pizzonia took advantage of a different pit strategy to run third.

Button, who was running fifth, saw his hopes ended on lap 30 though when his right rear tyre exploded and pitched him into Minardi's Zsolt Baumgartner, eliminating both drivers and bringing the safety car out again.

With the safety car still on track, Pizzonia's superb drive into podium contention came to an end with a gearbox problem.

On lap 37 Montoya's race was finished with yet another puncture - the third right rear Michelin to expire after Coulthard and Button suffered similar problems.

Coulthard's miserable afternoon was compounded on lap 39 when he slammed into the back of Klien. Again the safety was deployed.

The safety car pulled in at the end of lap 41 of 44 and Raikkonen got away smoothly to put a small gap between himself and Schumacher.

That was enough for the Finn, who held on to win despite Schumacher's best late efforts.