Rogue Profile of Kimi Raikkonen

“We did our best today and I feel I got the utmost out of the car. We seem to lose most of our time in the middle sector but we don’t really know why yet,” Raikkonen said. “I had a small spin at Rivazza when I ran wide during my third run and had to go back into the pits. I don’t know what to expect from the race, but we will aim for a podium.”

“We improved the car throughout the session, but it was just not enough,” Raikkonen said. “The set up was not perfect for my last run, but I doubt that we would have been able to gain a significant amount of time anyway. There is still some way to the competition, but it looks like we have started to close the gap a little, so we are going in the right direction. In the past couple of races I have been able to gain one or two places at the start, so we will see what happens tomorrow.”

“I’m pleased to have equalled my previous best podium finish from Australia. There was a lot happening at the start, but I managed to retain sixth place. I was pushing hard, but then I outbraked myself and lost a position to Button,” Raikkonen explained.

Raikkonen was off the track on lap sixty when he lost control of his McLaren and
spun out of the race.

"I was comfortable in fifth place when all of a sudden I had a puncture
but managed to get the car back to the pits. However in the process the car incurred
some damage to the floor, the bodywork and the brake duct. However I was still
able to do reasonably quick lap times. On lap 62 I lost control of the car at
the last corner and that was the end of my race."

Raikkonen had a wonderful qualifying session but his performance was far from
perfect. On a slowing down lap he blocked Montoya’s fastest run, incurring the
wrath of the Colombian.

"Not at all the qualifying I expected here," Juan Pablo admitted.
"I struggled with the car balance and could not improve as much as I was
hoping. We tried a few things to see if we could find some more tenths but they
were not enough. In my third attempt I was held up by Raikkonen’s McLaren-Mercedes
and lost some time there. I haven’t qualified on the third row since Australia
but still I like this track and I hope my race will be more satisfying than this
qualifying."

On lap two Raikkonen was fighting Montoya for third place when the Finn ran wide
in the entry to Pouhon and missed the apex of the corner. The resulting loss of
momentum allowed Montoya to storm through to take third place from the Finn.

"Not the ideal way to end the weekend, but it’s one of those things.
At the start I couldn’t hold Rubens back. he managed to get past as both him and
Michael were on new tyres. The following lap I went wide and nearly lost control
of the car but managed to save it, but unfortunately the mistake allowed Montoya
to overtake me," Kimi explained.

The qualifying hour for the 2002 Italian Grand Prix had only one incident. With
only minutes of the qualifying session remaining, McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen was
on an out lap before his final attempt to improve his provisional fifth place.
Jordan’s Takuma Sato was on a hot lap and because he was lying in eighteenth position,
the last of the four Honda powered drivers, he was giving it his all.

As Raikkonen exited the pits, Sato was bearing down hard on the McLaren, slashing
the gap between the two cars with every passing metre. In the approach to the
second chicane, Raikkonen was positioned slightly to the left of the racing line,
apparently pulling over to let Sato past before the right hand entry to the chicane.
Taku was fully committed to his lap and saw the opportunity to pass the Finn,
Sato knew Raikkonen was on an out lap and in the belief he would yield, prepared
to pass the hard-way, around the outside. Sato’s judgement of Raikkonen failed
him.

Raikkonen had clearly not seen the bright yellow Jordan in his mirrors and
was not moving off line at all. As Sato dived to the outside of the McLaren, it
did not move over as he expected. Despite the diminutive Japanese driver putting
his Jordan’s right-hand side wheels on the grass trying to avoid the slow McLaren
he was powerless to prevent the inevitable collision.

The Jordan slammed into the back of the McLaren, its left-front suspension
disintegrated on when it impacted against the right-rear corner of the McLaren:
it was a miracle the Jordan was not launched into the air. The two cars slid off
the track, Raikkonen’s coming to rest in the gravel while the luckless Sato slammed
into the tyre barriers. Thank fully both drivers were unhurt.

The session had to be red flagged with little 2m14s remaining. The drivers
who were on track would get a lap back but this was little compensation for the
Williams drivers. An improvement would be unlikely now their final sets of tyres
would have over an extra lap’s worth of wear.

