Force India's finest hour??? Well, yes and no

The day finally dawned when we got to see a Force India driver on the podium.

The place - Spa (Belgium).
The date - 30th August 2009.
The position - 2nd place.
The driver - Giancarlo Fisichella.

A long awaited moment. Force India moved up from the seemingly eternal wooden spoon position, ahead of Torro Roso. And what a giant leap. From cipher points after 30 races over its 2 seasons to a massive 8 points in one race, from one driver only. Enough reason to celebrate. But let's be a little critical. Surely Fisi's Force India car was every bit as good as Kimi's Ferrari. The eventual margin was only a second. From the way Kimi overtook Fisi once the safety car moved out on the 5th lap, it looked like he would open out a huge gap. But this was not to be. Had Kimi won by a big margin, I would not dare to write this. But as it happens, surely it now appears that Fisichella made a tactical error in staying too close to the safety car while it was out there. One driver who was a past master in safety car situations, when in the lead, was Juan Pablo Montoya. He would slow down the field so much, that when the safety car rolled in from the circuit, the drivers behind him had difficulty in catching up with him.
What could be the possible reasons for Fisichella's lack of aggresion in defending his lead? Could it be a mindset that the Ferrari, equipped with KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), would overtake him eventually? An overcoming sense on inevitability? At this point, many would ask what is KERS? I encourage those interested in knowing more about KERS to click the following link: http://www.gizmag.com/formula-one-kers/11324/
Another possibility could be the anxiety to get the first points on the board for the team. Meaning, why take the risk of going for 10 points, when 8 points look a very safe bet? Understandable for a team looking for its first points.
Another point in Kimi's favor was that he and Fisichella turned into the pits, for both stops, on identical laps - the first time on the 14th lap and on the 31st lap the second time and both times, the Force India crew were unable to get their car out ahead of the Ferrari.
Whatever the reason may be, the golden opportunity of winning a race was lost. A win would have meant we got to see the tricolor being unfurled and the all-so-rare strains of the "Jana Gana Mana" filling the air but that was not to be. As my elder son, Bernard, said only the "chakra" is missing when Italy's flag is compared to India's. One only hopes that this was the team's first chance at glory and not their last. And now that the points are in the kitty, the team goes on to greater glory and what better than a 1-2 finish. Way to go, Mallya, Fisichella and Sutil!!!
And now for the rest of the race details. Defending champion Lewis Hamilton and current leading aspirant for 2009 Jenson Button both went out in the first lap mishap involving 4 cars. Alonso pitted late and promptly had trouble with the front left wheel this time - which was damaged possibly due to a collision with Force India's second driver Adrian Sutil's car. And the Renault management decided to play safe and call Alonso in, after the bouncing wheel incident at Hungary and the subsequent one-race ban and succesful appeal by the team. Button should draw aome consolation that his close competitiors could not score more than 6 points and so, should be happy at Kimi's first race win of the season and Fisichella's second place. For Kimi, his love affair with Spa continued with his 4th win there and for the Ferrari team, something went right at last, specially after Massa's accident.
Final verdict - a good race leaving many happy - some winners and some losers!!! And for our own Vijay Mallya - hopefully the beginning of Good Times!! Do I hear my friends say Long live Kingfisher!!!???

For all those who believe that a picture is worth a thousand words, here's some video footage of the start of the race - you can watch Kimi go wide at the start and the first chicane, the first lap accident.


Here's one more video covering the race highlights. You can see Kimi's ovetake, Alonso's front wheel misfortune, a glimpse of a celebrating Vijay Mallya, the near collision in the pit lane, the fuel nozzle problem for Jarno Trulli and finally the fire in Ruebens Barrichello's car after the race was over. Have fun!!!