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Kimi Räikkönen took Ferrari’s first victory of 2009 in a thrilling Belgian Grand Prix this afternoon, after being pushed until the very last lap by Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella who scored his team’s first podium and points in second place. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel put in an equally impressive drive to finish third.
After starting sixth, KERS helped Räikkönen to consolidate second place by the end of the first lap, by which time the field was bunched up behind the safety car following a four-car crash at Les Combes, taking out championship-leader Jenson Button. But once the safety car pitted, the crucial moment of the race saw Räikkönen overtake Fisichella out of Eau Rouge thanks to his KERS.
With both the Ferrari and the Force India pitting on the same laps for both their pitstops, Fisichella’s only opportunity to take the victory was to overtake the Finn on-track, but in the end he had to settle for second, somewhat disappointingly for himself and the entire team. Nevertheless scoring the team’s first points and podium was a big boost to the Italian.
Seventh place for Rubens Barrichello closed the gap between him and Button to 16 points, after a nightmare start to the race and a nervous end after his engine began puffing smoke with three laps remaining. Elsewhere in the points, Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld finished fourth and fifth, followed by Heikki Kovalainen, Barrichello and Nico Rosberg.
Here are the results;
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 44 | 1:23:50.995 | 6 | 10 |
| 2 | 21 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India-Mercedes | 44 | +0.9 secs | 1 | 8 |
| 3 | 15 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 44 | +3.8 secs | 8 | 6 |
| 4 | 5 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 44 | +9.9 secs | 5 | 5 |
| 5 | 6 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 44 | +11.2 secs | 3 | 4 |
| 6 | 2 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 44 | +32.7 secs | 15 | 3 |
| 7 | 23 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn-Mercedes | 44 | +35.4 secs | 4 | 2 |
| 8 | 16 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 44 | +36.2 secs | 10 | 1 |
| 9 | 14 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 44 | +36.9 secs | 9 | |
| 10 | 10 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 44 | +41.4 secs | 7 | |
| 11 | 20 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 44 | +42.6 secs | 11 | |
| 12 | 12 | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 44 | +46.1 secs | 16 | |
| 13 | 17 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 44 | +54.2 secs | 18 | |
| 14 | 3 | Luca Badoer | Ferrari | 44 | +102.1 secs | 20 | |
| Ret | 7 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 26 | Retired | 13 | |
| Ret | 9 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 21 | Brakes | 2 | |
| Ret | 22 | Jenson Button | Brawn-Mercedes | 0 | Accident | 14 | |
| Ret | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Renault | 0 | Accident | 19 | |
| Ret | 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 0 | Accident | 12 | |
| Ret | 11 | Jaime Alguersuari | STR-Ferrari | 0 | Accident | 17 |
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