2009 Belgian Grand Prix
2009 Belgian Grand Prix | |||||
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Race 12 of 17 in the 2009 Formula One World Championship
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Race details[1] | |||||
Date | 30 August 2009 | ||||
Official name | 2009 Formula 1 ING Belgian Grand Prix | ||||
Location | Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Francorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium[2] | ||||
Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
Course length | 7.004 km (4.352 miles) | ||||
Distance | 44 laps, 308.052 km (191.415 miles) | ||||
Weather | Clear but Mild | ||||
Pole position | |||||
Driver | Force India-Mercedes | ||||
Time | 1:46.308 | ||||
Fastest lap | |||||
Driver | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | |||
Time | 1:47.263 on lap 38 | ||||
Podium | |||||
First | Ferrari | ||||
Second | Force India-Mercedes | ||||
Third | Red Bull-Renault | ||||
Lap leaders |
The 2009 Belgian Grand Prix (officially the 2009 Formula 1 ING Belgian Grand Prix)
It was Räikkönen's first Grand Prix victory since the 2008 Spanish Grand Prix and Ferrari's only victory of the season. Fisichella's second position gave Force India their first ever championship points and their first podium. This race also marks Fisichella's final podium and last points in Formula One, before he became a Ferrari test driver in 2010, as well as Räikkönen's 18th and last Grand Prix victory until the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and his last for Ferrari until the 2018 United States Grand Prix. This was the last race for Luca Badoer.
Report
Background
Jenson Button led the World Championship entering the Belgian race weekend despite not scoring a podium since early June. He had an 18-point lead over Brawn GP teammate Rubens Barrichello. Mark Webber was 2½ points behind Barrichello in third and was 4½ points ahead of Red Bull Racing teammate Sebastian Vettel. The respective recoveries of Ferrari and McLaren ensured that the last two World Champions, Kimi Räikkönen and Lewis Hamilton, had scored podiums in the two races leading up to Belgium. Brawn GP led Red Bull Racing by 27½ points in the Constructors' Championship. The next team, Ferrari, were 52½ points behind Red Bull and 80 points behind Brawn. Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen, who had previously won the event three times, was the only former winner entered in the race.
Practice and Qualifying
Rain affected the first practice session of the weekend. Only 10 cars got dry lap times in while the rest of the field posting lap times in the wet.
The first session would see five cars drop out and decide the final five grid positions. Badoer qualified 20th for the second race in a row, after crashing at the end of the session and bringing out the yellow flag, causing many drivers to slow down.
The final session would see the remaining 10 grid positions be decided. Williams's new aero package was not working as they would like as Rosberg qualified P10. The two Red Bulls of Webber (P9) and Vettel (P8) seemed to struggle in conditions favouring their cars. Glock took P7 with Räikkönen, driving the only KERS car in the top 10, coming in sixth. The two BMW Saubers' new updates seemed to be lifting the whole team as Kubica (P5) and Heidfeld (P3) achieved their best qualifying positions of the season. The only Brawn in the final session, that of Rubens Barrichello, took P4. One of the biggest surprises on an already unpredictable track, Force India took their very first pole position. It was Fisichella's first pole position since the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix. Trulli took second place.[9]
Race
As the race started everyone seemed to make a good start apart from Hamilton and Rubens Barrichello, the latter almost stalled his car, causing him to drop to the back of the field. At Les Combes, at the top of the hill, a crash caused the safety car to come out.[10] Romain Grosjean ran into the back of Jenson Button who in turn spun 180° and collided with Grosjean for a second time, causing them to both retire. Lewis Hamilton backed off after seeing the incidents ahead of him, which caused Jaime Alguersuari to run into him; both crashed into the barrier and retired.[10] The safety car came in on lap 5 with Fisichella still leading and Räikkönen right behind him. Räikkönen closed up to the Force India driver through the Eau Rouge corner and passed him on the way into Les Combes. The main bulk of the first round of stops came in around lap 14. Mark Webber was released in front of Nick Heidfeld and was handed a drive through penalty, severely affecting his race.[10]
After the first stop Fisichella closed to within one second of Räikkönen. Jarno Trulli retired from the race on lap 22; after starting on the front row he had dropped to the back of the field, having pitted after a first lap collision. Fernando Alonso retired on lap 27 with a suspected wheel problem after a first corner collision with Adrian Sutil. Räikkönen and Fisichella pitted for the second time on the same lap and it was the Finn who emerged in front and kept his lead.[10] Vettel recorded the fastest lap of the race with a late push to try to catch the leaders but it was to no avail as Räikkönen took the chequered flag for the first time this season with Fisichella scoring Force India's first-ever points with a second-place finish. Vettel finished third, followed by the two BMW Saubers and Heikki Kovalainen finishing sixth. After dropping to the back of the field at the start, Rubens Barrichello came in seventh with Nico Rosberg picking up the final point in eighth, finishing his seven race points streak. Barrichello's car was smoking from the back for the last few laps and the car caught fire in parc fermé. Webber finished ninth for the second race in a row and scored no points.
