Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, and Kimi Raikkonen
Barichello Conquers Monza
by Erik Nielsen
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media
At Spa, we saw the familiar face of Kimi Raikkonen, who seems to be the current master of this circuit, on the podium. Monza is starting to be the favorite track for Rubens Barichello, who has now won in Italy three times, with two different teams. The Brazilian more importantly finished ahead of Jenson Button and closed the gap in the driver’s championship. Barring some amazing find of speed from another team, Brawn seems to be on their way to securing the championship. The question still remains, which of their drivers will win the other title. The English driver managed a better performance with his second place finish, but the crowd has been wondering if he was going to throw away his lead built up earlier in the season. Maybe this race is the wakeup call that there is a chance that he may not be the next champion if he doesn’t get back to the front of the grid.
Monza is the equivalent of Mecca for the ranks of the tifosi, and the supporters of the Ferraris were out in force. While they would have preferred an outright win, Kimi Raikkonen’s third place was enough to ensure that the cameras were pointed at the red cars (and local favorites) for a good portion of the weekend.
Giancarlo Fisichella
This race also marked the debut in red for Giancarlo Fisichella. The Roman replaced the floundering Luca Badoer. Lack of testing definitely hampered his results, but
the ninth place finish was much better than the test driver that has probably driven a Ferrari to the moon and back twice could achieve with the chassis. Expect his ride to be safe for the time being.
Fisichella probably had some doubts about leaving Force India with Sutil capturing the best of the rest in fourth and the fastest lap of the race. For a team that most people felt was a joke, they seemed to have found some of the same formula for success that Brawn had hoarded over the winter. The young driver beat both McLarens and even beat out Alonso, who is now widely rumored to be heading to Ferrari in 2010. Assuming of course that there is no fault found in Paris of Renault rigging last year’s Singapore Grand Prix. Most people are happy that the drama now doesn’t involve prostitutes and grown men that should know better. Alonso could do no better than fifth and never looked like he was going to put up a fight this weekend.
Kimi Raikkonen and the checkered flag
Kovalainen didn’t make anyone at the Woking based team feel great that they had the Finn on payroll as he is not getting paid to bring home three points in a weekend, but that is three more than Saint Lewis was able to get. The star McLaren driver either fell asleep or had one of the biggest brain farts this weekend to crash into the tire wall with a lap to go while running in third. The resulting debris field caused the stewards to bring out the pace car and the race finished under caution.
Heidfeld did his best to save his ride and finished in seventh. The two points should help bring in TV money to keep the effort going next year for the team’s new Swiss owners. Vettel had the last point of the weekend for Red Bull. The team seemed to have closed the gap with Brawn in the last couple of races, but this definitively was a weekend that the energy drink didn’t give you wings.
Giancarlo Fisichella
Toyota had another awful weekend, causing more speculation that the plug will soon be pulled.
And finally a familiar name will be returning to F1 in 2010, Lotus will be back on the grid with familiar face Mike Gascoyne at the helm. Hopefully, with enough funding to make a real entry.
Racing has officially ended in Europe for the season. We’ll have night racing in Singapore in two weeks.
Race Results
| 1 | BARRICHELLO | Brawn-Mercedes | 1h16m21.706s |
| 2 | BUTTON | Brawn-Mercedes | + 2.8s |
| 3 | RÄIKKÖNEN | Ferrari | + 30.6s |
| 4 | SUTIL |
Force India-Mercedes | + 31.1s |
| 5 | ALONSO | Renault | + 59.1s |
| 6 | KOVALAINEN | McLaren-Mercedes | + 60.6s |
| 7 | HEIDFELD | BMW Sauber | + 82.4s |
| 8 | VETTEL | RBR-Renault | + 85.4s |
| 9 | FISICHELLA | Ferrari | + 86.8s |
| 10 | NAKAJIMA | Williams-Toyota | + 162.163s |
| 11 | GLOCK | Toyota | + 163.925s |
| 12 | HAMILTON | McLaren-Mercedes | + 1 lap, accident |
| 13 | BUEMI | STR-Ferrari | + 1 lap, DNF |
| 14 | TRULLI | Toyota | + 1 lap |
| 15 | GROSJEAN | Renault | + 1 lap |
| 16 | ROSBERG | Williams-Toyota | + 2 laps |
| 17 | LIUZZI | Force India-Mercedes | + 31 laps, transmission |
| 18 | ALGUERSUARI | STR-Ferrari | + 34 laps, gearbox |
| 19 | KUBICA | BMW Sauber | + 38 laps, engine |
| 20 | WEBBER | RBR-Renault | + 53 laps, accident |
| Fastest Lap | SUTIL | Force India -Mercedes | 1m24.739s |
Driver’s Championship Standings
| 1 | BUTTON | Brawn-Mercedes | 80 Points |
| 2 | BARRICHELLO | Brawn-Mercedes | 66 Points |
| 3 | VETTEL | RBR-Renault | 54 Points |
| 4 | WEBBER | RBR-Renault | 51.5 Points |
| 5 | RÄIKKÖNEN | Ferrari | 40 Points |
| 6 | ROSBERG | Williams-Toyota | 30.5 Points |
| 7 | HAMILTON | McLaren-Mercedes | 27 Points |
| 8 | TRULLI | Toyota | 22.5 Points |
| 9 | MASSA | Ferrari | 22 Points |
| 10 | KOVALAINEN | McLaren-Mercedes | 20 Points |
| 11 | ALONSO | Renault | 20 Points |
| 12 | GLOCK | Toyota | 16 Points |
| 13 | HEIDFELD | BMW Sauber | 12 Points |
| 14 | FISICHELLA | Ferrari | 8 Points |
| 15 | KUBICA | BMW Sauber | 8 Points |
| 16 | SUTIL | Force India-Mercedes | 5 Points |
| 17 | BUEMI | STR-Ferrari | 3 Points |
| 18 | BOURDAIS | STR-Ferrari | 2 Points |
Constructor’s Championship Standings
| 1 | BRAWN-MERCEDES | 146 Points |
| 2 | RBR-RENAULT | 105.5 Points |
| 3 | FERRARI | 62 Points |
| 4 | McLAREN-MERCEDES | 47 Points |
| 5 | TOYOTA | 38.5 Points |
| 6 | WILLIAMS-TOYOTA | 30.5 Points |
| 7 | BMW SAUBER | 20 Points |
| 8 | RENAULT | 20 Points |
| 9 | FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES | 13 Points |
| 10 | STR-FERRARI | 5 Points |