Thanks Miezicat!

Nice re and preview by the way Kimi!! :D

Here is Sorens review of the GP Europe (Valencia). t" title="hat" /> " title="hula" /> " title="ii" />

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VALENCIA RACE REVIEW – THE WIN THAT GOT AWAY PART 2
Posted on June 24, 2012

My least favorite track is up and I thought I would be a tad quicker with my review than last time. Perhaps the Pirelli era might have an effect on this race as well?

QUALIFYING

After the failure in Canada with the broken differential that kept Kimi from qualifying well, I had high hopes for Valencia. And he had a fantastic Q1 where he sailed through relatively easy on the medium tire. Q2 was perhaps even better. He only did one proper quick lap on the softs and that was enough to get him to Q3. Quite impressive when you see how incredibly close everyone was. The top 13 were all within 3 tenths of each other. Just try to snap your fingers twice, as fast as you can. That will take you about 3 tenths of a second to do..

Q3 was decent. Although he was unfortunately pipped by his teammate with 8 thousands of a second. That is less time than what it takes for you to blink your eye. A bit disappointing when you obviously were hoping that Kimi would beat Grosjean comfortably. Although it must have been worse for Alonso that missed out on Q3 with 4 thousands of a second. So the Spaniard starts 11th.

Vettel in pole by over 3 tenths. Which is quite a margin when you see the gaps between the rest of the top 10. In fact, there are once again murmurs over the legality of the Red Bull car:
http://www.f1zone.net/news/latest-legal ... ion/14644/

Hamilton and Maldonado, 2nd and 3rd. And then the 2 Lotuses. Still, P5 could be pretty promising with a good start..

THE RACE

Lights go out at the Spanish circuit and Vettel gets a trademark start and takes off with an alarming pace. Kimi gets an awesome start as well. Jumps his teammate and is about to pass Maldonado as well. But Maldonado is his own self as usual. A Formula 1 driver with a ton of money as backing from his government and a completely reckless approach to racing. This has been proven many times so far this year. And exhibit no 1 for this race is how he brutally cuts in front of Kimi. Being the gentleman and cautious driver Kimi is, he brakes to avoid an incident. Result is that he slips down to 6th instead of claiming the 3rd place that rightfully was his after his stellar start.

He keeps his head down trying to get past Maldonado. He has an attempt shortly after the start but wisely backs out knowing what a loose cannon the Venezuelan is. Meanwhile, Grosjean is able to pass the McLaren of Hamilton to take 2nd place. A couple of laps later, Kimi gets in a brilliant move on Maldonado to take 5th place.

Meanwhile Alonso has somehow made it up to 7th and even passes Maldonado for 6th just before Kobayashi, Kimi and Malicious Maldo pits at the same time on lap 14. Sauber does a bad stop and Kimi jumps ahead of Kamui. Great stuff!

But Alonso and Ferrari is out to spoil the party. First of all Kimi does a so-so inlap behind Kobayashi. In his defence, he was not in clear air. That combined with a quick inlap for Alonso in clean air and a pitstop that was exactly 2 seconds(!) quicker than the so-so Lotus stop, results in a lost position to the Spaniard. Not good. Earlier I accused Kimi for doing a so-so outlap but it was in fact quicker than Alonsos outlap. The main contributing factor to the lost place is the time Alonso made up behind Kimi before the stops and the insanely quick stop.

Up ahead, Vettel is romping off into the distance. Grosjean is unable to keep up and is trailing 15 seconds behind. They both pit and Vettel only extends his lead further. The German always seem to have something extra around this track.
On lap 27, Vergne in the Toro Rosso thinks its a good idea to bang into the side of Kovalainen for no apparent reason. Kovalainen can continue but Vergnes race is over. Safety car is deployed as well. Vettels lead of 20 seconds to Grosjean is gone. The game is reset.

