2009 Belgian Grand Prix

2009 Belgian Grand Prix
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Round	12 of 2009
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Layout of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Race Details
Date	30 August, 2009
Race Number	815
Official Name	LXV ING Belgian Grand Prix
Location	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Spa, Belguim
Course	Permanent racing facility 7.004 km (4.352 mi)
Distance	44 laps, 308.176 km (191.492 mi)
Pole Position
Driver	Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Mercedes
Time	1:46.308
Fastest Lap
Driver	Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
Time	1:47.263 on lap 38
Podium
First	Kimi Räikkönen
Second	Giancarlo Fisichella
Third	Sebastian Vettel
Lap Leaders

The 2009 Belgian Grand Prix, formally known as the LXV ING Belgian Grand Prix, was the twelfth race of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship, staged at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium, on 30 August 2009. The race would see Kimi Räikkönen claim victory, although it was the combined efforts of Giancarlo Fisichella and Force India-Mercedes that ultimately stole the show.

Indeed, the Italian racer had claimed a shock pole position for the British based, Indian squad in qualifying, while Jarno Trulli claimed second for Toyota. Nick Heidfeld was next for BMW Sauber ahead of Rubens Barrichello, while Championship leader Jenson Button claimed a lowly fourteenth on the grid.

Fisichella duly aced his start to claim the lead into La Source, while Räikkönen stormed into second with the aid of KERS on his Ferrari. Barrichello, meanwhile, made a miserable start and almost stalled, resulting in him tumbling to the back of the field as he crawled off the grid.

Fortunately no one would manage to hit the #23 Brawn-Mercedes, with the first incident of the day instead coming at Les Combes further around the opening tour. There, Romain Grosjean would make a mistake on the brakes and smash into the back of Button's Brawn, resulting in the Brit spinning 180° and then hitting the front of the Frenchman's Renault. The rest of the field scattered around them, and in the resulting chaos Lewis Hamilton and Jaime Alguersuari collided and came to rest alongside the Brawn and Renault.

With four cars littered at Les Combes there was no choice but to throw the Safety Car, destroying Fisichella's small advantage over Räikkönen at the head of the field. Indeed, the five lap SC period would prove crucial to the outcome of the race, for not only did it put Räikkönen right on the Italian's tail, but also allowed him to charge up his KERS boost for the restart.

The restart came at the start of lap six, and although Fisichella would fend off the #4 Ferrari into La Source, he would have no response to the KERS assisted car up through Eau Rouge. Indeed, Räikkönen would breeze past the #21 Force India with ease along the Kemmel Straight, and had enough of a margin over Fisichella that he had no need to defend his newly attained lead into Les Combes.

With that Räikkönen was away, establishing a fair lead over the Force India that remained through to the first round of stops. Indeed, while Fisichella was able to keep the Ferrari in sight, he could not challenge Räikkönen for the lead on-track, with the KERS boost allowing the Finn to ease clear whenever the Italian lined up a move.

The first round of stops saw little change to the order out front, although Red Bull dropped the ball and released Mark Webber into the path of Heidfeld, earning the Australian a drive-through penalty. That allowed Vettel to move into third ahead of the two BMW Saubers, while Barrichello was making a strong recovery, moving into the top ten as he tried to get back into the points.

Yet, there would be no changes to the order at the head of the field for the rest of the race, with Räikkönen maintaining his small lead over Fisichella through the second stops and to the chequered flag. The Italian racer would later remark that it was only the effect of KERS that kept him from taking victory, marking the first time that KERS had been cited as a major contributor in a race win.

Behind them, Vettel claimed fastest lap en-route to third, while Robert Kubica led teammate Heidfeld across the line for fourth and fifth. Heikki Kovalainen was next ahead of Barrichello, whose car caught fire in Parc Fermé, while Nico Rosberg secured the final point in eighth ahead of Webber.

