Raikonnen Gets Ferrari’s First 2009 Win at Belgian F1 Grand Prix

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Kimi Raikonnen accelerated away from a first-lap melee, took the lead on the restart under KERS power, and drove a fast, precise race to give Ferrari their first victory of the 2009 season in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, on August 30, 2009.

Raikonnen’s win prevented Ferrari from having its first winless season since 1993.

“It has been quite a long time since I last won, so it was perfect,” Raikonnen told reporters after the race. “My aim has been to win at least one race and to try to keep third place in the championship.

“We probably were not the fastest in lap times but we managed to keep everybody behind so that’s enough It’s great for the team and hopefully we will get some good results after this race. We will see what we can do in the last part of the season.”

Behind Raikonnen, Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichello drove an equally perfect race to take second, earning the team its first championship points since its inception, 30 races ago. Fisischello took the pole and made a good start, but couldn’t hold off Raikonnen’s KERS power. Fisichello matched Raikonnen’s lap times, staying less than a second behind the Ferrari throughout the race. The second-place finish moves Force India into ninth in the constructors’ championship.

“Obviously, it’s a great result for us. We finished second with eight points at the end of the race, it’s a great result, a great day,” Fisichello said. “Actually, I was quicker than Kimi. He overtook me just because of the KERS at the beginning of the race on the restart. It’s great because I finished second, just one second behind the leader, a great result for us, but actually we could have won the race.”

World Champion Lewis Hamilton and points leader Jenson Button were knocked out of the race before completing a lap, as collisions in the first two corners claimed four drivers and led to the retirement of two more.

Fisichella, Nick Heidfeld, and Jarno Trulli made clean starts. Rubens Barrichello almost stalled. Kimi Raikonnen swung around Barrichello and charged to the front, catching the leaders going into the La Source hairpin. Raikonnen ran wide, off the track and up the escape road, rejoining the field in third place just before Les Combes corner. He cut in so abruptly he chopped the nose off Jarno Trulli’s Toyota, sending Trulli to the pits.

Meanwhile, back in the pack, Rene Grosjeans was playing F1 pinball, bouncing his way from car to car up the track. Grosjeans hit Lewis Hamilton and Jaime Alguarsuari going into La Source, and then punted Jenson Buttons off the track at Les Combes. Button went into Hamilton, knocking Hamilton off.

Cars were spinning and bouncing in every direction at both corners. The final casualty list read: Button, Hamilton, Alguarsuari, and Grosjeans. This was terrible luck for both Jenson Button, struggling to hold onto his points lead, and Lewis Hamilton, who had finally got the McLaren running well after a miserable start of the season.

The first-lap collisions also claimed Jarno Trulli, who retired on lap 23 after running the whole race in last place, and Fernando Alonso, who damaged his left front wheel and had to retire on lap 27, after a 34-second pit stop on lap 25 couldn’t get the left front wheel attached properly.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber, who had a great chance to gain ground in the championship with Button out, almost hit Nick Heidfeld leaving the pits on lap 14, earning himself a drive-through penalty which put him out of the points.

Fischella chased Raikonnen for the rest of the race, while Sebastian Vettel chased the pair of them, but Raikonnen didn’t slip a bit. He maintained his gap and took the win, the 25th of his career and his fourth at Spa. Fischella and Vettel followed him in, with the BMWs of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld fifth and sixth—somewhat ironic, after BMW announced its withdrawal from F1 because of poor performance.

Rubens Barrichello held on to take seventh, despite huge plumes of oil smoke belching out of his engine through the final few laps.

Nico Rosberg earned the final point in his Williams-Toyota.

Jenson Button maintained a sixteen-point lead in the drivers’ championship., as his chief rivals, Barrichello and Webber, had days almost as bad as Button’s. Sebastian Vettel managed to take third place away from teammate Webber

Formula One races at Italy's legendary Monza circuit next, on September 13. Please visit the Formula One Official Web site for travel and ticket information.

 

 

Championship Points
	Driver	Team	Points
1	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	72
2	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	56
3	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	53
4	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	51.5
5	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	34
6	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	30.5
7	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	27
8	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	22.5
9	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	22
10	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	17

 

2009 Formula One Belgian Grand Prix
Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Pts
1	4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	44	1:23:50.995	10
2	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	44	+0.9 secs	8
3	15	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	44	+3.8 secs	6
4	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	44	+9.9 secs	5
5	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	44	+11.2 secs	4
6	2	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	44	+32.7 secs	3
7	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	44	+35.4 secs	2
8	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	44	+36.2 secs	1
9	14	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	44	+36.9 secs
10	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	44	+41.4 secs
11	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	44	+42.6 secs
12	12	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	44	+46.1 secs
13	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	44	+54.2 secs
14	3	Luca Badoer	Ferrari	44	+102.1 secs
Ret	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	26	+18 Laps
Ret	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	21	+23 Laps
Ret	22	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	0	Accident
Ret	8	Romain Grosjean	Renault	0	Accident
Ret	1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Accident
Ret	11	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	0	Accident