Grosjean, Hamilton and Alonso pits. Shortly thereafter Raikkonen pits as well. However, McLaren are not rid of their pit stop gremlins yet. Incredibly they botch yet another pitstop for one of their cars. It takes 10 seconds longer than normal which moves Kimi up one place into 5th. Daniel Ricciardo opted not to pit and is in 4th. Alonso is in 3rd, a feisty Grosjean in 2nd while Vettel retains his lead.

Race restart and Alonso dives on the inside of Grosjean to take 2nd. Shortly after Hamilton takes his position back from Kimi. Seems very much like the Lotuses are vulnerable at the restarts. On top of that Vettels car gives up the ghost shortly after the restart and against all odds we suddenly have Alonso, who started 11th, now leading the race! Unbelievable. I have previously suspected that the Spaniard has sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads but I think we are close to letting go of any suspicion…
Heartbreak again for Vettel. Seems when he has a DNF, it is always from the lead.

Kimi does a great pass on Ricciardo and takes up the pursuit on Hamilton. He is clearly faster but not fast enough out of turn 10 to get a good run on the Brit. The DRS zone was a bit too short to have an effect. In my opinion it should have started right after turn 10 for the entire length of the straight. Instead Alonso is able to get a comfortable gap to his pursuers. If only Kimi would have held Lewis behind him..

On lap 40, Alonso gets another lucky break when his main rival for the victory retires: Romain Grosjean. Cause: alternator fault. I would like to say that I was the better man and felt sorry for the guy. But Im afraid I didnt. I was gloating! Lol. Is that bad?
Anyway, Kimi is up to 3rd now. In the position he should have been in after turn 1. But thats the nature of racing. He finds no way past the McLaren until the end of the race. Predictably, Hamiltons tires are almost gone and Kimi jumps on the opportunity to take 2nd place! The fighting have given Alonso a lead of 7 seconds though, so the chance of winning is gone.

Maldonado showing his “racecraft”.

On the second to last lap we get another glance at the brilliance of Pastor Maldonado as he tries to take 2nd place away from Hamilton. He goes off the track in the process and decides to drive into the side of Hamilton when re-entering the track *applause*. Thankfully he was penalized:

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/ ... 13503.html

Race over, Alonso won and does some weird antics and primadonna behaviour in front of his fans as he pulls the Ferrari to a stop. Oh well, each to his own I guess. Bring on Silverstone!

I almost forgot! Michael Schumacher got 3rd place. It took him the full amount of 46 races to get a podium after his comeback. For Kimi, it took 4.. Is it a fair comparison? Well, his teammate got 3 podiums in 2010, so I think it is. Nevertheless, good for Schumi. Such a weird sight seeing those three on the podium together. Turn back the clock almost 10 years and you would see the same podium now and again.

CONCLUSION

I was hugely disappointed when I saw Kimi lose that place to Hamilton after the restart. Especially when I saw how the race progressed. I tend to be hard on Kimi while I am watching the race and then when I dive into the matter and look closer at the data it is usually not as bad as it looked at first. My main criticism – in fact my only criticism is that he should have been much much tougher in defending his place from Hamilton. If he had done that, he would have been in a position to fight with Alonso for the win. But in fairness his teammate was also passed after the restart. So it is clearly a car weakness. Good on preserving the tires usually implies a little longer for them to heat them up as well.

Having read the transcript from the post race press con, Kimi actually admits to a mistake after the restart, which gave Hamilton the chance to pass him. So there it is: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/ ... 13501.html
(You will find the quote near the end of the page)
Or you can just watch this interview:
http://youtu.be/rQlBduF5BeU

Grosjeans pace was very good and most of the time faster than Kimi when comparable. But in these fidgety Pirelli tire times it is hard to tell how it would have played out. Sometimes fast in the middle of the race means very slow at the end due to spent tires. In this case its an unknown since we didnt get to see Romain finish today.