Post-race
With Button failing to score, his championship lead became smaller for the second race in a row as his teammate Barrichello closed the gap by two points. Vettel's third place moved him ahead of his teammate Webber.
On 4 September, Renault were summoned to a meeting by Formula One's governing body, the FIA with the allegations of race fixing during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.[16] Renault faced the possibility of expulsion from the championship[16] as McLaren were in the 2007 Formula One season. During the FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting later that month, Renault admitted that Nelson Piquet Jr. had deliberately crashed under the instructions of Renault team principal Flavio Briatore and chief engineer Pat Symonds, in the hope of helping Alonso win. The Renault team were handed a disqualification from F1, which was suspended for two years pending any further rule infringements. Briatore was banned from all FIA-sanctioned events for life, while Symonds was banned for five years.[17]
Classification
Qualifying
Cars that used
Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Grid |
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1 | 21 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India-Mercedes | 1:45.102 | 1:44.667 | 1:46.308 | 1 |
2 | 9 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota
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1:45.140 | 1:44.503 | 1:46.395 | 2 |
3 | 6 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1:45.566 | 1:44.709 | 1:46.500 | 3 |
4 | 23 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn-Mercedes | 1:45.237 | 1:44.834 | 1:46.513 | 4 |
5 | 5 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:45.655 | 1:44.557 | 1:46.586 | 5 |
6 | 4‡ | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:45.579 | 1:44.953 | 1:46.633 | 6 |
7 | 10 | Timo Glock | Toyota
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1:45.450 | 1:44.877 | 1:46.677 | 7 |
8 | 15 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1:45.372 | 1:44.592 | 1:46.761 | 8 |
9 | 14 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1:45.350 | 1:44.924 | 1:46.788 | 9 |
10 | 16 | Nico Rosberg | Toyota
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1:45.486 | 1:45.047 | 1:47.362 | 10 |
11 | 20 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1:45.239 | 1:45.119 | 11 | |
12 | 1‡ | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:45.767 | 1:45.122 | 12 | |
13 | 7 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:45.707 | 1:45.136 | 13 | |
14 | 22 | Jenson Button | Brawn-Mercedes | 1:45.761 | 1:45.251 | 14 | |
15 | 2‡ | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:45.705 | 1:45.259 | 15 | |
16 | 12 | Sébastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:45.951 | 16 | ||
17 | 11 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:46.302 | 17 | ||
18 | 17 | Kazuki Nakajima | Toyota
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1:46.307 | 18 | ||
19 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Renault | 1:46.359 | 19 | ||
20 | 3‡ | Luca Badoer | Ferrari | 1:46.957 | 20 | ||
Source:[18]
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Race
Cars that used
Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
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1 | 4‡ | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 44 | 1:23:50.995 | 6 | 10 |
2 | 21 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India-Mercedes | 44 | +0.939 | 1 | 8 |
3 | 15 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 44 | +3.875 | 8 | 6 |
4 | 5 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 44 | +9.966 | 5 | 5 |
5 | 6 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 44 | +11.276 | 3 | 4 |
6 | 2‡ | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 44 | +32.763 | 15 | 3 |
7 | 23 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn-Mercedes | 44 | +35.461 | 4 | 2 |
8 | 16 | Nico Rosberg | Toyota
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44 | +36.208 | 10 | 1 |
