2009 Grand Prix of Bahrain: Kimi Scores First Points For Ferrari in 6th

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes     (B)  1h31:48.182
 2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +     7.187
 3.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  +     9.170
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    22.096
 5.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes     (B)  +    37.779
 6.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  +    42.057
 7.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +    42.880
 8.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +    52.775
 9.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +    58.198
10.  Piquet        Renault               (B)  +  1:05.149
11.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +  1:07.641
12.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +  1:17.824
13.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +  1:18.805
14.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  +     1 lap
15.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +     1 lap
16.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +     1 lap
17.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +     1 lap
18.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +     1 lap
19.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +     1 lap


Fastest lap: Trulli, 1:34.556
Not classified/retirements:
Driver        Team                      On lap
Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)    49

Breaking News & Quotes (Autosport.com):
Howett wary of McLaren, Ferrari 
Montezemolo blames rules for poor start 
Ferrari clarifies Schumacher’s role  
Massa bemoans very troubled race   
Bahrain Sunday quotes: Bridgestone 
Q & A with Stefano Domenicali 
Ferrari Team Quotes: Kimi Raikkonen – 6th: "I am happy to have picked up a few points but I can’t be that pleased with our performance level. I’ve been around long enough not to get very excited about a sixth place. We are well aware we have to improve. In theory, the new package we will have in Barcelona should see us make a good step forward, but we won’t know just how big it will be compared to the others until we are on track in Spain. Today, we got the most out of the F60’s current potential, even if I lost a bit of time in my final pit stop because of a problem with a part of the fairing on the left front wheel which cost me the chance of exiting pit lane ahead of Barrichello."
  Nice one Kimi! I know 6th place and three points seem like nothing after such a long and hot race but that was a relief! Well done my boy. I do find it funny that Ferrari seemed to have performed better as Luca di Montezemolo made his appearance this weekend. He was on the pit wall watching everything. But well done to the team for turning a difficult situation into some points. A big warm congratulation to Brawn GP and Jenson Button – they really rubbed it in today, by giving that flawless performance in a much more challenging race with Red Bull and the Toyotas. This is what winning truly feels like, Jenson! Vettel also showed further excellence in driving a hard and competitive race in the dry and not only the wet. Trulli could’ve won today but it still would’ve been hard against Button, so Trulli’s third place isn’t so bad. I believe Toyota still need to learn a lot during races before they actually start winning. Hamilton on the other hand has been there, done that, and his fourth place for McLaren was a great effort. But an even better effort came from Kimi…

I’d like to go through Kimi’s race in detail for a change. So Kimi started 10th, on the inside behind Massa. And off Kimi went; he had a much better start despite being heavier on fuel and, like I guessed he would, made a dash to the outside to pass as many cars into braking for T1. Massa was on Kimi’s target and Kimi gave him a nice birthday present – "kiss my ass!". Quite literally as Massa was being squeezed from Kimi on the left and another car on the right, Massa’s front wing clipped Kimi’s rear right tyre. Whoops. Then Kimi made it past Barrichello and was in 5th place after the first two corners! Wow! But then Barrichello was close enough to fight back and re-took 5th position. Massa’s wing was damaged and he soon had to pit for a replacement, rejoined back into 16th, and his whole race was effectively ruined by that contact with Kimi but that wasn’t Kimi’s fault at all. It was more to do with Big Nose Barrichello butting in all the time. Anyway, the Bahrain GP start was one of the best I’ve ever seen, this year at least. There were three groups of fighting going on, fantastic.