Background

Jenson Button had maintained his grip on the 2009 World Championship after claiming two points in Valencia, moving him onto 72 points as the season entered its second phase. Behind, Rubens Barrichello had moved back into second and eighteen behind his teammate with victory in Valencia, while Mark Webber had slipped to third, 20.5 points off the lead. Sebastian Vettel had likewise lost ground in fourth but remained ahead of Nico Rosberg, while Lewis Hamilton moved up to sixth.

In the Constructors Championship Brawn-Mercedes had managed to extend their lead at the head of the field, moving onto 126 points for the season. Red Bull-Renault were still in second, but had slipped 27.5 points behind the leaders, their failure to score potentially pivotal to the Championship outcome. Behind, Ferrari had retained third ahead of McLaren-Mercedes, with the Anglo-German alliance having jumped ahead of Toyota to claim fourth.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix is outlined below:

No.	Driver	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Model	Tyre
1	Lewis Hamilton	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	McLaren	MP4-24	Mercedes	FO 108W 2.4 V8	B
2	Heikki Kovalainen	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	McLaren	MP4-24	Mercedes	FO 108W 2.4 V8	B
3	Luca Badoer	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari	F60	Ferrari	056 2009 2.4 V8	B
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari	F60	Ferrari	056 2009 2.4 V8	B
5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber F1 Team	BMW Sauber	F1.09	BMW	P86/9 2.4 V8	B
6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber F1 Team	BMW Sauber	F1.09	BMW	P86/9 2.4 V8	B
7	Fernando Alonso	ING Renault F1 Team	Renault	R29	Renault	RS27 2.4 V8	B
8	Romain Grosjean	ING Renault F1 Team	Renault	R29	Renault	RS27 2.4 V8	B
9	Jarno Trulli	Panasonic Toyota Racing	Toyota	TF109	Toyota	RVX-09 2.4 V8	B
10	Timo Glock	Panasonic Toyota Racing	Toyota	TF109	Toyota	RVX-09 2.4 V8	B
11	Jaime Alguersuari	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso	STR4	Ferrari	056 2008 2.4 V8	B
12	Sébastien Buemi	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso	STR4	Ferrari	056 2008 2.4 V8	B
14	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull	RB5	Renault	RS27 2.4 V8	B
15	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull	RB5	Renault	RS27 2.4 V8	B
16	Nico Rosberg	AT&T Williams	Williams	FW31	Toyota	RVX-09 2.4 V8	B
17	Kazuki Nakajima	AT&T Williams	Williams	FW31	Toyota	RVX-09 2.4 V8	B
20	Adrian Sutil	Force India F1 Team	Force India	VJM02	Mercedes	FO 108W 2.4 V8	B
21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India F1 Team	Force India	VJM02	Mercedes	FO 108W 2.4 V8	B
22	Jenson Button	Brawn GP F1 Team	Brawn	BGP 001	Mercedes	FO 108W 2.4 V8	B
23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn GP F1 Team	Brawn	BGP 001	Mercedes	FO 108W 2.4 V8	B
Source:

Practice Overview

The first practice session was affected by rain, meaning only one driver set a time below 1:50.000. The second session had a dry track, which meant all drivers set representative times. This was noted with the top 18 seconds being separated by just 1 second. Toyota and Renault finished all three practices strongly.

Practice Results

Driver	Team	FP1		FP2		FP3
		Time	Pos	Time	Pos	Time	Pos
Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	2:05.604	14	1:48.017	16	1:45.388	1
Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:49.675	1	1:47.559	7	1:45.462	2
Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	2:05.839	16	1:47.790	13	1:45.677	3
Romain Grosjean	Renault	2:05.513	13	1:47.333	5	1:45.878	4
Timo Glock	Toyota	2:06.331	18	1:47.217	2	1:45.908	5
Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:53.650	9	1:47.578	8	1:45.987	6
Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	2:04.505	12	1:48.360	19	1:46.040	7
Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	2:03.972	11	1:47.506	6	1:46.114	8
Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	No Time	20	1:47.201	1	1:46.301	9
Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	1:50.283	2	1:48.125	17	1:46.406	10
Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:52.930	7	1:47.285	3	1:46.409	11
Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:51.045	4	1:47.702	11	1:46.417	12
Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:53.383	8	1:47.743	12	1:46.462	13
Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	No Time	19	1:47.602	10	1:46.747	14
Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:51.529	5	1:47.579	9	1:46.814	15
Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	1:52.321	6	1:48.130	18	1:46.815	16
Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:50.368	3	1:47.862	14	1:46.926	17
Luca Badoer	Ferrari	1:55.068	10	1:49.211	20	1:47.055	18
Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	2:05.705	15	1:47.961	15	1:47.078	19
Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	2:06.181	17	1:47.329	4	No Time	20

