Fisichella admits second is bittersweet

Giancarlo Fisichella admitted his superb runner-up finish in the Belgian Grand Prix left a bittersweet taste because he felt he had a fast enough car to win.

The Italian veteran spent the whole race in Kimi Raikkonen’s slipstream after the Ferrari driver used his KERS button to pass him at the lap four restart, and finished just 0.9s behind the victorious Finn.

Fisichella was naturally delighted to deliver not only Force India’s first points but a podium finish, saying: “Obviously it’s a great result for us.

“An important target was even to score a point, and we finished second with eight points – so it’s a great result, a great day.”

But he was disappointed to miss out so narrowly on victory, particularly since he had matched Raikkonen’s race pace despite running in his turbulence.

Indeed, the ease with which he caught the Ferrari after briefly losing ground at the second pit stops suggested the Force India had the greater underlying pace.

Fisichella was in no doubt that he had the measure of Raikkonen.

“Actually I was quicker than Kimi,” he declared.

“He could overtake me just because of KERS at the restart after the safety car.

“I’m a little bit sad for that because I was quicker than him, I was keeping his pace even behind his car, and we did exactly the same strategy.

“It’s great, because I finished second just one second behind the leader, but actually we could have won the race.”

Source: ITV