So 2 DNFs gave Alonso a victory and Kimi another 2nd place. And a podium is a podium. 3rd one after his comeback. He is cautious and fair. Which is why he has finished every race this year. Every race in the points actually. Except China where the long last stint didnt work out. I would say his comeback is highly impressive. I have 2 wishes though. That he keeps his cautiousness at the right times but also becomes a bit more ruthless when defending and overtaking. Obviously this is like balancing an egg on a knifes edge and very easy for me to say. But even if Kimi probably wont change his approach, I feel the best from him is yet to come this season. Allright, a 3rd wish as well: That he starts outqualifying his teammate again.

SORENS RACE RATING

Surprisingly, its a 7 out of 10 for me. So much going on in this race, that I am glad that this is a Kimi centered blog. Because there is just no chance for me to touch on all the events and incidents that took place. Credit where credit is due. It is certainly not down to the track. Neither the DRS. But solely the nature of this years tires have given us a Valencia race that was quite enjoyable. At least for this race, I highly approve of these tires. Until next time: Relish the summer people!

Love
Soren

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http://f1bias.com/2012/06/24/valencia-r ... ay-part-2/

Thank you very much, Jalumi! " title="ty" /> " title="hug" />

Great, thanks! " title="ty" />

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13th July 2012

British GP Review - Sunny Afternoon
Going to Silverstone all the weather forecasts predicted a wet weekend for the Grand Prix. We preferred the race in dry conditions, and, obviously, our wish came true on Sunday afternoon.

The circuit was a bit different compared to 2009, while I had previously been there with a F1 car. We started in the rain, we qualified in the rain, but then we had a race with slicks. That was a nice change, and it could have been even better for us, if the first lap had have gone our way, too.

The car was very fast with the hard compound. It was nice to net the fastest lap of the race to prove the speed.

I got a pretty good start, and there was a chance to overtake Vettel. I pushed to get through, but then I had to go over the kerb, and while trying to avoid putting the front wing on it, I lost some places.

So instead of gaining some places, I lost some, and that really didn't help.

The car was good through the whole weekend. Obviously, it gives a good feeling, while the car is fast and strong. We look like we're getting ourselves in the zone, where we can get the full speed out of the car, and that's encouraging for the second part of this season.

The race could have been better, but while we were stuck behind some slower cars, we lost too much time. It's still tricky to get past some cars. I tried, but you really have to work hard to find enough pace and space to overtake people.

Like in almost every race this year, we had the pace to fight for the first place. Obviously, winning is the most difficult job to do in racing. You have to have every single detail right during the race weekend, and while it's so tightly packed competition at the top, you really cannot miss anything.

The qualifying was a bit like a lottery, while it was so wet. We made a small error picking up the full wet tyres for Q3, so we lost some importatant laps with intermediates in the end of the session. Still P6 was ok for the race in those conditions.

The race was same like in Valencia, while we lost the places we gained after getting off the line. The car felt very good all the time, but we had the best speed of them all in the end of the race, but it was a shame, there were no more laps to use that pace maximally to improve our position.

All in all, it was fifth place for me and 18 points altogether to the team, so it was a positive finish for the tricky weekend. We are in a good position in the constructor's championship – and the car keeps getting better. Hopefully we will find a way to get a perfect weekend, too!

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http://www.kimiraikkonen.com/story.asp?ArticleID=719

" title="ty" /> kriss.

Bring on " title="ger" /> !! " title="run" />

Lotus's preview for german GP

http://lotusf1team.com/Lotus-F1-Team-Pr ... ml?lang=fr

Olga, thank you very much! " title="ty" /> " title="hug" />

Raikkonen hopes for victory in Hungarian heat
ESPN Staff
July 23, 2012


Kimi Raikkonen: "I love to win, not to explain why we were not able to win" © Sutton Images

Kimi Raikkonen is hoping the hot conditions at the Hungaroring will help him fight for his first victory of the season at next weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

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Raikkonen took his fourth podium of the season at Germany over the weekend and is now fourth in the drivers' championship. The Lotus has shown impressive pace when the track conditions are over 40C and Raikkonen is hopeful that the traditionally hot and sunny conditions will help him break his duck next weekend.

