| 6th place for Raikkonen in Brazil as Button clinches title |
| Sunday, 18 October 2009 | |
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It was an incident-full Grand Prix for Kimi Raikkonen. The Fin made a great start, passing three cars in a row and tried to also pass Mark Webber. But he touched his front wing on the back of
Webber's Red Bull as the Australian defended his line. Kimi went straight to the pits after this incident for a front wing change. Kovalainen was also in the pits and pulled away too soon from refuelling, taking his fuel hose with him. Raikkonen, right behind, then ran through a flash fire as fuel spewed from Kovalainen’s trailing fuel hose. Remarkably both were able to continue with minimal delay. This unexpected pit stop meant that Raikkonen was at the back of the grid after the first few laps. After the initial drama, Kimi made a steady but strong race and gradually recovered to sixth place. "What happened on the first lap ruined my race," said Raikkonen. "First I was hit at the first corner, then when trying to pass Webber, I was hit and lost the front wing. "At the pitstop, I ended up with some drops of petrol in my eye, from the fuel line stuck on Kovalainen's car and then I was engulfed in flames and blinded: I was going to stop, but luckily the flames soon went out. "Even now, my eyes are still burning, but I'm alright. After the restart, I could only try and use the strategy to move up the order and at least I brought home a few points.
"I am disappointed because today I'm sure we could have made it to
the podium. There is one race to go: let's see what we can do in Abu
Dhabi to get back that third place."
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