Vijay Mallya's Force India creates history

It was a fight to the finish from two drivers who battled their hearts out through every minute of the 44-lap race to give us arguably the most exciting racing duel of the season so far! Only one man could come out on top; on the given day it was Kimi Raikkonen, but nobody can take anything away from Fisichella who drove like a genius to bring Force India their first points after 30 race starts!

The start was most exciting! Even though the rain kept away this year, the action was ever-present! In the very first lap of the race there was a monstrous crash that took out four cars including championship-leader Jenson Button, 2008 stripped ‘winner’ Hamilton, debutant Grosjean and the baby of the grid Jaime Alguersuari.

Thanks to the wreck on lap 1, the Mercedes safety car was deployed even as Fisichella lead the race with a mean scarlet car harrowing him from behind. Raikkonen waited patiently behind the Force India during the entire safety car period but the moment the silver car went in to the pit-lane, Raikkonen made his move. It appeared like a limp surrender from the Italian as the KERS monster pulled off a routine over-taking manoeuvre to take the race lead on lap 5.


What followed were 39 laps filled with remarkable persistence from Fisichella who never allowed Raikkonen’s lead to get out of hand. He pushed incessantly lap after lap putting immense pressure on a man who had triumphed at Spa three times before. All the while, from second place, a position that he hasn’t finished at in 4 seasons (2005, Japan) – Fisichella didn’t stop pushing. He stayed on Raikkonen’s tail to the very last second of the race to give his team its first point and his engineers their first bottle of champagne!

It was a great drive from Kimi Raikkonen in the end and even though Fisichella’s historic first podium for Force India did steal a bit of the limelight at the Spa-Francorchamps, it was Raikkonen who stamped his return to the top step for the first time in 26 races (his last victory was at the Spanish GP of 2008) and giving Ferrari its first win of 2009.