"The team has been working hard in developing our car and we are confident we should be competitive in Hungary," he said. "Usually we have a hot weekend at the Hungaroring, and that's what we have been looking forward to during the whole summer. It's never nice to go to media after a race without a win. I love to win, not to explain why we were not able to win. Hopefully we can get the result we are looking for."

Lotus has struggled in qualifying so far this year and Raikkonen said it will be important for him to qualify on the first two rows in Hungary.

"Obviously, you need to get to the front in qualifying and you also ideally want to avoid the dirty side of the track on the grid. We haven't been the best in qualifying so far, but we have been good in the race in hot conditions and able to make different strategies work. It won't be the end of the world if we don't qualify at the front, but it won't make things easy for us either. Let's see what happens."

Lotus are currently working on a new double DRS device, which should offer a substantial benefit in qualifying. The system debuted in Hockenheim but did not race and technical director James Allison said it would be back on the car in Hungary.

"We will continue to dial in the new device that we ran in Hockenheim with Kimi. Despite the difficult weather conditions, we did get a good feel of its performance potential from the free practice session and we aim to take it on a step at the Hungaroring."

And Allison believes Lotus will be able to keep up with the front runners over the second half of the year.

"As the second half of the season kicks off the development race in the factory starts to cool down as teams are ramping up efforts on next year's car," he said. "We also have to deliver a specialist low downforce package for Monza. Having said that, there is plenty in the pipeline for the E20; some of which is delivering on wind tunnel gains already made and other parts which form part of programmes that are still to run. I'm confident that we can fight our corner well for the second half of the year."

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thank you, Sonny " title="hi" />

Soren's review " title="hello" />

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HOCKENHEIM RACE REVIEW – FEISTY KIMI INHERITS PODIUM
Posted on July 23, 2012

Back in good old Germany. Ah, the beer is flowing and the bratwurst is a-plenty. Not to mention crazy local F1 fans with the luxury of choosing between 5 home drivers to cheer for. For a Kimi fan, one always anticipates the race in Germany with mixed feelings. As I touched on in my previous review, the German venue has by far been the worst for Kimi for some odd reason. Of course it is only circumstances and coincidences but as humans we tend to concoct up some kind of reason why things happen. And in the case it has been called the “Germany curse” for Kimi.

Just to recap, here are some of the races to forget:
2003 – Taken out by Barrichello right at the start before turn 1: http://youtu.be/KvuYG9e-c60
2004 – Rear wing failure while fighting for the lead with Schumacher: http://youtu.be/VwB8XybW558
2005 – Suspension failure while leading the race *sob* : http://youtu.be/m4MY6SaCJUY
2007 – Hydraulic failure while running 3rd.
2009 – Retires on lap 34 with radiator damage.

But that is in the past. But I was anxious to see if Kimi could make a change from the many previous disasters.

QUALIFYING

Well, guess not… After a Q1 that saw Kimi set an absolutely blistering time and go fastest in Q1, (on medium tires nonetheless) the rain started coming down. Kimi was lucky to set a quick time in the beginning of Q2 because the conditions worsened and he just scraped through to Q3.

Q3 was just horrible to watch. It quickly became clear what cars had the ability to generate heat in the full wet tires. And the Lotus was not one of them to put it mildly. After qualifying, Raikkonen was quoted of saying that he crashed almost every lap trying to get the car working and get a lap time. But to no avail. He stayed 10th. 5 seconds off the polesitter tells the difference between a working and non-working set of tires.

So it seems the “curse” is refusing to let go. But would the race prove different. The car was certainly fast in the dry and that was also the prediction for Sunday.


