‘09 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Sunday Race – Vettel wins as Red Bull make it a 1-2 finish

Red Bull ended the 2009 F1 season in style as Sebastian Vettel won the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina circuit and teammate Mark Webber finished second to cap a fine 1-2 for the team. Jenson Button finished third for Brawn GP as he too ended his Championship-winning season with a hard-earned podium finish.

Pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton made a good start but Vettel stuck with him throughout and when the first round of pit stops came, he managed to jump ahead of the McLaren. The race unravelled and ended in disappointment for Lewis as he retired just after with what looked like brake problems. Vettel then was able to cruise through to the win but it wasn’t all that easy for Webber as during the last few laps, Jenson managed to close upto him and hound him all the way to the chequered flag.

Rubens Barrichello finished fourth for Brawn after suffering a front-wing damage in the opening lap with BMW’s Nick Heidfeld in fifth. Kamui Kobayashi capped a fine performance for Toyota as he finished 6th ahead of his more illustrious teammate Jarno Trulli. Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Buemi took the final point for his 8th place finish.

Vettel’s win means he finishes 2nd in the Drivers’ Championship ahead of Barrichello & Webber. With both Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen finishing outside the points, McLaren clinched 3rd place in the Constructor’ Championship and Lewis took 5th place in the Drivers’ Championship – both by a single point.

The curtain thus falls on what was a thrilling 2009 F1 season which saw many a fairytale finishes. I’d run out of space if I start reminiscing about all of them

Hope the 2010 Season would turn out to be as exciting…if not better.

’09 Brazilian Grand Prix – Sunday Race – Webber wins race, Button crowned World Champion

Mark Webber drove a strong race and took maximum advantage of a perfect strategy to win the Brazilian Grand Prix at the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo but the big winner of the day was Jenson Button as he drove magnificently to finish fifth and clinch the 2009 Formula One World Drivers’ Championship in the penultimate race of the season.  He had a touch of good luck as well! Pole sitter Rubens Barrichello first lost out on the race lead to Webber and fell down into third place and then picked up a puncture to fall behind Button and thus spell the end of his title challenge.

BMW’s Robert Kubica also drove beautifully as he finished in 2nd place, having started in eighth place. More satisfying would be the 3rd place finish of Lewis Hamilton, who started down in sixteenth place! Sebastian Vettel also had a good race as he finished 4th having started fifteenth. Button took 5th place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in 6th with Sebastian Buemi finishing 7th and Rubens Barrichello taking the last point-scoring position in 8th. Button now has 89 points and an unassailable 15 point lead in the championship with just the one race remaining. Sebastian Vettel leapfrogs Barrichello into 2nd place with 74 points compared to Rubens’ 72. Brawn GP also take the Constructors’ Championship and Red Bull will finish second. Hamilton and McLaren leapfrog ahead of Kimi and Ferrari into 5th place in the drivers’ and 3rd place in the constructors race.

The start of the race was a frenetic one as pole sitter Rubens Barrichello managed to pull away clearly with Mark Webber behind but it was a close run for third place as the KERS-powered Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen came close onto the tail of the Force India of Adrian Sutil and there was some wheel banging and wing touching as Sutil had to squeeze between the Ferrari and Red Bull. Kimi lost his front wing as he tagged the back of Webber and had to make an early pit stop to rectify that. At the tail-end of the field, Heikki Kovalainen got caught into a spin and nearly tagged the Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella behind him. That also brought him into the pits and there was a scary moment therein as Kovalainen drove off with the fuel rig still attached and the Ferrari of Kimi following behind, managed to light up the spraying fumes and causing a flash fire on the Ferrari!

‘09 Brazilian Grand Prix – Saturday Qualifying – Rubens Barrichello takes pole at home GP

Rubens Barrichello took Pole Position at his home grand prix – the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos in Sao Paulo –  as his championship contenders struggled and didn’t even finish in the top ten! “Jenson Button in P14, Sebastian Vettel in P16, where are you now?” exclaimed Barrichello’s race engineer and the delight was very much apparent in his voice as Barrichello put himself in the best possible position for launching a title challenge by clinching pole position in rainy conditions. Red Bull’s Mark Webber will start in P2 with Force India’s Adrian Sutil in P3. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, Ferrari of  Kimi Raikkonen, Toro Rosso of Sebastian Buemi, Williams of Nico Rosberg & Kazuki Nakajima, with the BMW of Robert Kubica in between and Renault of Fernando Alonso complete the top ten. That makes it 9 teams in the top ten grid places with just Williams managing to get both their cars in the mix.

