Virgin get both of their boys to the chequered flag in a rain effected race in Belgium where Timo Glock managed to reach Q2 for the second time before a penalty dropped him down to 20^th on the grid.

The team has now demonstrated to the rest of the field that they do have the pace to battle with the big boys, well maybe not with the Red Bulls, McLarens, Ferraris or even the Mercedes teams, but the mid-runners better watch out.

Yes this may be a bit of an exaggeration and they still have a long way to go, but signs are good for the future after they perform well at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

After Friday’s free practice session, Virgin led the ‘third division’ times and out qualified the struggling Hispania team, but they still had to settle for second best to their season long rivals Lotus.

The sun was shining while the cars were on the grid, but no sooner had they set off than rain began to fall. The choice whether to stay out or pit for wet tyros was a tricky one, and Timo opted for wets as he had to pit for a new nosecone after colliding with Rubens Barrichello who couldn’t handle the wet conditions on his 300^th Grand Prix. Lucas, on the other hand, stayed out on slicks.

The track dried quickly and Timo was soon in for slicks again, leaving him in a strong position if the track stayed dry as he no longer had to change his tyres. Lucas was hot on the heels of Jarno Trulli for the entire race, and when the rain came again on lap 35, Timo chose extreme wets and Lucas made a late call for the intermediates. A few laps later the safety car came out for a second time, and an exciting finish looked in prospect.

At the restart, Lucas was forced to give way to Heikki Kovalainen who looked to have all four wheels off the circuit, but both Virgin cars gave chase and finished strongly. At the flag, Lucas was 17th and Timo was directly behind him.

But it had seemed that both Lotus and Virgin had their sights on the 2011 season, but John Booth confirmed that there was still more to come from the VR-01.

“We still have a few steps forward to come this year that we didn’t have on the car because of reliability problems at the beginning of the year. The focus has changed for the second half of the season, so there is still a little bit more to come this year, but we are working full speed on the new car.

“I think the performance is pretty much where we expected it to be. We are very much enjoying our battle with Lotus and, overall, happy to be about three to three-and-a-half per cent off the front teams. I think we should be very pleased with that.”

This has also confirmed that Virgin will be on the grid for the start of the new season next March with their new VR-02 car. This also dismisses the reports from Mr Ecclestone that at least two of the new teams will not make it to the end of the season.

Virgin will be there at Abu Dhabi and with the progress that the team hopes to still make, they may be celebrating with their first ever championship point.

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