Since Barrichello re-took position from Kimi, the front field were disappearing and Kimi was soon left on his own with Fernando Alonso a few seconds behind. Kimi was heavy on fuel, heavier than everyone else infront. His first stint was very important, so while he was distant, he kept pushing. It was soon lap 15 where Kimi was up into second place after the rest had their pitstops, and he was 13 seconds off Vettel in the lead. Kimi was doing good, making most of the strategy he was on. Lap 19 showed Kimi leading the race – yay! Alas, it weren’t to remain that way as the car’s slow and shit and Kimi was yet to pit obviously. I could daydream for a moment though, on this lovely, sunny and hazy Sunday afternoon. At least the KERS wasn’t anything to daydream about – it was performing well today, for Kimi at least! Meanwhile, as Kimi was leading, Massa was down in 15th. The time finally came then on lap 21, as planned, for Kimi’s pitstop. He was pitted for 10 seconds and 28 laps worth of fuel was injected, his tyres were changed to used softs, and Kimi rejoined the race into 8th place. Massa lingered in 14th.

All was going well – Kimi moved up to 7th position on lap 23, 27 seconds off the lead and Kimi’s fastest lap classified at 1.35.716. He moved up another spot for 6th position and Kimi wasn’t going to pit for another 20 laps or so. Kimi was lapping faster than Timo Glock infront and once Glock pitted, Kimi was back into that lovely 5th position he had for a moment at the start of the race. Massa at this time was worse off in 18th place, showing considerable brake dust from his front left tyre after the pits straight.

As three other cars pitted, Kimi was in 3rd position by lap 37 and he was looking strong for a good bag of points, granted nothing went wrong with the car. Thankfully, the car was safe in his hands. Around lap 40, Kimi was in 2nd place, 22 seconds behind leader Vettel and Massa was struggling in 13th. Kimi then set his personal best lap time. Our Flying Finn was getting faster at this stage of the race. As Vettel pitted from the lead, Kimi was leading the race! Oh my God! It’s been a long time. Ahhhh. Kimi only just managed to stay infront of Vettel as the Red Bull came out the pits. By then, Massa was in 11th position.

Kimi’s second and final pitstop arrived on lap 44 and medium tyres were thrown on and he was pitted for the end. He could have been in the fight for fifth with Barrichello if he "had not encountered a problem at his final pit stop because of the fairing on the left rear wheel." Timo Glock in the Toyota looked to be infront of Kimi as the Ferrari exited the pits and rolled down to T1 but Kimi kept it together and used the benefit of the KERS to pass Glock for 7th place. From then on, Glock was on Kimi’s tail and it seemed Kimi wouldn’t be able to hold onto 7th place for much longer. Another car pitted, so Kimi and Glock moved up to 6th and 7th position. David Coulthard and Martin Brundle still managed to say something against Kimi today, saying he was asleep after he pitted and didn’t see Glock. Oh for heavens sake, just shut up. He wasn’t asleep, he very well knew where Glock was but didn’t want to be too drastic in defense or offense. Kimi got so far already in that Ferrari and he didn’t want to be aggressive and ruin his race by damaging his car over a single point. A two-stop strategy worked out nicely for Kimi and the team.

In the final stage of the race, it was Glock versus Raikkonen and Kimi did his best to stay infront, even when Glock braked very closely to Kimi, sliding into the last corner, and they nearly touched but Kimi was unharmed and now Glock had a bigger gap and so this battle ended there. With a big sigh of relief, Kimi finished the race in 6th place with Glock just behind. Well done Kimi! I know that was tough! Massa finished 14th after desperately pushing Fisichella in the Force India off track.

There you have it. Ferrari have scored their first points of the 2009 championship with Kimi Raikkonen. This was Kimi’s 100th Grand Prix finish and his 85th finish in points, so congratulations to him for that (even if he doesn’t care for statistics, the number 100 is always nice, hehe. Kimi’s total career points is at 534). I’m looking forward to Spain as hopefully Kimi can continue to improve and score more points and it won’t be too long before a podium comes along, with some luck. Kimi’s post race comments are that of a champion – he’s not excited like us with a 6th place. He wants better results and that itself should be enough motivation for the team to start scoring podiums and winning when we get to Europe next. 

That was a great start of the race by Kimi, so that was the highlight of the day for me. Most race pictures are already uploaded in the Bahrain GP photo album and catch the race videos, including Kimi’s re-pass on Glock. I can’t wait to work on the highlight video! Keep Flying! ~