Kimi Raikkonen’s record at Russia
Truth be told, Kimi Raikkonen‘s record at Russia isn’t incredible. Yet, it is worthy of some respect. This is true despite the fact that Kimi Raikkonen’s record at Russia doesn’t boast of a single race win at the noted European race. But where the ‘Iceman’s’ past runs at the famous Sochi racing track warrant some respect is that at a time where no McLaren, Renault, or even Red Bull drivers have scored a single podium in the past 5 runs, the iconic Finn managed two consecutive podiums back in the 2016 and 2017 editions.
In addition to the above, what adds more respectability to Kimi Raikkonen’s record at Russia is the fact that the only time that both Ferraris ever finished on the podium had the Iceman playing his part. If you were to rewind to the events of the 2017 Russian Grand Prix, where Sebastian Vettel, who recently won at Singapore, collected a strong second, finishing behind the race-winner Valtteri Bottas, Raikkonen completed the podium courtesy a respectable third.
But these feats were bagged, without a doubt, in the past. To a sport that’s ever so curiously embedded in the now, it remains to be seen if Raikkonen can do something spectacular in the upcoming Russian Grand Prix, due for Sunday, i.e., September 29, 2019.
What might worry Raikkonen’s army of loyal fans not that the “Kimster” would attach any iota of emotion or patch of worry (knowing the man) is that where the recent events stand, then the famous Finn doesn’t seem to be in great form.
In fact, here’s the simple math pertaining to Kimi Raikkonen
All the points that Raikkonen has scored in the ongoing season were thanks to his exploits in the first half of the season. He scored all of his 31 points in the first half of the season, up until the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix.
In the period thereafter, Raikkonen has, quite simply, failed to collect any point or add to his current tally of 31, which places him outside of the top ten on the grid. In fact, it won’t be too big an understatement that at the present, it appears that rookie driver Antonio Giovinazzi, who scored a career-best P9 at Monza, is the only Alfa Romeo driver seeming in a fine knick of form.
While he would suffer a qualifying fiasco at Monza, thanks to spinning out at the Parabolica during the final qualifying run of Q3, where he would end up in the gravel trap, being part of a collision with Daniil Kvyat at the Singapore Grand Prix in the next race didn’t help his fortunes whatsoever.
While Raikkonen simply failed to score even as he finished the Italian Grand Prix, registering a DNF at Singapore, a contest he hasn’t ever won in his otherwise checkered career wasn’t too enterprising.
What Kimi believes of his chances at Sochi
Yet, returning to Russia, a relatively-new racing venue in Formula 1, Kimi Raikkonen offered some insights as to what might be on the cards with the race due in the next few hours.
The plan for Sochi is not different from what we aimed for so far: we need a clean weekend where we can show how good our car is and keep out of trouble.”
“I haven’t been very lucky in Russia in previous years but hopefully we can turn the record around this time,” he continued.