F1 2009: Spa-Francorchamps (You'll NEVER believe who's on Pole)

Car Freak · August 29, 2009

Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella took a surprise pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix as championship leader Jenson Button qualified 14th.

Button was 0.4 seconds slower than team-mate Rubens Barrichello in the second part of qualifying and expressed mystification at his lack of pace.

Fisichella's achievement marks Force India's first pole in Formula 1.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli will start second for Sunday's race ahead of BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld and Barrichello's Brawn.

A high-profile cast of casualties were knocked out of a remarkable second part of qualifying as McLaren's world champion Lewis Hamilton, who came first and second in the last two grands prix, came 12th ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso and stuttering Button.

"I'm a little bit worried because something is seriously not right," said Button, who won six of the first seven races of this season but has not been on the podium in the last four.

"It's strange to be four or five tenths off Rubens - our cars are different but not that different."

Even more remarkable than the relative failures is underdogs Force India leapfrogging a host of teams who would not usually consider them rivals, but may now have to revise that opinion at Spa.

Into their second season, the team have yet to win an F1 point.

The Vijay Mallya-backed team have steadily introduced a series of updates to their cars in recent races and showed real signs of improvement at the grand prix in Valencia where both drivers ran well.

They added new front and rear wings in Belgium to the new diffuser and barge board that were introduced at the European Grand Prix on 23 August.

Fuel loads, however, are yet to be released and there is always the possibility that Fisichella may be lighter than those who have qualified behind him on the grid - meaning he would have to pitstop earlier for extra fuel than the other cars he is racing against.

"I don't know [how it's happened]," said 37-year-old Fisichella. "It's unbelievable - I didn't expect to be on pole position.

"Especially after yesterday. I was sixth and was quite surprised. There was a lot of understeering. The measurement on the downforce was not good.

"This morning it was much better straightaway, and it was even better in qualifying than I expected. It's amazing. I'm so happy about that. I need to thank the team. They did a fantastic job."

With Heidfeld third and team-mate Robert Kubica fifth, BMW Sauber appeared to reap the benefits of a new diffuser and a lighter chassis, which they first used at the European GP.

Barrichello won his first race of the season in Valencia to move to within 18 points of Button in the drivers' championship with six races remaining, and professed himself happy with fourth on the grid as he seeks to eat further into that lead.

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber - the two drivers hotly-tipped to win at Spa in their Red Bull cars which many observers believe best suits the high-speed corners of the undulating circuit - qualified in eight and ninth respectively, much to their bafflement.

Hamilton, 24, felt McLaren had taken a step backwards after their recent gains.

"I went into qualifying nervous as hell," he said. "I didn't know where we were going to be. We knew we didn't have the downforce of the others. Now we have gone down to a much lower downforce level it is starting to magnify our aero problems.

"There was nothing I can do. I was on the ragged edge."

The fraught qualifying session was perhaps indicative of a season which is becoming increasingly open - eight different drivers have set the fastest lap in each of the last eight races and, more tellingly, the past five races have been won by five different drivers.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8228179.stm

Final Results: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/results/8225297.stm

Utterly AMAZING result from Fisichella and Force India. I think "suprise" is most definitely an understatement. Complete kudos to them, and let's hope that they can finally score some manufacturer points. Who knows? Maybe they could even score a podium? <crosses fingers>

KoenigseggBG · August 29, 2009

Go Force India! :thumbsup: Jokes aside, Fisichella is one of the most expirienced drivers there, guess his time has come. :)

superhyper · August 29, 2009

The starting grid really is weird...I hope that Kimi will win but it would also be awesome to have Force India on the podium for the first time! :P

Pherelas · August 29, 2009

Wow, this was brilliant, looking forward to race now. Fisichella looked on fire today!

Car Freak · August 30, 2009

BIG shame that Button and Hamilton got knocked out on the first lap, but then again, they haven't had much pace this weekend so it's not much of a loss. Unlike Fisichella though, whose car was really sticking onto the back of Kimi's (KERS-equipped) car. Absolutely stunning performance from the little Italian!

I was really hoping Kimi would spin on the oil left on the track by Barichello's Brawn though... Although it catching fire at the end in the pitlane was pretty amusing...

Pherelas · August 30, 2009

Barichello was on fire today!! Well :)

Go Force india though, brilliant. Don't like Kimi so thats kinda annoying, a massa style engine failure for him would have been perfect :)

Camel · August 30, 2009

I stopped watching it after a few minutes and went back to watch the BTCC. Kimi intentionally running wide on the first corner to get a big advantage over everyone gaining several places annoyed me. Then he crashed into someone and caused everyone to slow down and crash taking out both Brits.

Just grrr lol. BTCC is better than the F1 anyday though imo.

Car Freak · August 30, 2009

Sadly, we dont get BTCC in this part of the world.

Even more sadly, BTCC isn't what it used to be as of 10 years ago :(

TimBud · August 31, 2009

Button was taken out by Romain Grosjean of Renault and Hamilton was taken out by someone else in a seperate accident during the start.

Props to Fisi for keeping up with Raikkonen all the way.

My word, Kimi's post race interview was the most boring ever. He should be sacked for his inability to string a few sentences together in an interesting format.