THE RACE

Lights out and yours truly is half expecting a DNF on lap 1, but Kimi makes it through unscathed while battling with DiResta and Hamilton. Grosjean drives into the back of Massa and loses his front wing and has to pit on lap 1. Unfortunately for Kimi, Hamilton picks up a puncture from the bits of Massa and Grosjean and slows down enough to let Di Resta pass him on the third lap. 2 laps later though, we get the pass of the race – hands down. With my heart nearly stopping, I watch Kimi go outside-inside-outside-inside to make the pass on Di Resta. Stellar racing and fair play to Di Resta. His experience in DTM serves him well in such occasions. Worth another look: http://youtu.be/QgxUw7wdOms

Lap 11 and Lotus finally gets their strategy right. They pit Kimi early for a new set of softs and when Webber and Red Bull responds on the next lap, it is too late. Quite a feat by Kimi as he had to battle both Caterhams in traffic on his outlap. The lap after that, Maldonado pits and he is also passed by Kimi before he exits the pitlane. Kudos Lotus!

Now he has another Force India in his sights. Hulkenberg is up ahead. But Schumacher exits the pits in front of them. Resulting in a scrap between the 2 Germans. Kimi, ever the opportunist bides his time and pounces perfectly on Hulkenberg as he goes wide in turn 8 and has to lift for Schumacher who just passed him. Epic! Have a look-see before someone takes the vid down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3fkWXKqItg
Schumacher is the next hurdle on Kimis charge towards the front. He is a tough cookie to pass and it takes skill to do it as the DRS zone is not enough on its own. On lap 21 the Kimster seizes an opportunity and outfoxes the old fox on the turns following the long straight. There is a small clip of that in the end here: http://youtu.be/Q0i3YrpX904
(As a bonus you get to see the two earlier passes as well )

From then on, its a curiously long stint on the softs for the Finn. 27 laps compared to 11 laps on stint number 1. That meant he had 30 laps to run on the medium tire. Arguably a tire that could strongly hold on for 4-5 laps longer. The reason for my displeasure was seeing Button increasing the gap up to 14 seconds before Kimi pitting for fresh tires. Granted, Button was flying on that stint but I do think the gap could have been less if they pitted Kimi when we heard him say that the softs were beginning to go off on lap 32. The gap was 10 seconds at that time.

Edit: There are people who think Kimi should have been put on medium-medium-soft instead of soft-soft-medium. I disagree halfway. Yes, Kimi looked very fast on the mediums in Q1, but he still needed the grippiest tire to make quick progress through the field. Could he perhaps have done it with the mediums as well? I think its unlikely but its one of those things that we will never know. He wouldnt have got the undercut on Webber and Maldonado with that strategy. He would have had to pass them on track.

In all honesty I dont think either strategy would have made him dice for the win. That chance went out when it rained in qualifying. He had to use a lot of his tire performance to get through traffic and make up places. And the top 3 of Button, Vettel and Alonso had a quicker pace than I expected. McLaren have made good improvements on their car it seems. Even Button seems to have stumbled over his lost balance. We will have to wait for Hungary to see what Hamilton can do with the upgrades to the MP4-27.

Anyway, I am getting to my musings over the race already. Better round it off first.
So up ahead there has been a race long fight between Alonso and Vettel. The German has been close for many laps but the Red Bull straightline speed blows compared to the Ferrari. Even with the DRS open. So no dice. Button is on a charge after his final stop. But not before Hamilton mixes up things and decides to unlap himself by passing Vettel. Vettel is not amused but nothing in the rules say that Lewis cant do so.

But wait – we have to mention the record pit stop for Jenson. 2.4 seconds to change 4 tires and off he goes. Hello. Breathe in and out and that is about the time it took. Insanity.. Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNK49ZD_D0Q
Seems McLaren has finally got it right. The previous incidents were teething problems as they were coming to grips with and perfecting the system.

