Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari 2009
Kimi Raikkonen took the win yesterday at the Belgian Grand Prix, for the first time this season for the Ferrari team in an incident packed race.
Giancarlo Fisichella set pole position in an amazing qualifying session yesterday in the Force India while team-mate Adrian Sutil qualified in eleventh. The Toyota of Jarno Trulli was in second place on the grid with an impressive Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber alongside him in third.
Rubens Barrichello set third fastest time for the Brawn GP team while his team-mate, championship leader Jenson Button could only manage fourteenth. Second BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica was in fifth followed by the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen in sixth and Timo Glock in the second Toyota.
Red Bull Racing driver Sebastian Vettel is in eighth ahead of team-mate Mark Webber in ninth and the Williams of Nico Rosberg in tenth. In eleventh was Sutil followed by the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton and the Renault of Fernando Alonso in thirteenth place.
Button was in fourteenth ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the second McLaren and the two Toro Rosso’s of Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari in sixteenth and seventeenth places respectively. The second Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima was in eighteenth place followed by Romain Grosjean in the second Renault and Ferrari replacement driver Luca Badoer on the final grid spot.
As the race got underway, Raikkonen took to the outside of the pack and slotted into second place while behind him Jenson Button got tagged by the rookie driver Roman Grosjean, which put him into a spin and also caught out the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton and Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari. The safety car was out on track while the track was cleared of cars and debris.
Rubens Barrichello had a terrible start, going from fourth place on the grid to the back of the field in the Brawn GP car while his team-mate Button was now out of the race.
Fisichella led the race followed by Raikkonen, Kubica, Glock, Webber, Heidfeld, Rosberg, Vettel, Alonso, Kovalainen, Nakajima, Badoer, Trulli, Barichello and Sutil, with the final two having already pitted.
The safety car was in on lap 5 as Raikkonen lined-up the Force India and passed Fisichella on the run-up to Les Coombes to take the lead. Vettel passed the Williams of Rosberg for seventh place as Barrichello was on the move, taking the Ferrari of Badoer for thirteenth place before passing the Williams of Nakajima on the following lap for twelfth.
The BMW Sauber of Kubica came into the pits on lap 13 along with the Toyota of Timo Glock, moving Mark Webber, the Red Bull driver into third position. Glock had a terrible pit stop, losing valuable seconds after suffering a problem with the fuel rig, rejoining the race in thirteenth place.
On lap 15, both Raikkonen in the Ferrari and Fisichella in the Force India took their first pit stops, followed by Heidfeld and Webber. Webber exited the pit lane directly in front of Heidfeld but was given a drive through penalty for the move.
On lap 17, race leader Sebastian Vettel pitted from the lead, leaving Rosberg at the front followed by Raikkonen and Fisichella. Vettel rejoined in eighth place as Rosberg took his first stop and Webber entered the pits to serve his penalty.
Trulli had a disastrous race and was then held-up in the pit stop, ending any chances of scoring any points in this race, retiring the Toyota on the following lap.
Raikkonen led in the Ferrari followed by Fisichella, less than a second behind and Alonso in the Renault in third, until he pitted on lap 25. The team struggled to get the front wheel onto the car after damage was discovered from the incident with Sutil at the start of the race when the two cars touched wheels. Alonso rejoined the race in fourteenth place, on lap 27 he pitted the Renault and retired from the race.
Kovalainen pitted the McLaren on lap 27 while running in fourth place and rejoins in front of Buemi. Sutil pitted on the following lap as the GP Brawn car of Barrichello rejoined in front of the Williams of Nakajima.
On lap 31, Kubica took his final stop from third, he’s followed by Buemi, Raikkonen and Fisichella. Raikkonen stayed ahead of the Force India driver as they exited the pits, while Vettel leads the race in the Red Bull.
Nick Heidfeld pitted on lap 33, followed by Glock and Rosberg. Vettel was still leading the race with Raikkonen and Fisichella right with him.
Webber pitted the Red Bull on lap 35 and rejoined ahead of Glock but behind the Williams of Rosberg. Vettel pitted on the same lap as he battled for position with Kubica, the Red Bull driver managed to get ahead in his pit stop and rejoined in third place.
Raikkonen led the race, with Fisichella less than a second behind, followed by Vettel, Kubica, Heidfeld, Kovalainen, Barrichello and Rosberg.
On lap 38, Sebastian Vettel was on a charge and set the fastest lap of the race, he continued to take half-a-second a lap out of the leading two, but would not have enough laps left to pass them.
On lap 40, Heidfeld caught-up with his BMW Sauber team-mate Kubica while Barrichello was on the tail of Kovalainen, for sixth place. Moments later, smoke was seen coming from the rear of Barrichello’s Ferrari, he was radioed by his team and told that it was just an oil leak and to carry on.
Raikkonen took the victory ahead of Fisichella and Vettel in third. Kubica finished in fourth followed by Heidfeld, Kovalainen, Barrichello, Rosber, Webber and Glock.
Here are the results;
1. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari-Ferrari 44 laps 1hr 23m 50.995s
2. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Force India-Mercedes +0.9s
3. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault +3.8s
4. Robert Kubica Poland BMW Sauber +9.9s
5. Nick Heidfeld Germany BMW Sauber +11.2s
6. Heikki Kovalainen Finland McLaren-Mercedes +32.7s
7. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Brawn-Mercedes +35.4s
8. Nico Rosberg Germany Williams-Toyota +36.2s
9. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault +36.9s
10. Timo Glock Germany Toyota-Toyota +41.4s
11. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes +42.6s
12. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari +46.1s
13. Kazuki Nakajima Japan Williams-Toyota +54.2s
14. Luca Badoer Italy Ferrari-Ferrari +98.1s
Rtd. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota-Toyota 26 laps completed
Rtd. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault-Renault 21 laps completed
Rtd. Jenson Button Britain Brawn-Mercedes 0 laps completed
Rtd. Romain Grosjean France Renault-Renault 0 laps completed
Rtd. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes 0 laps completed
Rtd. Jaime Alguersuari Spain Toro Rosso-Ferrari 0 laps completed
Fastest lap:
Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 1m 47.263s
all times unofficial
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