Ran dogged the entire session and caused several sizeable delays and saw few red flags as well. But the last ten minutes were played out on a drying track and it made for a spectacular session as no less than 7 drivers exchanged fastest laps – all within just a few minutes! Barrichello ended up with the fastest of them all just as the chequered flag fell and he will be mighty delighted about it; especially with both his championship contenders starting way back on the grid. Mark Webber probably would have took pole if he continued for another flying lap but maybe his tyres were losing the optimum performance levels. It was brilliant drive from Adrian Sutil to post the third fastest time, given Force India’s struggles in the past few races.

‘09 Belgian Grand Prix – Sunday Race – Kimi Raikkonen wins race, Force India finishes 2nd

Kimi Raikkonen won the Belgian Grand Prix for a fourth time as he scored his and Ferrari’s first victory of the season at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit – one he rates as his favourite. Force India had a memorable outing as well as Giancarlo Fisichella lost the lead of the race to a KERS-equipped Ferrari but nevertheless hounded him throughout the 44 laps and eventually finished 2nd – his and Force India’s first-ever podium finish and first-ever points – all 8 of them! Well done Fisico!

Third place went to the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel as he made up a place in the drivers’ championship, with one of his title contender finishing low down in the points, one outside of the points and one did not finish at all! BMW also had a great race as Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld finished 4th and 5th with the McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen in 6th and the Brawn of Rubens Barrichello in 7th. The Williams of Nico Rosberg took the final point in 8th position.

I missed the most exciting part of the race – the start, as I was thinking it was a 6:20 PM start instead of a 5:20 one and hence was busy with other chores! And what do you think happened on the laps I missed? Well, nothing much except that Championship leader Jenson Button alongwith Lewis Hamilton, Jaime Algersuari and Romain Grosjean were all involved in an opening lap melee and crashed out of the race! And the Safety Car was out and on the restart, Kimi Raikkonen used his KERS to good effect and jumped pole sitter Giancarlo Fisichella to wrest the lead of the race.

‘09 Belgian Grand Prix – Saturday Qualifying – Giancarlo Fisichella scores Force India’s first Pole Position

Giancarlo Fisichella scored Force India’s first-ever Pole position of their F1 career as he drove a superlative lap to take P1 at the Qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. It sure was a long time in coming and despite the steady improvements the team has been bringing into each of the last few races, no one expected a pole position for the team! Getting into Q2 and score points were their targets and they sure did better on the first one, can tomorrow’s race see them achieve their second target! I sure hope they do…

Toyota’s Jarno Trulli will start second on the grid as the Toyotas finally came good. So did the BMW’s who have Nick Heidfeld starting on P3. Rubens Barrichello will start fourth on the grid with Robert Kubica and Kimi Raikkonen behind him. Timo Glock, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber & Nico Rosberg make up the top ten on the grid.

Q1 was a very good session for Force India as Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil were 1-2 atop the timesheets as the chequered flag fell and even though it was just the first session, it bode well for the team. A good way to impress the bosses at Ferrari since Fisichella’s being rumoured to fill-in for Felipe Massa for the last five races of the season! Luca Badoer again propped up the rear of the grid and to add insult to injury, he span out on his last flying lap and that was that! The ones to be relegated were Sebastien Buemi, Jaime Algersuari, Kazuki Nakajima, Romain Grosjean and Luca Badoer. Fernando Alonso escaped relegation by the skin of his teeth as he made a mistake on his flying lap and just scraped through another run just as the flag fell and so did Hamilton, who was teetering on 15th and must be thanking the heavens that no one went any faster!