Anyway, Button catches the leaders and passes Vettel and takes up the hunt for Alonso. Unfortunately his tires does not have enough life in them to make a proper charge and he starts to fall behind after a couple of attempts. He had a severe lockup in the beginning of his while he was catching up. The huge flat spot was visible and it may very well have been the deciding factor. As his tires go, Vettel catches up and would really like his 2nd place back. The RB8 is not the fastest on the straight but he gets close enough to make a move on Button in the chicane. The controversial pass here:



I was initially hoping that they would just let it be but on second review I understand why the stewards could not. They have just introduced the rule of having to stay inside the white lines on the track while overtaking. And to not penalize such an incident immediately after its introduction was always unthinkable. I still think that dropping Vettel back to 3rd would be enough, but he predictably was hit with a 20 second time penalty. Similar to the time a drive-thru would take. The positive for Kimi fans was that Kimi bagged another podium! The penalty dropped Vettel to 5th. The downside for all F1 fans that do not like shady, whiny characters is that Alonso extends his championship lead. Shady and whiny you say? Well, I go more into detail here: http://f1bias.com/2010/03/15/my-beef-with-alonso/

ALONSO THE GREAT?

If F1 was a movie, Alonso would not be the hero. He would be the villain with the scar on his face and dirty tricks up his sleeve that we all hope the protagonist beats in the end. In real life however, the black and white is not so easy to see. And many people also turn their blind eye to it.

The fact remains that Alonso get unadulterated preferential treatment in Ferrari. Massa is reduced to a guinea pig to try out new parts and solutions before Alonso gets the parts that work in a car exclusively adapted to his taste and driving style. None of the other drivers have this kind of luxury as they have to divide and share everything with their teammate. That is part of the explanation for Alonso leading the championship and Massa is 14th. Yes, 14th.. I have no doubts that Alonso is a better driver than Massa, but no one sensible will agree that he is that much better.

As for the downsides of equal treatment compared to the Alonso treatment in Ferrari, double champion Hakkinen touch on the same thing here. From the 2 minute mark: http://youtu.be/NaJCjPkLqPo
He is trying to be diplomatic about it of course.

The thing is; Alonso needs to have it this way. If he doesnt, he has shown signs of (without exaggerating) outright paranoia in the past. Who can forget his outburst to the press in 2006 when he accused Renault of conspiring against him so he should not win the championship! Bear in mind that Renault enabled him to win the WDC the year before and the statement seems even more absurd. Make no mistake – he was taken well care of by team boss Flavio Briatore as the no. 1 driver in all his years in Renault.

His behaviour while in McLaren was equivalent to that of a child when he realized that he had more than his hands full with a rookie. Here he is shaking his fist to his own team because Hamilton didnt move over: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fv5hi9u1x8 (At the end of the video.)

Hungary 2007 saw him stay stationary in the pitlane to prevent Hamilton to have enough time to get around the track for a flying lap:



Dont miss his in-the-face lies to the press afterwards.

When he feels wronged, his sense of entitlement knows no bounds. That coupled with his active involvement in the spy case makes me wonder what kind of people that really support a driver like that. Either they know nothing about his escapades and only his driving. That I can understand because his driving is sublime when everything is working for him. Or they are well aware of his character and yet support him while making wild excuses and explanations to justify his behaviour. To be frank, I do not have a lot of respect for people with such a conviction.

I guess an Alonso fan reading this may resort to the usual argument that my writing has something to do with Kimi being replaced by Alonso in Ferrari. Not at all. I got Alonsos number a long time ago. Besides, Alonso did not directly have anything to do with that. Dont believe me? Read the extensive post on what really happened in Ferrari in 2008: http://f1bias.com/2012/04/05/truth-abou ... nder-2008/

SORENS RACE RATING AND ROUNDUP

So chequered flag and Kimi crosses the line in 4th. Upgraded to 3rd and another podium to his tally after Vettels penalty. Not bad from starting in 10th. Germany curse was only in effect during qualifying so Im sure that it will be gone completely next year Joking aside, it is still qualifying that Lotus needs to sort out. We saw a flash of promising speed in Q1. But Hungary this coming weekend will tell us more.


Race rating 7 out of 10. Exiting scrap at the front. Stellar racing and overtaking from Kimi. Got kinda dull in his final stint all on his own. Sadly the antagonist won this round. But its not over til the fat lady sings. Bring on Hungary please.

Peace out!
Soren

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Here is the next review from Soren!