Raikkonen was clearly to blame. The race stewards definitely though so and
penalised Raikkonen one place on the grid for the next day’s race. When a driver
is on a slow lap, he is duty bound to check his mirrors in every braking zone
whether he is expecting trouble or not. Also McLaren were using a computer system
called "The Circle" to keep tabs on the position of every car on the
track, so they had incorrectly informed Raikkonen that the Japanese driver had
gone into the pits. Given theses facts the incident was inexcusable. McLaren looked
like a gaggle of village idiots.

"My incident with Sato is one of those things which happen in racing.
He was on his fifth consecutive lap, and my team was under the impression that
he would be coming into the pits, which is what you would expect during qualifying,
and advised me accordingly," Kimi explained. "When I couldn’t
see him in my mirrors, I believed he had slowed down and went for the line into
the corner. The team tried to get the spare car, which was set up for David, ready
for my last run, but in the short amount of time available it was impossible.
It’s a shame as I believe we could have improved a little bit more and got closer
to the times of the front runners."

Saturday’s First practice session had to be red flagged when Kimi Raikkonen destroyed
his MP4-17D when he careered off the track and slammed into the retaining wall
after he loosing control of the McLaren in turn five. It was a huge accident and
Raikkonen was lucky to escape uninjured, which was more than could be said of
the car. It was missing its left-hand side pod and front suspension!

Rather than take the spare car immediately, Raikkonen waited too see if his
car could be repaired. He waited and waited. The second session past and Button
grew beard. Time expired.

The young Finn would be left to qualify in the spare, a car he had never driven,
one he would have to drive right on the limit after missing valuable track time.
The consequences would be far reaching.

Kimi Raikkonen had to endure a torrid start to his 2003 Grand Prix campaign. He
arrived at Melbourne on the crest of a wave; both himself and McLaren had been
tipped at the combination most likely to topple Ferrari. Come Saturday evening,
"Iceman" was left wiped-out and deflated.

In Friday practice Raikkonen lost time when he damaged the undertray on his
MP4-17D but bounced back to take second position in Friday qualifying. In Saturday’s
first practice session the roller coaster took another dive and Kimi destroyed
his McLaren in a shunt and as a result, missed the second practice session. His
racecar was not repaired in time and he was left to take to the track for his
shot in Saturday’s qualifying session in the spare, which, up until that point,
had remained a virginal, barring a brief dishevelling in the fifteen-minuet warm-up
before qualifying.

The Finn’s lap was a "stormer" until the he arrived at the fast chicane
on the back of the circuit, where he slid over the gravel trap on its exit. The
loss of time resulted in a lap that was only good enough for fifteenth pace on
the grid and to add insult to injury he stopped on his in lap with a puncture.

"Today’s practice and qualifying was a real nightmare. I went off at
Turn five in the first practice session and hit the wall sideways damaging the
car," Kimi explained. "As a result I was unable to participate
in second practice and had to use the spare-car for the warm-up and qualifying,
and as a result of the new regulations, I will be using the spare car for tomorrow’s
race. Unfortunately I had another moment in the third sector of my qualifying
lap and went on the dirt which consequently damaged my left rear tyre and I was
unable to make it back to the garage."

As far as the FIA are concerned you are either speeding in the pit lane or you
are not. Computers monitor the cars and they did not care that Kimi Raikkonen
only exceeded the pitlane speed limit of 50Km/ph by 1 Km/ph for a distance of
10 meters when he pitted on lap thirty-three. Raikkonen could have driven down
the pit-lane at full speed; the punishment would have been the same. The drive-through
penalty robbing the young Finn of the chance to win the race that he had led for
sixteen laps.

It was a brutal punishment for such a tiny infringement but it called the Finn’s
temperament into question. He had led two Grand Prix and faulted both times, was
he really the "Iceman?"

"I’m obviously a bit disappointed because I was caught speeding marginally
in the pitlane which possibly cost me the victory. However I’m pleased that the
team won and we could start the 2003 season with a good result for everybody,"
Kimi said. "During the formation lap I realised that the track was
drying quicker than we had expected and we decided to come in for dry tyres, so
in effect I started the race from the pitlane. I had a long battle with Michael
Schumacher and managed to keep him behind me. He always seemed to get a fast exit
out of the last corner, which allowed him to catch up and challenge me during
braking for the first chicane. At one point we were side by side but I knew that
I was on the inside and the corner wasn’t wide enough for two cars so I stayed
ahead, it was real fun. All in all an exciting race."