2009 Ateco World Championships: A Tough Finale
Kimi Raikkonen and Giancarlo Fisichella finished the final race of the 2009 season in twelfth and sixteenth places respectively, at the end of a very difficult weekend, when Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro never had a really competitive car for its drivers. A shame, on what was not only the last race of the year, but also the last appearance of both the Finn and the Italian in the cockpit of a Prancing Horse F1 car.
Kimi Raikkonen: “We knew we
did not have a car that was competitive here It was
definitely not a good weekend, but I don’t think any of us
have anything to reproach ourselves for. We did the most we
could with the package we hard. At the start, the track was
a bit slippery and that cost me a place to Kobayashi, who
was very quick today. Then, when the two Brawns were back
ahead of me, after their first pit stop, our race was
definitely compromised and a points finish became
impossible. It’s a shame to end my time with Ferrari with
this result, but this year we have never been in a position
to fight for the win at every race, as I would have
wished.”
The final round of the 2009 World
Championship got underway around 45 minutes before sunset,
as Abu Dhabi staged the first ever day-to-night race under
floodlights, at this amazing new facility of Yas Marina.
Kimi was in eleventh place on the grid and Giancarlo in
twentieth.
Hamilton led from pole, followed by Vettel
and Webber. Kubica passed Trulli for sixth and Button passed
Barrichello for fourth. Kimi had dropped a place to twelfth,
passed by Kobayashi while Fisichella on the other hand moved
up to sixteenth. In the early stages, Hamilton could never
quite shake off Vettel, while Webber had dropped to around 4
seconds, with the rest of the top ten being Button,
Barrichello, Kubica, Trulli, Heidfeld, Rosberg and
Buemi.
For the two-stoppers, the pit stops began on
lap 17 with Barrichello and Kubica, followed by the leader
and Button next time round, the Englishman losing a place to
Kobayashi. Webber, Trulli, Rosberg and Buemi pitted on lap
19, with Vettel coming in on lap 20 and getting out ahead of
Hamilton, who retired one lap later with brake problems. On
lap 21, Kimi was now sixth and he stayed there until he made
his only stop on lap 29, which dropped him back down the
order.
Giancarlo pitted one lap earlier but
unfortunately had to come down pit lane again, having been
given a drive through penalty. Any chance Kimi had of
getting to a points position had pretty much ended when the
two Brawns came out of ahead of him after they had
refuelled. So the season ended with a fourth place in the
Constructors’ championship, just a single point behind the
third placed team.
Giancarlo Fisichella: “I am
disappointed that third place got away from us like this,
but today our pace was what it was, as can be seen from my
team-mate’s twelfth place. I tried all I could, as usual
and I feel I drove a good race. It was a shame about the
drive-through which compromised my second stint. I got a
good start and got past Grosjean, who then got ahead of me
again, cutting the chicane, but then in his turn, he got by,
taking back what I had gained. I am sorry that I wasn’t
able to contribute to the team in terms of points and to
have not really shown my worth. Unfortunately, the F60 is
very difficult to drive, especially in qualifying and
starting from the back is always a big penalty. Now the time
has come to think of the future: I do not yet know if I will
get a race drive with a team, but what is certain is that I
will be a Ferrari driver and I am happy about
that.”
There was not much overtaking, so positions
remained virtually unchanged throughout the order,
resettling to their original places after most of the pit
stops, in a race split between those refuelling once, which
included Kimi and Giancarlo and those pitting twice, who
inevitably were the faster runners.
At the chequered
flag, Vettel secured his fourth win of the season, with Mark
Webber making it a one two for Red Bull, although some
excitement in the closing laps came from a hard charging
Jenson Button, the new world champion doing all he could,
but failing to get past the Australian.
With Rubens
Barrichello finishing fourth, the two teams and four drivers
who had dominated the season filled the top four placings.
The rest of the points went to Nick Heidfeld in BMW’s
final race, followed by Kamui Kobayashi, having a strong
drive in the Toyota in only his second Grand Prix, with
Jarno Trulli seventh for Toyota and Sebastien Buemi eighth
for Toro Rosso.
The new season is only four and a
half months away and all the Scuderia’s efforts are now
focussed on the design and build of the successor to the
F60, which did it’s best, but a best that was not good
enough to challenge for titles and victories.
Stefano
Domenicali: “It’s disappointing to see third place in
the Constructors’ Championship elude us by a single point,
but we have to accept the verdict dished out on track. We
took a strategic decision regarding the development of the
F60 a few months ago and we knew that, as time went by, the
road ahead would get ever steeper. All the same, I wish to
congratulate the entire team who, despite the difficult
situation, continued to keep their concentration up, getting
on with their work with determination and tenacity. Now we
must continue to work on the design of the new car, because
we have a very simple aim: that of getting back to being in
the fight for race wins This was Kimi’s last race with us
and again today he gave it his all. We are very disappointed
that this year, we did not give him a competitive car and I
thank him for never having thrown in the towel, in fact,
fighting even harder when the situation was at its
trickiest. That thanks extends to all our drivers: to Felipe
who went through a dramatic moment in Budapest and is
recovering quickly to be 100% for the start of next season;
to Luca, who accepted the challenge to put himself in the
game in a very difficult moment; to Giancarlo who in order
to realise his dream of racing for Ferrari, left a team just
as it was going through its best part of the season. Again
today, he did his utmost right to the final kilometre. I am
proud of our drivers, as I am of everyone who works in our
team and I am sure that every one of them will know how to
learn the right lessons from this season and will be even
more motivated to try and redeem themselves
immediately.”
Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix – Race
result
1. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 55
laps 1hr 34m 03.414s
2. Mark Webber Australia Red
Bull-Renault +00m 17.8s
3. Jenson Button Britain
Brawn-Mercedes +00m 18.4s
4. Rubens Barrichello Brazil
Brawn-Mercedes +00m 22.7s
5. Nick Heidfeld Germany BMW
Sauber +00m 26.2s
6. Kamui Kobayashi Japan Toyota-Toyota
+00m 28.3s
7. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota-Toyota +01m
34.3s
8. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari
+00m 412s
9. Nico Rosberg Germany Williams-Toyota +00m
45.9s
10. Robert Kubica Poland BMW Sauber +00m
48.1s
11. Heikki Kovalainen Finland McLaren-Mercedes +00m
52.7s
12. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari-Ferrari +00m
54.3s
13. Kazuki Nakajima Japan Williams-Toyota +00m
59.8s
14. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault-Renault +01m
09.6s
15. Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy Force India-Mercedes
+01m 34.4s
16. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Ferrari-Ferrari
+1 lap
17. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes +1
lap
18. Romain Grosjean France Renault-Renault +1
lap
Rtd Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes 20 laps
completed
Rtd Jaime Alguersuari Spain Toro Rosso-Ferrari
18 laps completed
Fastest lap:
Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 1m 40.279s lap 54
For a link to the
full list of F1 Drivers please see the following document:
http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/0911/F1_DRIVERS.doc
ENDS