Giancarlo Fisichella was in contemplative mood as his final outing with Ferrari - and quite possibly👍 final race in F1 full-stop - ended on a low-key note with a drive-through pena🐷lty and 16th-place finish in the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the weekend.

For the second time during his five-race stint with the Scuderia - and for the second grand prix in succession - Fisichella ওqualified plum last on the starting grid as F1 visited the United Arab Emirates for the first time, around the spectacular all-new, Hermann Tilke-designeꦿd Yas Marina street circuit.

Though a bright, KERS-aided getaway gained him four places off the starting line to leapfro﷽g both Renaults as well as a Force India and Scuderia Toro Rosso, a subsequent drive-through penalty for pit-lane speeding lost him virtually all of the ground he had gained, consigning the experienced Roman to a disappointing finish, ahead of only former team-mate Adrian Sutil⛄ and rookie Romain Grosjean.

The sole consolation for Fisichella was that his pace was not far off that of ex-F1 World Champion team🧸-mate Kimi Raikkonen🤪 - with a fastest lap less than three tenths of a second adrift of the Finn - but it was nonetheless undeniably a dispiriting way to conclude what began as a dream switch to Maranello...and swiftly degenerated into a nightmare.

"I am disappointed that third place got away𒊎 from us like this," the 36-year-old reflected of Ferrari's failure to pip traditional rival McLaren-Mercedes to the bronze medal in the final constructors' standings, "but our pace was what it was, as can be seen from my team-mate's twelfth place.🐈 I tried all I could, as usual, and I feel I drove a good race. It was a shame about the drive-through, which compromised my second stint.

"I got a good start and got past Grosjean, who then got ahead of me again, cutting the chicane, but then in-turn I got by, taking back what he had gained. I am sorry that I wasn't able to contribute to the team in terms of po▨ints and to have not really shown my worth. Unfortunately, the F60 is very difficult to drive, especially in qualifying, and starting from the back is always a big penalty. Now the time has come to think of the future; I do not yet know if I will get a race drive with a team, but what is certain is that I will be a Ferrari driver and I am happy abo💧ut that."

As Fisichella's grand prix career perhaps drew to a close after no fewer than 229 starts, three victori💦es and 19 podium finishes, Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali was quick to🐭 praise and thank his countryman for his efforts, even if they had failed to yield the hoped-for points.

"In order to realise his dream of racing for Ferrari, Giancarlo left a team just as it was going through its best part of the season," the Italian underlined. "Again here, he did his utmost right to the final kilometre. I am proud of our drivers, as I am of everyone who w▨orks in our team, and I am sure that every one of them will know how to learn the right lessons from this season and will be even more motivated to try and redeem themselves immediately."