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HUNGARY GP 12′ – KIMI KICKS ASS AND I EAT HUMBLE-PIE
Posted on July 30, 2012


Hungary races always seemed a bit dull to me on TV. Thats why I thought that going there for my first GP in 2008 would be good, since being there is another story. I found out that Budapest is a fantastic city that I would love to go back to as soon as I can. Also – I have never seen a higher concentration of good looking women anywhere. But I digress. Hungary 2008 saw Kimi on the podium from 6th position. I had a very small hope for the same this weekend of course. But how it really played out took me completely by surprise.

Oh, if you find the page being a bit slow, its probably due to the gif loading a bit down the page. It will pass.

QUALIFYING

Kimi had sounded very confident to the press, saying he had found a sweet spot in the setup to extract the performance he needed: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/101558
And indeed, he had looked very quick all weekend.

But when it mattered in Q3, he didnt deliver for some reason. 5th is not bad except for 2 things: Its Hungary where overtaking is usually very hard if not impossible. And his teammate qualifying a strong 2nd behind Lewis on pole. Just cementing the fact that a front row grid position had been there for the taking. So I was disappointed to put it mildly. In fact, I had pretty much given up on the race since I had already panned out the expected scenario in my head. Thankfully I am an idiot who can be very wrong at times.

THE RACE

Lights out and its a decent start for the Kimster. Keeps 5th and.. oh great. Alonso just overtook him. My thoughts are already back to 2008 where he spent half the race staring into the exhaust of the Renault. Now the roles are reversed and its the (ex-Renault) looking into the exhaust of the Ferrari. Well this is going to be a fun race, I thought.. Kimi well within DRS range, but the Hungaroring straight is just not long enough.

And when Alonso pitted on lap 17, I still thought: “Nice, now Alonso will have fresh tires and Kimi will have no chance to overtake him in the pits.” But to my surprise, Kimi starts turning out some really fast laps and as luck would have it, Alonso is held up a little by Perez which makes Kimi emerge out ahead of Alonso after his stop on lap 20/21. Ok, not bad not bad, I think to myself.. But its still just the position he started with, while up ahead its Grosjean fighting with Lewis for the win. How is Kimi ever going to get up in that mix?

To add to my frustration, Kimi is not really making any progress to Vettel in 4th. “He has clean air – whats the problem?! Grosjean is purple all over the place, now come on Kimi! What are you doing??” Just as I am about to reach for the remote to turn off this mess, Vettel pits for his second stop. And with that it seems the Iceman got his cue. Bam! Purple sector all of a sudden. “Hey, where did that come from”, I ask myself as I put down the remote in my hand.

A lap later he sets the fastest lap. And again. Button and McLaren have made a mess of his stops so he is already behind Kimi. But – could he really be going for the undercut on both Vettel AND Grosjean? That would be unthinkable just a few laps ago, but he is churning out some incredible lap times on those well used soft tires. Turns out, he was just biding his time like an old fox.

The gap to Vettel and Grosjean is getting close to the 18- something seconds he needs to clear them with his pitstop. He is getting some unexpected help from Alonso that is holding up his nearest rivals a bit. He pits on lap 43/44 though. Surely he must pit now as Grosjean and Vettel will be remarkably quicker without Alonso in front.

But no. He goes on for 2 more laps and still amazingly manages on worn softs to extend the gap to his teammate and the Red Bull of Vettel. Kimi is told on radio that he is racing Grosjean and Grosjean in turn told the same about Kimi. Lotus pitcrew does their part with their best pitstop of the weekend and sends Kimi out alongside his teammate into turn 1! Is Kimi going to play nice guy? Not likely! He has the racingline and the inside, brakes late locking up slightly and holds on. Grosjean is trying his panicky best to not be demoted into 3rd. Tough luck – he can only yield as Kimi keeps his line through the corner and Grosjean has to take the run-off. Sorry frenchie – you just got Iced.

That was a frickin beauty!