9 | 14 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 44 | +36.959 | 9 | |
10 | 10 | Timo Glock | Toyota
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44 | +41.490 | 7 | |
11 | 20 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 44 | +42.636 | 11 | |
12 | 12 | Sébastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 44 | +46.106 | 16 | |
13 | 17 | Kazuki Nakajima | Toyota
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44 | +54.241 | 18 | |
14 | 3‡ | Luca Badoer | Ferrari | 44 | +1:42.177 | 20 | |
Ret | 7 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 26 | Wheel | 13 | |
Ret | 9 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota
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21 | Brakes | 2 | |
Ret | 1‡ | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 0 | Collision | 12 | |
Ret | 22 | Jenson Button | Brawn-Mercedes | 0 | Collision | 14 | |
Ret | 11 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 0 | Collision | 17 | |
Ret | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Renault | 0 | Collision | 19 | |
Source:[19]
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Championship standings after the race
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- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
See also
Footnotes
References
- ^ "2009 Belgian GP". ChicaneF1. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
- ^ "2009 Belgian Grand Prix". Motor Sport. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
- ^ "2009 Formula 1 ING Belgian Grand Prix - Race". Retrieved 21 December 2020.
- ^ "Raikkonen wins exciting Spa duel". BBC Sport. BBC. 30 August 2009. Archived from the original on 31 August 2009. Retrieved 30 August 2009.
- ^ "Belgian GP Practice 1". formula1.com. Formula One Association. 28 August 2009. Archived from the original on 7 September 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
- ^ "Belgian GP Practice 2". formula1.com. Formula One Association. 28 August 2009. Archived from the original on 6 October 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
- ^ "Belgian GP Practice 3". formula1.com. Formula One Association. 29 August 2009. Archived from the original on 5 October 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
- ^ "Belgian GP Qualifying as it happened". BBC Sport. BBC. 29 August 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
- ^ a b c "Belgian GP Qualifying Results". formula1.com. Formula One Association. 29 August 2009. Archived from the original on 5 September 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
- ^ a b c d "Belgian GP as it happened". BBC Sport. BBC. 30 August 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
- ^ "Championship Standings". BBC Sport. BBC. 30 August 2009. Archived from the original on 16 May 2009. Retrieved 30 August 2009.
- ^ "Fisichella closes on Ferrari move". BBC Sport. BBC. 31 August 2009. Archived from the original on 31 August 2009. Retrieved 2 September 2009.
- ^ "Fisichella to stay put for Monza". BBC Sport. BBC. 31 August 2009. Archived from the original on 4 September 2009. Retrieved 2 September 2009.
- ^ "Fisichella joins Ferrari for 2009". BBC Sport. BBC. 3 August 2009. Archived from the original on 4 September 2009. Retrieved 3 August 2009.
- ^ "Force India give Liuzzi race seat". BBC Sport. BBC. 7 September 2009. Retrieved 7 September 2009.
- ^ a b "Renault called to race fix charge". BBC Sport. BBC. 4 September 2009. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
- ^ "FIA Press Release". Archived from the original on 4 October 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ "Belgian GP Qualifying Results". formula1.com. Formula One Association. 29 August 2009. Archived from the original on 5 September 2009. Retrieved 30 August 2009.
- ^ "2009 FORMULA 1 ING BELGIAN GRAND PRIX - Race Results". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 24 November 2014. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
- ^ a b "Belgium 2009 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.