Qualifying

Q1

Q1 saw Luca Badoer stick his Ferrari at the back of the grid for the second consecutive race, with Romain Grosjean one place above. Badoer crashed with the chequered flag shown bringing out yellow flags, meaning drivers had to slow on their final flying lap.

Q2

The second qualifying session caused shock, as both McLarens failed to make it into Q3, along with championship leader Jenson Button and the Renault of Fernando Alonso. The quick Force India of Sutil also failed to make it through, lining up on the grid in 11th.

Q3

Red Bull, BMW Sauber and Toyota were the only teams to get both of their drivers into Q3, however it was the rapid Fisichella who took a surprise pole position, ahead of Trulli and Heidfeld. The top nine were separated by less than 5 tenths of a second.

Qualifying Results

The full qualifying results for the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix are outlined below:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team		Q1			Q2			Q3		Grid
					Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time
1	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes		1	1:45.102		4	1:44.667		1	1:46.308	1
2	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota		2	1:45.140		1	1:44.503		2	1:46.395	2
3	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber		9	1:45.566		5	1:44.709		3	1:46.500	3
4	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes		3	1:45.237		6	1:44.834		4	1:46.513	4
5	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber		11	1:45.655		2	1:44.557		5	1:46.586	5
6	4K	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari		10	1:45.579		9	1:44.953		6	1:46.633	6
7	10	Timo Glock	Toyota		7	1:45.450		7	1:44.877		7	1:46.677	7
8	15	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault		6	1:45.372		3	1:44.592		8	1:46.761	8
9	14	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault		5	1:45.350		8	1:44.924		9	1:46.788	9
10	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota		8	1:45.486		10	1:45.047		10	1:47.362	10
11	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes		4	1:45.239		11	1:45.119				11
12	1K	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes		15	1:45.767		12	1:45.122				12
13	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault		13	1:45.707		13	1:45.136				13
14	22	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes		14	1:45.761		14	1:45.251				14
15	2K	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes		12	1:45.705		15	1:45.259				15
16	12	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari		16	1:45.951							16
17	11	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari		17	1:46.302							17
18	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota		18	1:46.307							18
19	8	Romain Grosjean	Renault		19	1:46.359							19
20	3K	Luca Badoer	Ferrari		20	1:46.957							20
Source:

• ^K Indicates a driver was equipped with KERS during the session.
• Bold indicates the fastest driver's time in each session.

Race

As the lights went out, Barrichello stalled on the grid which meant many cars had to take sudden avoiding action. Fisichella got off cleanly however Räikkönen's good start was undone by him running wide into the first corner. Everybody got round the first corner without major contact, however four cars crashed out halfway into the lap. Romain Grosjean attempted an ambitious manoeuvre on Button, spinning the Brawn and taking them both out. In avoiding the contact, Hamilton was rear-ended by Alguersuari. Lewis may have been able to continue, however the Toro Rosso was a passenger and t-boned the McLaren into the barriers.

The safety car was out for four laps, and as soon as it was out, Räikkönen was able to easily pass Fisichella for the lead, the Force India being unable to defend the KERS-assisted Ferrari.

Other front row starter Jarno Trulli retired on lap 21, although the Toyota driver was at the back of the pack, having been forced to pit on the first lap. Fernando Alonso was the only other retirement. Luca Badoer finished last of the finishers, almost fifty seconds off the next car ahead.

