By Alan Baldwin
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium (Reuters) - Formula One championship leader Jenson Button failed to score for the first time this season after crashing out on the first lap of the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Brawn GP driver, winner of six of the season's first seven races, had already suffered his worst qualifying of the year with 14th place on the grid.
The Briton, who was hit from behind by Renault's French rookie Romain Grosjean in an accident at Les Combes that also took out McLaren's world champion Lewis Hamilton, will stay top of the standings despite the accident.
He led Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello, who made a poor start on Sunday and was 11th after 14 laps, by 18 points with Red Bull's Australian Mark Webber a further 2.5 adrift.
"I got a very good start. I got past Lewis, and obviously Rubens had his problem. I made up like four places," Button told the BBC.
"As we were going down the straight through turn five, Grosjean out-braked himself. It's frustrating to be taken out like that."
The safety car was deployed after the accident.
"It's just one of those days. I got off to a really bad start, the anti-stall kicked in. I tried to recover but I got hit at the first corner and lost a bit of my front wing," said Hamilton.
"Then I saw Jenson and backed off to avoid it all, but got hit from behind."
(Editing by John Mehaffey)
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