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Adrian Sutil will leave Spa-Francorchamps a happy man after a blistering Belgian Grand Prix for Spyker. Sutil, who started the race 19th, finished 14th - ahead of both Super Aguris, and just three seconds down on the Honda of Rubens Barrichello.

In the early stages Sutil ran even higher. A great start coupled with impressive pace saw him fighting midfield runners, including Toro Rosso’s Vitantonio Liuzzi and Honda’s Jenson Button. After passing both in the opening laps, he then overtook Toyota’s Jarno Trulli to seize P12 on lap six.

“This is the first time I am smiling after getting out of the car!” Sutil enthused. “It was a good race and every lap there were cars in front and behind that I was racing so I had to really push, but also defend. It was a great feeling, especially the first run, which was crazy - I could take one car after another and got up to 12th. We didn’t have any trouble in the stops, everything went very smoothly, and I think 14th place with the B-spec car is very good.”

The result is a huge boost for Spyker who introduced the revised F8-VII at Monza last weekend. Although its Italian debut looked less than impressive, the car seemed well suited to Spa, with Sutil’s fastest lap time beating those of Honda’s Jenson Button, Red Bull’s David Coulthard and the Williams of Alex Wurz. Chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne was certainly satisfied.

“Obviously a very pleasing and competitive race for us, so well done to everyone in the team,” he said. “Adrian drove a storming race, especially on his first stint, and if he had been able to get past the one-stopping cars I think we would have been able to finish one or two places further up. But overall I think it’s good to be racing and overtaking some of the works teams and, as a small team and a true constructor, I think we can be very proud of what we have done today.”

With Sutil's team mate Sakon Yamamoto finishing in 17th, the Belgian race also saw Spyker enjoy a second consecutive two-car finish.