Fisichella, despite being KERS-less, was able to keep Räikkönen honest, finishing less than one second behind. Many have claimed that the Italian would have won the race had both cars either had KERS or not had KERS. Sebastian Vettel completed the podium. Despite not finishing, Jenson Button retained his championship lead due to nearest challenger Barrichello's 7th place finish.

Results

The full results for the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix are outlined below:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4K	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	44	1:23:50.995	6	10
2	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	44	+0.939s	1	8
3	15	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	44	+3.875s	8	6
4	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	44	+9.966	5	5
5	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	44	+11.276s	3	4
6	2K	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	44	+32.763s	15	3
7	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	44	+35.461s	4	2
8	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	44	+36.208s	10	1
9	14	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	44	+36.959s	9
10	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	44	+41.490s	7
11	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	44	+42.636s	11
12	12	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	44	+46.106s	16
13	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	44	+54.241s	18
14	3K	Luca Badoer	Ferrari	44	+1:42.177	20
Ret	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	26	Wheel	13
Ret	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	21	Brakes	2
Ret	1K	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:

• ^K Indicates a driver was equipped with KERS during the session.

Milestones

• 50th and final Grand Prix start for Luca Badoer.
• Giancarlo Fisichella claimed his fourth and final pole position.
• First and only pole for Force India as a constructor.
• Kimi Räikkönen scored his eighteenth career victory.
• 210th win for Ferrari as a constructor.
  • Also their 211th victory as an engine supplier.
• Nineteenth and final podium finish for Fisichella.
  • This was also Fisichella's 275th and in final point.
• Fisichella claimed a maiden podium finish for Force India as a constructor.
  • This was also Force India's first points finish.

Standings

Jenson Button had failed to score for the first time in 2009, although the Brit had still held a significant advantage at the head of the Championship. Indeed, his teammate Rubens Barrichello had only closed the gap between them to sixteen points, while Sebastian Vettel had moved to within nineteen points of the leader. Mark Webber, meanwhile, had slipped to fourth, Kimi Räikkönen was up to fifth, while Giancarlo Fisichella had claimed his first points since the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix.

Brawn-Mercedes had continued their steadying march to the 2009 Constructors Championship, moving onto 128 points courtesy of Barrichello's seventh place finish. That meant that Red Bull-Renault had only reduced their advantage to 23.5 points, and hence left the Anglo-German squad with more than a race's worth of points in hand. Behind, Ferrari had enhanced their hold on third ahead of McLaren-Mercedes, while Force India-Mercedes were off the foot of the table for the first time in their history, having moved into ninth after their maiden points finish.

World Championship for Drivers Pos. Driver Pts. +/- 1 Jenson Button 72 — 2 Rubens Barrichello 56 — 3 Sebastian Vettel 53 ▲1 4 Mark Webber 51.5 ▼1 5 Kimi Räikkönen 34 ▲2 6 Nico Rosberg 30.5 ▼1 7 Lewis Hamilton 27 ▼1 8 Jarno Trulli 22.5 — 9 Felipe Massa 22 — 10 Heikki Kovalainen 17 ▲2 11 Timo Glock 16 ▼1 12 Fernando Alonso 16 ▼1 13 Nick Heidfeld 10 — 14 Giancarlo Fisichella 8 ▲4 15 Robert Kubica 8 ▼1 16 Sébastien Buemi 3 ▼1 17 Sébastien Bourdais 2 ▼1

World Championship for Constructors Pos. Team Pts. +/- 1 Brawn-Mercedes 128 — 2 Red Bull-Renault 104.5 — 3 Ferrari 56 — 4 McLaren-Mercedes 44 — 5 Toyota 38.5 — 6 Williams-Toyota 30.5 — 7 BMW Sauber 18 ▲1 8 Renault 16 ▼1 9 Force India-Mercedes 8 ▲1 10 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 5 ▼1

Only point scoring drivers are shown.

References

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