‘09 Spanish Grand Prix – Saturday Qualifying- Jenson Button takes pole position

Jenson Button drove an awesome lap at the last possible minute of the Qualifying Session to clinch pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya. All the talk of resurgence from the other teams paled in comparison as the Brawn GP team picked up where they left off – at the top of the timesheets again! And one won’t believe there was any resurgence at all if one were to see the second and third placed drivers – Sebastian Vettel & Rubens Barrichello. A mini-resurgence can be said to be taking place at Ferrari as their pace improved considerably, but not their decision making skills! Felipe Massa will start 4th on the grid while teammate Kimi Raikkonen will start 16th! Mark Webber, Timo Glock, Jarno Trulli, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg and Robert Kubica rounded off the top ten.

As usual, the two Force India cars got the first qualifying session underway and joining them was the McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen. Early pace setters included the Toyotas of Jarno Trulli & Timo Glock and the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel – who was the first driver to get into the 1 Min 20s. The fastest time of them all though, went to the Ferrari of Felipe Massa with Mark Webber and Jenson Button just behind. The shocker, of course, came from Ferrari as they let Kimi Raikkonen sit in the garage when he was just 10th fastest and then saw with dread as others went round faster and just as the clock ticked 00:00 on Q1, he was knocked out of the session! He will start 16th on the grid tomorrow. Joining him would be compatriot Heikki Kovalainen (who complained that a BMW held him up), Sebastian Bourdais, Adrian Sutil & Giancarlo Fisichella.

‘09 Bahrain Grand Prix – Sunday Race – Brawny strategy takes Button to win

Jenson Button carved out his third victory of the 2009 F1 Season from the fourth position on the grid, thanks to a clever strategy from the Brawn GP team. Safe with the knowledge that the front-row-starters were low on fuel, Button remained close to the Toyotas at the start and when they pitted early, put in some fast laps and after the first round of pit-stops were over, emerged into the lead and held onto that throughout the remaining of the race – only relinquishing it during the pit-stop windows. Sebastian Vettel finished second ahead of pole-sitter Jarno Trulli with Lewis Hamilton & Rubens Barrichello in 4th and 5th places. 6th place went to the beleaguered Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, who drove a safe race to bring home the points. Timo Glock finished 7th ahead of the Renault of Fernando Alonso.

Button had a good start to the race and so did the Toyotas but at the end of turn one, it was Timo Glock who came out in front ahead of pole-sitter Jarno Trulli. Hamilton had meanwhile got the drop on Button into 3rd place at the start but he could not hold onto it as Button pulled out a deft overtaking move on the McLaren at the end of the initial corners. Toyota’s low-fuel-start strategy didn’t quite pay off and added to that, they had to run the middle stint on the less-responsive harder compound tyre, holding up the cars on the faster softer compound ones. They might have hoped that running the last stint on the softer tyre would be advantageous towards the closing stages and with the rest of the field on the harder compound, hoping for some deft passing manoeuvres. But that didn’t pan out as they wished and they had to settle for 3rd and 7th positions.

’09 Bahrain Grand Prix – Saturday Qualifying – Trulli clinches Pole, Toyota 1-2

Jarno Trulli clinched Pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix at Sakhir in a truly wonderful Qualifying Session which saw the Toyota team consistently posting fast times. The evening was made all the more better for the team as Timo Glock took P2 – for the first-ever all-Toyota starting grid. Sebastian Vettel continued his good run for the Red Bull team as he finished 3rd fastest. The Brawn cars could only manage 4th and 6th places, with the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton splitting them in 5th. Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen complete the top 10.

The Qualifying Session was held in searing heat, with track temperatures reaching upto 40 Degrees Celsius. The Ferraris were the early pace-setters in Q1, Kimi Raikkonen setting the fastest time before Massa surpassed it and then McLaren showed they had good pace as Lewis Hamilton went fastest with Kovalainen P2. The Toyotas pulled out aces up their sleeves as Glock went fastest and Trulli surpassed it just behind. Brawn GP and Red Bull were fancied to be fastest but they could only break into the top ten late on, as Vettel went fastest but teammate Mark Webber had a disastrous session and could only manage 14th fastest. The drivers to drop out of Q1 were Adrian Sutil, Sebastien Buemi, Giancarlo Fisichella, Mark Webber & Sebastien Bourdais.