Flying Italian Fetches No. 1

iSport's Motorsport Expert Kunal Shah is excited about Force India's prospects in the Belgian Grand Prix. He decodes their stunning pole position drive and writes on what the Indian fan can expect on Sunday.

Whatta result! Whatta surprise! What mystery!

fisi1 Am sure these and many such questions wandered every Formula1 fan’s mind yesterday when Italian veteran Giancarlo Fisichella in his otherwise under-performing VJM02 grabbed pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Q2 session of yesterday’s qualifying was where it all stared. Fisico managed to out pace 19 of his rivals and ended the session at the top of the time sheets. Q2 is the fastest of the 3 part qualifying session, where the cars do low fuel runs in order to book a top 10 slot for Q3 – the third and last qualifying session. Qualifying in Q3 is done with race fuel loads and hence is not necessary that the fastest car is on pole – it could also be the lightest!

Jargon and the complexity of the qualifying sessions aside, Fisico managed to set his car up and string in a perfect lap to clinch pole!

The most immediate thought post FIF1’s blitzkrieg was – oh! They must be running on fumes! They will surely be the lightest. However, it was not to be. A certain Renault and Fernando Alonso do try these tricks on and off to grab P1 – only to lose it to strategy on race day.

An interesting change that the 2009 regulations bring about is the declaration of car weights post-qualifying. While it does expose a team’s strategy to their rivals, the idea behind this rule is to simplify fuel strategy for the average F1 viewer.

The qualifying weights too managed to spring a surprise. The FIF1 car wasn’t the lightest. On the contrary, they had more fuel on board than Valencia GP winner Rubens Barrichello and just about the same fuel levels as BMW’s Robert Kubica and Toyota’s Timo Glock – cars that have been developed by a budget that is double of the Indian team and cars that would otherwise not pose much of a challenge to the pole-sitting team.

However, what worked? That’s certainly a mystery. How did the car suddenly start working after many GPs of non-performance. Lets dig deep!

Valencia GP was contested after a month long break – however, this was also where Vijay Mallya’s team introduced a lot of updates to their car. While the updates didn’t yield much difference to their post-race fortunes and still eluded the team from their first point, the FIF1 drivers did drive a strong race to finish just outside the points.

Come Spa and the expected happened – Toyotas, Ferraris and Red Bulls were expected to be quick, while the Mclarens, who performed extremely well in the last two races, were expected to suffer. This was clearly due to the circuit characteristics – that would favour cars with a better aero balance, than mechanical. However, FIF1 were still expected to lock the last row of the grid, again!

But the unexpected happened – and why? Well, not just the updates, but every little aspect of the car worked. Fisico dialed in the right set up, the tyre choice was correct and of course he drove a perfect lap. His sector times were extremely competitive and all he needed to do was to string in a perfect lap and he did.

So what can we expect? Well, the strategy is aggressive to say the least and the others on the grid are carrying more fuel than Fisico – which does mean that he will loose his lead early on in the race [I am hoping it is not at the start itself!] – and it most certainly will be a two – stopper with a longer middle stint on the prime tyres and a shorter final stint on the option tyre.

Mathematically, Fisico can still win with his weight advantage and it does matter around the expansive Spa circuit, but logic tells me that he will not be able to challenge for the lead post his first pit stop and that the Italian is in a strong position to lead the Indian team to their first points scoring position.

And did I forget to mention Adrian Sutil starting from 11th with a heavy fuel load could also notch up a strong points finish? This could be the strongest race for FIF1 since their inception – will they deliver? Go India, go India go!