Now the hunt was on for Hamilton. There is no doubt that Kimi is much quicker and he closes the gap to Lewis in just a few laps. There was some hope that Kimi would be able to pass him on fresher tires. But Hungary is its own self – even with a DRS zone for the entire straight – and there is no way past the McLaren. Hamilton is able to go easy on the tires for most of the track and only push in the final corners to prevent Kimi closing on the straight. And it would stay this way until the chequered flag.

Still, a magical performance by the Finn. Hamilton drove well too. But with a front row start for Kimi, Im sure he would have had a serious chance of undercutting him with a pitstop. Hamilton does seem to have something special in hand when it comes to Hungary and qualifying in particular. This is in fact the third time since 2007 that the result was 1. Hamilton, 2. Raikkonen. Rematch 2013, please.

RACE RATING

Aww. Poor Grosjean.. NOT!

I give it an 8 out of 10. T’was very exciting to see Kimi push like crazy or doing the “Raikkonen Hustle” as Martin Brundle dubbed it in 2009. Grosjean was disappointed after the race and word is that he was angry that the team allowed Kimi to pass him. WTF Grogro? You allowed that yourself, didnt you. He was complaining about traffic and blaming backmarkers and what not. I guess he wont be joining the exclusive club of taking responsibilty for ones own mistakes. Kimi is one of the few members in that one. He says he was fighting for the win. But since he had not been able to overtake Hamilton by the time of Kimi passing him, he was never going to do it: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/101621

Fact of the matter is that Grosjean had no chance of running the pace Kimi was doing. So he should suck it up and chew a frogleg. As for me, I will have some humblepie please. Maybe with a side of crow for rubbishing Kimis chances of any kind of result on Saturday. *munch chew*

Now we have a long break before the we go to Spa. Not to worry, there is the Olympics to keep us busy. As well as dreaming feverish win fantasies like this one: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2258 ... te-fantasy
I am saving like crazy to be able to go there since I got a really good feeling. I say that as long as Kimi makes it ok-ish into Q3, he will have a real shot at a win there. He is a god around that legendary track in the Ardennes. So more power to ya. Go get it Kimi. Get that win!

Peace bitches!
Soren

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http://f1bias.com/2012/07/30/hungary-gp ... umble-pie/

Thank you very much, Kriss and Jalumi!! " title="ty" /> " title="hug" /> t" title="hat" />

Zitat

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7th September 2012

Kimi Belgian GP review and Italian GP preview

Good Day Sunshine

I said before the race at Spa-Francorchamps, that the most important thing is not loosing points to the championship leader anymore. Well, we gained 15 points closer to Fernando Alonso, so we can be happy with the outcome of the weekend.

But, to be honest, it was one of the trickiest weekends of the whole season. We were caught by the bad weather on Friday. We didn’t have the speed in qualifying and we didn’t have the speed in the race, too. So getting third spot in the grid and finishing the race third, as well, was not that bad.

It was pretty cold during the whole weekend. We had problem with the grip and to get it better, we had to sacrifice a little bit from straight line speed after putting some more downforce on. I felt like a sitting duck back there in the long straight even with DRS on, but still we had enough to get the podium again now for the third time in a row.

This weekend we are racing on the fastest track of the calendar. Monza is a home of Tifosi and, for me, it’s very interesting to meet them again after three years. It was such a great atmosphere while I was a Ferrari driver. We got two podiums in three years, but I was sorry not to be able to win it for the Tifosi.

I have good memories from Monza. No win, but a pole, many good laps and many good races. The closest we got there was 2005, but because of the engine problem, we lost the best chance to win that race.

Monza is all about going really fast. Hopefully our aero package hits the top there. Obviously, you never know about the weather, but, at least, the forecast promises some good sunshine every day of the weekend.

I have a new teammate for this race, so I wish all the best for Jerome. The target is to get some good points again for the team.


http://kimiraikkonen.com/story.asp?ArticleID=730

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Mille grazie, Betulla! " title="ty" /> " title="hug" /> t" title="hat" />