Rankings at the end of the 2009 season
It’s a race without major stakes in which the drivers participated for this first Twilight Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi. It’s a Red Bull one-two that the 90,000 spectators and millions of TV viewers witnessed. Brawn GP is not far behind as Jenson Button steps onto the podium and Rubens Barrichello finishes 4th. Sebastian Vettel […]
It’s a race without major stakes in which the drivers participated for this first Twilight Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi. It’s a Red Bull one-two that the 90,000 spectators and millions of TV viewers witnessed. Brawn GP is not far behind as Jenson Button steps onto the podium and Rubens Barrichello finishes 4th. Sebastian Vettel wins this race ahead of Mark Webber. The German is the runner-up to the 2009 world champion. In 5th place, we find Nick Heidfeld, a nice gift to his team, BMW-Sauber, which has completed its last Formula 1 Grand Prix. A driver we will surely see in 2010, Kamui Kobayashi, scores points with a 6th position. It was only the Japanese driver’s second race for Toyota, replacing Timo Glock. He makes a lasting impression as the driver market is far from over. His teammate for the day, Jarno Trulli, is in 7th place ahead of the revelation of the end of the season, Sébastien Buemi for Toro Rosso. Hamilton had to retire, and thus neither McLaren, Ferrari, nor Renault make it into the top 10. A good summary of what F1 was like in the 2009 season.
View the standings by clicking here
In the driver standings, the world champion is Button (95 points) for the past two weeks, his runner-up is Vettel (84 points). Barrichello finishes 3rd, seven points behind the German. Webber is 4th with 69.5 points. Hamilton therefore maintains his 5th place, ahead of Räikkönen by one point (49 against 48). Rosberg is 7th and Trulli 8th with 34.5 and 32.5 points respectively. The half-point values are due to the Malaysian GP at the beginning of the year which was prematurely interrupted. Alonso retains his 9th place (26 points), likewise Glock in 10th (24 points), with Kovalainen and Massa tied for 11th position. Heidfeld ultimately got ahead of Kubica with a two-point difference for 13th place. Fisichella is 15th, Buemi 16th, Sutil 17th. Kobayashi enters directly in 18th position with 3 points and does better than Bourdais in 19th. Several drivers have never scored points. This is the case for Nakajima, who will probably not stay with Williams, and Piquet, who was let go during the summer. With more leniency, Badoer, Liuzzi, Grosjean, and Alguersuari arrived in F1 for only a few GPs.
In the constructor standings, Brawn GP is stationary at 172 points and Red Bull at 153.5. McLaren made a good move at the end of the season by taking 3rd place from Ferrari (71 against 70). Toyota was assured of finishing 5th (59.5 points). With a strong end to the year, BMW managed to take 6th place from Williams by 1.5 points (36 against 34.5). Renault must forget this 2009 season at all costs. The French team is only 8th with Alonso’s 26 points as he departs for Ferrari. Force India is 9th and Toro Rosso 10th, even though the Red Bull sister team was catching up on the Indian team. It is rare to note that all 10 teams present in 2009 scored points, which will likely not be the case next year with 13 or 14 teams.
